Goodbye groggy eyes! How Human-Centric Lighting Can Save Your Sleep And Money

How many of you are tired in the evenings but at the same time wide awake? When you arrive home after an exhausting day in the office, how many of you feel like you need at least a couple of hours to even think about sleep? As a result, how many of you are groggy-eyed in the morning and immediately start looking for coffee? This post is for all of you that want to resolve your groggy eyes, maintain your health, and save some coffee money.

Natural light is essential, just like water, air, and food. Natural light is the one element that guides the regular patterns of our mental, behavioral, and bodily changes, called circadian rhythms. A circadian rhythm is demonstrated by sleeping at night while it’s dark and being up during the day. Most living things, including plants, have circadian rhythms, which repeat roughly every 24 hours. The most powerful trigger for resetting the 24-hour sleep-wake cycle is natural light.

Two hundred years ago, our predecessors spent 90% of their time in the sun, and their biological clocks were set to the 24-hour cycle of changes in the earth’s environment. But for us, getting enough sunlight is a challenge as we are now officially the “indoor generation”, spending more than 90% of our time within four walls.

Artificial illumination is now ubiquitous and substitutes the natural sunshine cycles that once guided our daily activities. Poorly planned lighting schemes influence our health, productivity, and safety at work. To better promote human health and welfare, it is essential to properly understand how to illuminate our homes, schools, and offices.

Goodbye groggy eyes! How Human Centric Lighting Can Save Your Sleep And Money

What is Human-Centric Lighting?

Human-centric lighting is intended to replicate outside ambiance in enclosed spaces. It simulates light according to the sun’s movement and creates an immersive experience that improves visual performance and enables us to function better. Replicating natural light is done through a combination of four dynamically changeable light characteristics: intensity, color, timing, and duration.

In the morning, people need a boost in energy and focus to function effectively during the day. Using a bright, bluish light plays a significant role in triggering this boost; this type of light also suppresses the production of the “sleep hormone” in our brain, the melatonin, keeping us active. In the evening, our bodies need to relax and unwind; using a yellowish light as the evening approaches will allow the production of melatonin hormone and help our body regulate its sleep-wake cycle.

What can Human Centric Lighting do for you?

Imagine spending the entire day in a windowless office. The lights in your cubicle are as bright as a clear sky when you first start working. The lights gradually dim throughout the course of the day, changing from an invigorating bluish-white to a pleasant, amber glow. You become more at ease and eager to unwind as you approach your home after work. You arrive home relaxed and ready for a good night’s sleep. 

When the concepts of Human Centric Lighting are combined with smart technology, you have countless customization and lighting options to choose from, and it can all be automated. This solution can be highly beneficial in many places; however, here is my priority list of where it should be implemented. 

Hospitals that heal faster

We all know the benefits of daylight in the healing process; nevertheless, some patients sleep near the window and far away in hospitals due to bed allocation and room layouts. Here is the interesting fact: according to data gathered over a 15-year period, those with beds near the windows had shorter hospital stays than patients with beds near doors. Imagine now using human-centric lighting in a hospital; you will be able to speed up healing for all patients, not just those whose beds are next to windows. 

Human-centric lighting can also benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease. Along with memory loss, people with Alzheimer’s disease frequently endure sadness and sleep difficulties, both of which lower their quality of life. According to studies, personalized LED lighting solutions have a good effect on the sleep and mood of Alzheimer’s patients residing in long-term care facilities.

Offices with happy, healthy employees 

Studies have shown that offices with natural elements, such as plants and sunlight, have a 15% higher level of well-being, a 6% higher level of productivity, and a 15% higher level of creativity.

Every company wants high productivity and efficiency from employees. To achieve this, employee satisfaction is crucial, and personalized lighting is one of the solutions. Employees can take advantage of more pleasant workplaces to encourage concentration, focus, and inspiration by establishing a setting that mimics nature. Employees may feel more satisfied if they have control over the lighting in their own workspaces. Whether employees clocks in at an office or a warehouse, their productivity will likely increase if they are pleased at work. Human-centric lighting may be especially beneficial to night shift workers, improving their productivity, comfort, and job satisfaction. Additionally, contented individuals tend to be more tolerant and helpful colleagues, which can eventually benefit a business. 

Disengaged employees cost organizations an average of $3,400 a year for every $10,000 in annual salary; those who are committed to an organization, emotionally and mentally, will miss 20% fewer workdays.

Schools where children are engaged and learn faster

We always want the best for our children: education, friendship, success, and health. But we’ve all been through situations in which the child feels demotivated and lazy to wake up early in the morning. What if I told you that light can change this in a blink?  

Children spend more than 1000 hours per year in a classroom, therefore lighting has significant implications. Children’s stress and sleep hormones can be regulated when they arrive at school in the morning and are greeted by cool white and intense lighting. To be more precise, this regulation advances their daily cycle, making them more active during the day and helping them sleep better at night. Students will benefit from paying closer attention in class and to what the teacher is saying. 

Dutch investigations have shown that with higher illuminance levels and higher color temperatures (closer to daylight), academic performance improved, while a reduction of light levels and lower color temperature decreased agitation and classroom disturbances during lessons.

Goodbye groggy eyes!

As hard as it can be to admit it, many of us live in a windowless world and this takes a toll on our mood, our health, and on our sleep. The more advanced the world becomes, the less daylight we get with all the skyscrapers built and technologies that allow us to do everything in a click without even going out. According to what scientists say, human-centric lighting is a valuable replacement for natural light; knowing this makes it impossible to overlook its promise to improve our lives at work and at home simply and automatically. Don’t wait to make the change – say goodbye to sleepless nights and groggy mornings!