Hospital Lighting System Mimics Natural Day/Night Cycle

A new lighting system mimics the natural day/night cycle outdoors, helping hospitalized patients sleep longer.

The HealWell lighting system, installed in a hospital patient room, produces lighting levels that change gradually throughout the course of the day, much like the changes in light outdoors on a sunny day. By combining the biological effects of natural daylight with a pleasant atmosphere in the patient room, the system creates a positive effect on the patient's sleep patterns that in turn has a positive effect on their biorhythm, important for their health and well-being. The lighting also enables patients to create an agreeable ambiance from the comfort of their hospital bed, and at the same enables caregivers to create optimum light in which to work.


Research conducted in conjunction with the Maastricht University Medical Center+ (UMC+; The Netherlands), involving over 100 cardiac patients, demonstrated that using the HealWell system demonstrated several significant improvements when compared to standard lighting wards; the time it took a patient to fall asleep was reduced by close to 30% during the period between the first and the seventh night, and at the same time the duration of sleep at night increases by on average 8%; in total, the patient sleeps on average 30 minutes longer each night. The HealWell lighting system is a product of Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

“We can now tell from the results of the Philips HealWell research that better light during the day enables patients to sleep longer at night,” said Petra Kuijpers, MD, a cardiologist at the Maastricht UMC+. “The patient's mental state is an important factor that influences the prognosis for cardiac patients, and light could have a positive effect on this, as well as on the patient's health in the long term. What the positive results of the clinical validation research demonstrate is the valuable role the HealWell lighting solution can play in improving the healing environment and promoting the recovery of our patients.”

“The research into HealWell at Maastricht UMC+ ties in with the findings of earlier research, which found that light has a positive effect on health, mood and well-being, not just for people in a care environment but also for healthy people,” said Luc Schlangen, PhD, the senior principal scientist at Philips Lighting. “The Maastricht research is the first of a number of research projects that are already in progress or are in preparation in hospitals, such as in the new intensive care unit at the Jeroen Bosch hospital in Den Bosch and in the Hematology department in the Erasmusziekenhuis in Rotterdam. We will use the insights we have gained into the experiences of patients and caregivers to develop meaningful innovations that will improve people's lives.”

Related Links:
Maastricht University Medical Center+
Royal Philips Electronics