How light therapy is helping care home patients to sleep

Alec Fenn

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13:57

The sun shines outside a care home in Copenhagen, but the residents inside won't feel its warm glow on their skin.

The lack of exposure to daylight disrupted the body clocks of many of the people living here leaving them struggling to sleep.

When outside, daylight enters the eyes and hits the brain, which then sends signals to the pineal gland to release the hormone melatonin, which eventually makes us feel sleepy.

Danish company Chromaviso has created special lights, filled with tiny LEDs, that mimic the changing shade and intensity of normal daylight. /RAZOR

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Scientists have now created special lighting to replicate normal daylight and have installed it at the care home. The results have been groundbreaking.

Jim Hempel, who works at the Herluf Trolle Plejecenter care home, says the residents there are now sleeping soundly throughout the night.

But he also added that it took "four or five months" for the lighting to slowly reset the brains of the elderly so that their internal body clocks returned to normal.

The lighting has been created by Danish company Chromaviso. Using knowledge of the colours of natural light, combined with insights from clinicians, they've created a lumiere that mimics the fluctuating changes in light over a 24-hour period.

These residents at a care home in Denmark were struggling to sleep because they weren't being exposed to daylight. Now, the new lighting has reset their internal body clocks and enabled them to sleep soundly once again. /RAZOR

The company's chief technology officer, Torben Skov Hansen, told RAZOR's Javid Abdelmoneim how it works.

"Under the hood of the light you don't see light bulbs but you see LEDs that produce the light. We have six different types of LEDs. They ensure that we get the right composition of the spectrum and provide the right intensity of light.

"The system is composed of a centralized lighting control so every lamp and every LED in every lamp is coordinated centrally throughout the day. That's why it becomes such a convincing environment to be in when you're outside."