Rodney “Rod” Heller is the CEO of Energy Performance Lighting, but his passion is in Illumalife, a spinoff that exists to improve lighting in workplaces based on the circadian rhythm. Heller’s company, along with Harvard University neuroscientists, have been researching the effects of lighting on human health for over 11 years.
Targeting third-shift workers and nursing facilities, Illumalife is on the cusp of an announcement that Heller says will “change the world” on how long-term care facilities are lit. Much more than just lightbulbs, the company has found that changing and altering lighting based on the circadian rhythm can enhance residents’ moods, reduce hospital errors, and prevent falls.
We spoke with him recently about Illumalife. Whether it be enhancing sleep or preventing medication errors, the company’s research is providing fascinating results.
Let’s talk the circadian rhythm. What is it?
Everybody thinks the circadian clock is in your head, which it is, but every cell in your body has a time clock attached to it, and every organ has a time clock attached to it — for example, when your stomach should work and when shouldn’t it work. Most people don’t realize that there’s a huge obesity problem for people who work third shift because the stomach shuts down at night. It’s all about body function, and third-shift workers eat at night.
How does lighting affect that?
For people working through the night, we can add light that’s rich in the blue spectrum down to the nanometer. We leave it on all night to help suppress melatonin, which keeps people more alert until they go home. For them, the most dangerous part of the day can be the drive home. They basically have a half hour to get home before melatonin starts flowing and they start getting sleepy. Once at home, they should sleep in an environment that’s totally dark, using blackout shades, or in the basement. All we’re doing is flipping their circadian clock, so instead of being in Wisconsin, they’re now in Switzerland as far as their body is concerned.
What sparked this research?
It’s all based on the discovery of a third photoreceptor in 2002 that nobody ever knew existed. Our eyes have rods and cones, but turns out there’s a third photoreceptor that’s nonvisual, and it sets your body clock based on the color of light entering your eye, or even through your eyelids.
So, if there’s a blue light on in your room at night, you won’t get the melatonin production you need for a deep sleep. Many people check their phones before they go to bed, but if it’s not set to night mode to block the blue light, they may not fall asleep for at least a half hour. That means they may miss that first rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, which is the most important sleep of the night. By contrast, orange or red diodes won’t affect your sleep.
Is daylight best?
Absolutely. We don’t have the perfect indoor light to mimic outdoor light, so we focus on what we’ve got, which may mean adding blue to that light. It may throw off wall colors or wood tones in your office or home, but it’s good for human health.
Tell us about your findings.
Through the years, we’ve worked with the NASA Mission Control, UW Hospital’s trauma intensive care unit, and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, to name a few.
Wisconsin leads the nation in morbidity of falls for people over the age of 65. So, we studied two subject and two control nursing homes for two years — a year before and a year after our lighting was installed. We provided rich blue light during the day and changed it to a warm, yellowish color in the evenings. Overnight, there was no light at all. We saw a 40% reduction in falls, indications of a 50% improvement in mood scores, and over 20% reduction in the need for psychotropic medications.
If you think about it, that is how humans evolved, with daylight during the day and, if there was any light at night, it was firelight.
Does this have an economic component?
Absolutely! As you know, there’s a huge emphasis now on energy-efficient lighting, but our focus is on lighting to improve human health. If we were to put our lighting system in a nursing home based only on energy efficiency, it would take a dozen years for the facility to recoup the investment. If we install it to reduce falls, errors, and medication needs, payback drops from 12 years down to two! That’s how much Medicaid will save in treating injuries from falls and medication costs. And all we’re doing is mimicking natural daylight and night.
Who pays, and what are your next steps?
The nursing home operator pays for the lighting system currently. They could potentially reduce their liability insurance or see a reduction in workers comp insurance since most common worker’s comp claims in nursing homes relate to back and shoulder injuries.
Our goal is to get into more nursing homes and collect more data so we can get the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) involved at the federal level and demonstrate how much money we’re going to save them. We need approval from the feds to go nationwide.
Think about it. By 2027 in the U.S., there will be about 10,000 baby boomers turning 80 every day, so we’ve got to prepare now.
What should the business community know about your mission?
Just that lighting is very important for human productivity and health, particularly if you got third-shift workers, or have individuals who seldom see daylight. Using the right light can reduce medical errors and accidents.
Do you have any interesting hobbies?
I enjoy learning and reading about military history and how things evolved. I also enjoy going out to my farm near Cobb where I’ve been busy filling in and cleaning up old mine holes on the property. I’ve got a 25-acre monarch butterfly habitat out there that I’ve been developing for three years. You wouldn’t believe how many monarchs I’m getting! I need a book to identify them all. It’s pretty cool stuff.
Whom do you most attribute for your success?
My wife, who’s been with me 37 years. She’s had so much patience and could have walked away at any point. Luckily, she didn’t!
