The effects of interventional light exposure on sleep-wake cycles in a post-operative cardiac population.

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Sleep is important for patient post-operative recovery. Following cardiac surgery, patients are often found to have disturbed sleep. If sleep quality or quantity is compromised there may be a consequent delay in post-operative recovery. The hospital environment has various characteristics which may cause sleep disruption: the lighting environment is thought to be weaker than a natural lighting environment, patients are in pain, they are regularly awoken for monitoring and the hospital is noisy . As a response to the lighting environment, the circadian clock controls the timing of various physiological processes, including sleep. Consequently, sleep-wake cycles are influenced by lighting and time of day. We will monitor activity-rest rhythms to determine whether the disrupted sleep commonly experienced by the post-operative patient is possibly due to circadian disruption, inadequate pain management or some other variable. We aim to establish whether the use of an interventional therapeutic light source can improve post-operative recovery. Hypothetically, if circadian disruption is the underlying cause of sleep disruption, correctly timed light exposure should consolidate sleep-wake cycle timing, improving sleep quantity and quality. This may also have positive secondary outcomes such as improved mood and decreased recovery time.

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