Circadian lighting


light in the day signals that it is time to get up and be active. Lower intensity light in the evening tells our body to wind down. But most care homes are not designed


around this natural cycle. Older buildings often have small windows and harsh institutional lighting that stays the same all day. Bright blue-white light at night can delay sleep and confuse the body clock. This can be particularly disruptive for people living with dementia, who may already experience disorientation, sundowning, and sleep issues. Circadian lighting mimics natural


daylight rhythms, helping to regulate the body’s internal clock to support healthy wake/sleep patterns.


Early adopters WCS’s lighting journey started many years ago in a farmyard, with chickens. Ed Russell, WCS’s chief executive, who grew up on a farm and started working as a carer in his early 20s, remembered how a red light calmed down agitated chickens before market – a simple reminder of how light can influence behaviour. Years later, while working in care homes


and spending long hours indoors, he found himself missing daylight. A trustee of the charity, who was involved in early SAD research, lent him a light box to try. The results were immediate – more energy, better sleep, and a noticeable boost in mood. This personal experience led to a new


line of thinking: what if lighting in care homes could do more than illuminate a space? What if it could play an active role in


supporting residents’ health and wellbeing, especially those living with dementia? In 2017, WCS ran a pilot of circadian


lighting at Drovers House care home in Rugby, fitting new lights to just one half of the home’s ground floor. And something fascinating happened. Residents started migrating to the circadian lit area. During the day, it felt like the sun was shining there. In the evening, the warm glow drew people in. Dementia Care Mapping (DCM), a


structured observational tool from Bradford University, was used before and after the installation, with trained observers tracking residents’ behaviours and mood minute-by-minute over six-hour periods. The results showed a drop in ill-being from 63 per cent to just three per cent, and an increase in well-being to 97 per cent. One resident danced. Another sang. These were not typical behaviours before the lighting. Relatives even began bringing their loved ones down from other floors to spend time in the better-lit spaces. There were fewer disagreements, calmer mealtimes, better sleep, and improved nutrition. At Woodside Care Village in Warwick,


which opened in 2019 and has circadian lighting installed throughout all resident areas, WCS has seen further benefits. No residents are currently on antipsychotic medication, even though more than half of them live with dementia. One resident, who came in needing medication and was experiencing frequent falls, stopped taking medication within six weeks. His sleep routine normalised, and his son, a paramedic, said he had never seen anything like it.


While these new-build installations


demonstrated clear and positive impacts for residents, the charity recognised that a solution was needed for older care environments, where the majority of people live. The challenge was finding a solution that could be installed without the cost and complexity of rewiring or disruption for residents and staff. That is when the charity turned to


external specialists for support. Dr Shelley James, an international expert on light and wellbeing (and known as ‘the light lady’) brought her insight into the physiological and emotional effects of lighting. Lighting consultant and designer John Bullock, editor of The Light Review, helped translate the vision into a workable concept. Their expertise, combined with a technical partnership with Commercial Lighting Systems Ltd (CLS) and academic input from the University of Oxford, allowed WCS to co-develop a retrofit lighting system tailored to the realities of care home life.


A practical retrofit for older homes As 10 of WCS Care’s 13 homes are older buildings, the real challenge was finding a way to bring the benefits of circadian lighting into these settings at an acceptable price point. Enter Sycamores – a 1960s-built home


with narrow corridors and the type of lighting more suited to a hospital waiting room than someone’s home. In November 2024, the darkest time of the year, WCS, working with CLS, retrofitted circadian lighting without rewiring a single room. Using a Bluetooth mesh network and


wireless switches, they replaced the existing lights with new domestic looking LED fittings. The new lights follow a Mediterranean daylight cycle with cool white light (6,500K) in the day and warm candlelight tones (2,200K) in the evening. Existing light switches were capped off with fish key switches. No major construction, no control panels, and no confusion for staff or residents – just a kinetic light switch and a system that knows the time of day and adjusts the lighting accordingly when a light is turned on.


Corridor daylight Corridor night-time setting


What makes this system work? The system is powered by Casambi Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks, split into two groups to manage the more than 250 units across the home. Each light fitting and switch communicates wirelessly, and residents simply turn the light on and off in


October 2025 www.thecarehomeenvironment.com 29


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