International Stress Awareness Week
The World Health Organisation describes stress as
“A state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way we respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to our overall well-being” – Stress.
Millions of people who are especially sensitive to sensory stimuli often find everyday situations, like supermarkets and public transport, stressful at the best of times – The association between sensory processing and stress in the adult population: A systematic review. Feeling worried or anxious makes it harder to see clearly and think straight- speed and accuracy all take a dive, compounding the problem – The Relationship between Anxiety, Visual Function, and Symptomatology in University Students.
Nurses who are at the sensitive end of the spectrum are at much higher risk of burnout, with increased risk of physical and mental health conditions – The impact of sensory processing sensitivity on stress and burnout in nurses. They’re also over 2.5 times more likely to encounter near-miss errors relating to falls and medical equipment – The Association of Job Stress, Quality of Sleep, and the Experience of Near-Miss Errors among Nurses in General Hospitals, impacting quality of care and patient satisfaction – Nurse Burnout and Patient Safety, Satisfaction, and Quality of Care.
What’s that got to do with light?
Daylight – Simply placing a nurse station next to a window reduced levels of stress and increased laughter and social interaction compared to a nurse station without the benefit of a view – even though the light levels were the same – The Impact of Windows and Daylight on Acute-Care Nurses’ Physiological, Psychological, and Behavioral Health.
Control – After daylight, simply being able to control light levels to suit personal sensitivity and the task in hand is a prime concern for nurses, demonstrated in a number of studies in settings ranging from intensive care to dementia facilities – Lighting Control in Patient Rooms: Understanding Nurses’ Perceptions of Hospital Lighting Using Qualitative Methods, ILUMINAÇÃO HOSPITALAR E ENFERMAGEM: UMA REVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA INTERDISCIPLINAR.
Night watch – Night shift workers are at increased risk of chronic stress and burnout, linked to persistent disruption of their body clocks – The impact of night shifts on the physical and mental health of psychiatric medical staff: the influence of occupational burnout.
Lighting may be able to help here too, although the evidence is mixed, not least because it’s impossible to set up a ‘double-blind’ test – Effective Interventions for Reducing the Negative Effects of Night Shifts on Doctors’ and Nurses’ Health and Well-Being: A Systematic Review.
There are two broad schools of thought. The first is to deliver ‘daytime’ levels of light exposure during the night shift. and offer strategies and support to optimise conditions for sleep during the day.
This was the approach taken by Harrison et al, where standard lighting was replaced by a brighter, cooler installation. A lightbox similar to a SAD lamp was set up in a side room, inviting night shift workers to spend short breaks in front of the lamps when feeling sleepy, except in the last three hours of their shift. Nurses were given blue-blocking glasses and eye masks for sleep, and training to increase their awareness of the impact of light on their body clocks. Performance and sleep quality went up – and caffeine consumption went down – A Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Study of a Multi-Component Lighting Intervention for Hospital Shift Workers.
Schleiderman et al’s recent work with residential care homes in Denmark have taken an alternative approach, where nurses are encouraged to adapt to lower light levels at night as part of a facility-wide circadian lighting system, with adaptations for specific tasks – such as a spotlight in the medical cart. Staff reported higher levels of satisfaction and visual comfort in these conditions – Evaluation of staff’s perception of a circadian lighting system implemented in a hospital.
But, as this recent review of facilitators and barriers to workplace visual comfort from a hospital staff perspective points out, the single biggest problem is that staff feel that their managers just don’t focus enough on this basic dimension of the workplace. Barriers and facilitators of workplace visual comfort from the perspective of hospital staff: a qualitative study.
Given that perception of nurse manager competence is the main reason for clinical nurses’ intention to quit, taking care of the lights could be one simple way to show front line staff that they matter, reducing the stress on our healthcare system – and the remarkable people who take care of us all every day – The relationship of perceived nurse manager competence with job satisfaction and turnover intention among clinical nurses: an analytical cross-sectional study.
Sanctuary
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we spend much more time working from home – and significantly more time alone – Time Use Before, During, and After the Pandemic.
Here are a two very different books about creating multisensory havens, whether we call them ‘home’ or ‘office’ that I’m enjoying and thought you might too. And although it’s a bit early, maybe even make it onto a Christmas list.
Sanctuary by Design, by the award-winning London-based interior designer Diana Blanchard and journalist Kerryn Harper-Cuss, former editor-in-chief of the English Home for over 12 years. A richly-illustrated coffee-table volume exploring ways to nurture the five senses (including light, of course)- and the sixth sense, intuition.
Designing Neuroinclusive Workspaces by HOK’s inspiring Kay Sargeant, who I was lucky enough to meet at the recent Lutron event. A more academic read, with case studies and examples from shiny corporate office buildings from around the world. But the lessons apply equally well to the more modest decisions we might make at home, from making sure we cover the basic principles of psychological safety (protection from harm, connection and community, work-life harmony, feeling as though we matter and opportunities for growth), the need to create a variety of spaces for different tasks – head down focus, round table discussion, to the need to negotiate respectfully as a team: if one member of the household finds visual clutter distracting or even distressing, it’s worth making a plan to do the washing up and keep the counters clear.
Primary sources
If you’re someone who wants to go right back to the original source of the data to make up your own mind, this excellent free series of talks is a brilliant resource – Current Topics in Sleep & Circadian Health (Fall 2025).
Each session is delivered by a leading scientist, sharing background and latest findings – and there’s usually time for questions too.
Next Monday, the sleep specialist Professor Michael Gradisar will be talking about whether we should cut out the blue and add more red. I hope he shares some of his most research into the link between technology use and sleep, including this paper about smart phones and snooze alarms… – Snooze alarm use in a global population of smartphone users. I’ll be logging in for sure!