Lighting for Healthcare: How LED Lighting Improves Patient Outcomes
This article is part three of a three-part T-Word series on how lighting can support sustainable, cost-effective healthcare facilities – and contribute to national net zero commitments.
Effective LED lighting in healthcare facilities can significantly influence patient recovery, mental wellbeing, and staff productivity. Studies have shown that patients in beds closer to windows tend to leave hospital sooner, with natural lighting likely playing a key role in this outcome.
Light plays a crucial role in biological healing processes, influencing hormones such as serotonin and melatonin (as explained below). Research, including studies by NASA, demonstrates that exposure to daylight-mimicking LEDs speeds up recovery and reduces pain.
How does LED Lighting Enhance Patient and Staff Wellbeing?
Promotion of Better Sleep
It is well documented that sleep plays a critical role in the physical healing process, acting as a restorative period during which the body repairs and rejuvenates itself. Hospital environments, however, can disrupt patients’ sleep through the use of bright lights. This disruption can have far-reaching consequences on patient recovery.
Human bodies follow circadian rhythms - internal clocks that regulate sleep, mood, and overall health. These rhythms are deeply influenced by light and darkness. Poorly designed lighting disturbs sleep, which raises stress levels and impairs overall wellbeing.
LED lighting can help mitigate these disruptions because they offer a high degree of localised control (e.g., spot lighting with minimised over-spill) as well as tunable colour temperatures. During the day, cool, blue-enriched light mimics natural daylight, boosting alertness and energy by encouraging cortisol production. In the evening, warmer tones encourage the body to prepare for sleep releasing melatonin into the bloodstream.
Reduced Stress Levels
LED systems can create calming ambiances. Adjustable, localised lighting gives patients a sense of control over their surroundings, reducing anxiety and promoting overall mental wellbeing.
Improved Visual Comfort for Staff and Patients
For healthcare professionals, clear and accurate vision is critical. LED lighting offers superior colour rendering compared to traditional light sources or even older LED luminaires. Furthermore, flicker-free, glare-free illumination minimises visual fatigue, benefitting patients, staff and visitors.
Support of Specialised Therapies
LEDs can also form part of innovative treatments. For example, light therapy utilises specific wavelengths designed to mimic natural daylight to alleviate symptoms of depression, including Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). LED systems can also provide safe and effective phototherapy for newborns suffering with neonatal jaundice through a process called photo-oxidation.
Support of broader sustainability goals
LED lighting is an energy efficient solution that can support much wider sustainability goals support in hospitals, and other healthcare environments, where lighting needs are constant, 24/7.
In conclusion
Sleep deprivation and stress are major challenges in hospitals, yet they need not be inevitable. By aligning artificial lighting more closely with humans’ circadian rhythms, healthcare facilities can create environments that promote healing and comfort.
With ongoing research into the relationship between light and health, LEDs are poised to play an even greater role in improving patient outcomes. At the same time, LEDs can support healthcare facilities’ sustainability goals and help create better workplaces for staff.
- Tamlite is a leading British manufacturing, specialising in sustainable lighting solutions for the healthcare sector. Find out more about our range of LED lighting systems for healthcare environments here.
