A heart patient changes the lighting in his hospital room from day to night and back again.
Patients at the Maastricht University Medical Centre's cardiac center are testing the new lighting solution, which the designers claim increases the duration of sleep for hospital patients.
The University Medical Centre has carried out research in partnership with Dutch lighting solutions manufacturer Phillips to investigate the effect of light on the sleep-wake rhythm of cardiac patients.
Dr. Petra Kuijpers, a cardiologist at the medical center, says restful sleep is crucial to a patient's recovery.
"It's mainly important that the new light system mimics natural biorhythms, so that during the day light intensity is increased and in the night the room is very dark. Thanks to that, the body makes certain substances that stimulate a good sleep. When the patient sleeps better, the body has more rest, and sleeping could be regarded as a holiday for the heart and vascular system. So at the moment that you can sleep better, the body has more time to recover, the blood pressure is lower and also the heartbeat is lower. So in that way a patient's recovery is much better."
Previous scientific studies have shown that high levels of light during the day help patients recover.
Maastricht University Medical Centre's research has demonstrated some significant improvements: The time it took a patient to fall asleep was reduced by approximately 30 percent during the period between the first and the seventh night, while the duration of sleep at night increased by 8 percent on average.
That means patients slept about 30 minutes longer.
The University of Maastricht has spent over nine months carrying out the research. More than 100 cardiac patients took part in the survey.
One group was treated in hospital rooms outfitted with the Philips HealWell system, while the other-the control group-was treated in rooms equipped with standard lighting.
It is still too early to make clinical claims about the healing effects of HealWell, but Dr. Kuijpers says that the field study has shown positive results.
"As I am a cardiologist, I can talk about people with heart problems, and I must say that this light system was beneficial for them and prolonged the time they slept. I can only predict that this light could also be good for other sorts of patients. We generally know about the co-relation of light and physiological health problems."
For CRI, I am Li Dong.
