Natural Light Makes for More Alert Nurses

Nurses who work in natural light have lower blood pressure and show other signs of improved well-being over nurses who work in artificially lit surroundings with fewer windows, according to a new study.

Researchers at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA) conducted a study involving two wards of an acute-care unit. The wards were similarly organized and had similar environments, and the numbers and types of patients and conditions they treated were similar, but differed in the availability of windows in the nursing stations. The researchers collected a range of measures to compare aspects of health, behavior, mood, and performance of the nurses in the two wards.

The results indicated that in the naturally lit wards blood pressure decreased, while blood oxygen saturation and body temperature increased. Communication and laughter both increased, while the subsidiary behavior indicators of sleepiness and deteriorated mood decreased in the naturally lit wards. Heart rate, caffeine intake, self-reported sleepiness, and the frequency of medication errors also decreased, but insignificantly. The study was published in the July 2014 issue of Health Environments Research and Design.

“Nurses save lives and deal with complications every day; it can be a very intense and stressful work environment, which is why humor and a good mood are integral to the nursing profession,” said lead author Assistant Professor of design and environmental analysis Rana Zadeh, M.Arch, PhD. “A smart and affordable way to bring positive mood, and laughter, into the workplace, is designing the right workspace for it.”

The researchers suggested that where access to natural daylight and the opportunity to look out onto a nice view is not possible, then the next best thing is to optimize artificial lighting so that its spectrum, intensity, and variability support circadian rhythms and work performance.

Light is a major factor in seasonal affective disorder (SAD), as manifested by emotional depression, a drop in physical energy, increased appetite, and drowsiness, all resulting from a complex association between sunlight, melatonin, and serotonin. As darkness falls, melatonin levels naturally increase; as the morning light emerges, melatonin levels decrease. Serotonin levels rise following exposure to bright light. Bright-light therapy can thus bring benefits to people with SAD because it affects the melatonin-serotonin system and elevates mood.

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