Visual Environmental Interventions and Preoperative Sleep: The Role of Curtain Color in Surgical Patients

What the study found

Surgical patients were randomized to wards with light curtains (beige or light blue) or dark curtains (dark green or dark brown) for their first night before surgery. The light-curtain group slept longer and more efficiently on actigraphy and rated sleep quality and morning-after state higher (all p < .05), and curtain color stayed significant after adjustment. Baseline sleep quality did not differ between groups.

Limitations

One night, one hospital, and the abstract gives no effect sizes or group means. Curtain color may also change how much light reaches the bed, so color and light level are not separated.

Neurodesign interpretation

A low-cost finish choice in patient rooms may matter for sleep on a stressful first night, but the mechanism (color, light transmission or perceived calm) is not yet clear.

Possible design implications

Hypothesis: lighter privacy-curtain colors in inpatient rooms may support first-night sleep; test with reported effect sizes and with light level at the bed measured.

Study design

Randomized controlled study

Population

Adult patients awaiting elective thoracic surgery, China. Sample: 190.

Setting

Real hospital wards (one hospital)

Field

Healthcare design, Sleep science

Mechanism

Sleep disruption

Spatial variable

Curtain color

Keywords

curtain color, sleep disruption

Notes and follow-up

Related records: ND-0077, ND-0079, ND-0012, ND-0018. TKTK effect sizes and group means from the full text; the abstract reports p-values only.