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The house of Awakening

On the occasion of the Exposanità fair which took place in Bologna from 17th to 20th May, the «Casa dei Risvegli Luca de Nigris» (Luca de Nigris House of Reawakenings) was presented, a highly innovative centre for young people in coma, which will come to life in 2001 in the Bellaria Hospital area in Bologna.
This initiative, promoted by the «Gli amici di Luca» (Luca’s friends) voluntary association and supported by many other organisations, offers to lead a series of experiments with the Study Centre for Research on Coma in order to find new possible therapies to use within the forthcoming centre.
Among those therapies to experiment on, the use of artificial light combined with visual and sound-musical stimuli is of particular importance.
 
The co-operation between the «Casa dei Risvegli Luca de Nigris» (Luca de Nigris House of Reawakenings) and iGuzzini illuminazione began thanks to the intervention by the Study Centre for Research on Coma. The Centre underlines the problematic nature of the state of alteration of circadian rhythms in patients who have just come out of a coma or who are in a vegetative state. We hypothesised how the Sivra lighting system could be used to re-establish circadian rhythms and thus strengthen the rehabilitation processes, by means of multi-stimulation with the intention of recreating an environment full of reminders of the patient’s biography.
The «Sivra» luminaire (Variable Lighting System with Automatic Regulation) is capable of simulating the properties of natural light by varying the intensity of light as well as the colour temperature of artificial light.
To support and optimise the rehabilitating action carried out within the centre, we speculated on different types of contributions made by light:
• the use of light to re-establish circadian rhythms
• the use of biologically notable light (bright light)
• colour therapy
• the relationship between light and music
• the relationship between light and pictures
• the relationship between light and voice
In the first two cases, we use Sivra’s abilities to imitate the variability of natural light and to produce an intensity of light equal to 2000 lux. This way, the sleep-awake ratio is rebalanced and a strong sensorial stimulation is produced. In the other cases, we refer to the sensorial and psychological stimulations to facilitate reawakening, using pictures, sounds and music that should remind the patient of his or her life experiences.
Music is used to reawaken feelings and emotions, not necessarily pleasant ones, so as to induce any sort of reaction. In this case, light emphasises the musical passages, thereby creating a special atmosphere. The same mechanism is applied for the projection of pictures and the voices of family and friends are alternated during the therapy, establishing verbal contact with the patient.
For these phases of therapy, special programmes were developed for the Sivra luminaire, which can be used by means of a Smart Card, i.e. a small magnetic card that is inserted into the electronic control panel of the luminaire to allow for its operation.
The Sivra luminaire (Design by: Piera Scuri, Douglas Skene and Daniele Bedini) was created thanks to the research entitled «Variable Lighting System with Automatic Regulation (SIVRA) for rooms without windows» which began in 1988 and was led by iGuzzini illuminazione s.r.l., Spazio s.a.s. and Futuro s.r.l. in collaboration with the Lighting Research Center in Troy, New York.
This research aimed to improve the working conditions in confined spaces without any natural light. This system has turned out to be useful in a variety of other situations (it is currently being studied for a resuscitation ward in Holland) and, most of all, it is variable, given its ability to create different light situations thanks to specific programmes.
The experimental arrangement of the elements was simulated on computer to determine the precise installation of the system.