Light as an Aid for Recovery in Psychiatric Inpatients: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

Setting: 17 bed inpatient ward at a University Mental Health Hospital

Rooms: The dimensions of all 17 rooms are identical with 4,54m x 3,14m, ceiling height 3,15m, a window, a bed, a table, a chair and a bathroom 1,55m x 1,85m.

Assignment of interventions: After admission patients are invited to participate in the study. If the patients wish to participate they will go through eligibility screen, sign informed consent and fill out questionnaires on sleep, mood and well-being (-t1). The patients (now participants) are randomly allocated (t0) by sealed envelope technique and the envelope is brought to the staff office and opened by a staff member who then from the computer in the office programs the participant's room to either intervention or control.

Randomization: The investigators used random permuted blocks of varying and blinded block size. A third party person created the envelopes and arranged them in blocks.

Blinding: The outcome assessor and data analyst is blinded to allocation. Trial participants and care providers are unblinded. Participants may be replaced to another room for practical, clinical reasons. In this case, the intervention/control conditions will follow the patient.