A Different Shade of Care: Can the Colour of Light Improve Mental Health?

Out of the blue? How the colour of light could be used to treat mental illness

A 2024 psychiatric unit in Norway investigated whether reducing the blue in evening lighting in an acute psychiatric ward could improve patient outcomes.

Hospital stays were unaffected. However, patients exposed to the blue-depleted evening lighting demonstrated greater overall clinical improvement and lower illness severity at discharge. 

Clinicians also recorded significantly fewer episodes of aggressive behaviour among patients in the blue-depleted ward.

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