Dementia residents in Klippan have circadian light: “Very pleasant”

Pernilla Ståhl works the morning shift at Ljungbygården and meets a subdued orange glow when she comes to work. The light then gets brighter and colder during the day, and then gets warmer and darker in the evening.

– It is nice to come to work with the dimmed light and it will be a calmer start for us and the residents, says assistant nurse Pernilla Ståhl.

Positive effects of circadian light

Now both Ljungbygården and Syrengården have been using circadian light for six months and the staff have noticed that they no longer need to wake the residents, but are woken by themselves. Gert Andersson is one of the residents at Ljungbygården:

– Maybe it depends on the lighting, it is very pleasant, he says.

Circadian light is used in several different hospitals in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Hillevi Hemphälä is a researcher and university lecturer at Lund University of Technology and she sees that circadian light has been shown to have positive effects.

– It has been seen that in hospitals, recovery increases when you have circadian light, patients recover better, says Hillevi Hemphälä.

Come along to Ljungbygården in Klippan and see in the video how the lighting changes.

sv-general-01