Summary
Current lighting standards based solely on lumens per watt and illuminance levels fail to account for non-visual effects of light—particularly circadian entrainment—leaving the most vulnerable healthcare populations underserved. The paper argues for a broader definition of sustainable lighting that incorporates visual, perceptual, and circadian functions, especially in hospitals and care facilities housing seniors and neonates.
Key Findings
- Lighting standards are set primarily in lumens per square meter and lumens per watt, neither of which captures non-visual (circadian) effects of light on human health.
- The 'equity' dimension of sustainability is largely ignored in current architectural lighting practice, particularly for fragile populations such as elderly patients and premature infants.
- No formal standards exist to guide architects and engineers in designing lighting that supports circadian health in healthcare environments.
- The paper advocates for a three-domain framework (visual, perceptual, and circadian) as the basis for truly sustainable healthcare lighting design.
Categories
Patient Recovery: Argues that healthcare lighting standards must account for non-visual effects of light to support patient wellbeing beyond mere illuminance levels.
The Science of Light: Highlights that the lumen metric is unrelated to circadian system effects, calling for lighting standards that incorporate visual, perceptual, and circadian domains.
Dementia & Elder Care: Specifically identifies seniors and premature infants as fragile populations whose wellbeing is demonstrably affected by lighting design in healthcare settings.
Author(s)
M Figueiro
Publication Year
2008
Number of Citations
6
Related Publications
Patient Recovery
- Light during darkness and cancer: relationships in circadian photoreception and tumor biology
- An overview of the effects of light on human circadian rhythms: Implications for new light sources and lighting systems design
- Application of different circadian lighting metrics in a health residence
- Melatonin and cortisol in individuals with spinal cord injury
- Green light analgesia in mice is mediated by visual activation of enkephalinergic neurons in the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus
The Science of Light
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- Color appearance models
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice
Dementia & Elder Care
- Light therapy and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia: past, present, and future
- New strategies for neuroprotection in glaucoma, a disease that affects the central nervous system
- Sleep and circadian rhythms in Parkinson's disease and preclinical models
- Chronobioengineering indoor lighting to enhance facilities for ageing and Alzheimer's disorder
- The clock is ticking. Ageing of the circadian system: from physiology to cell cycle