A brief look at Human Centric Lighting and some of the core benefits and advancements
Human centric lighting is defined by LightingEurope as a type of lighting that can benefit the biological, emotional, health, or wellbeing of people. This is achieved by dimming the smart light source, most likely an LED, to mimic the levels of sunlight throughout the day.
Why this is important and what you need to know.
To understand why this is important and why our industry is trending this way we must look first to our biology and how light affects us. Our natural life sleep/wake cycles or our circadian rhythm. A circadian rhythm is an internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours. How we interact with light and different light sources and frequencies has an impact on our overall wellbeing.
As you can see from the picture above the sun looks very different from the human eye depending on the different times of the day. If you follow the cycle with your daily life you should find that your body reacts in kind, you should secrete the right hormones at the right time of the day and night. This keeps us in harmony with nature and our body reacts in kind. If you continuously go against your circadian rhythm you could face major hormonal imbalance leading to a number of health issues including but not limited to depression and circulatory problems.
LED technology can literally save your life.
It is a bit of a bold statement but there has never been a better time to manage how artificial light can be programmed to help your biological clock. Since the invention of the incandescent light we have lived like never before, we can work at any time now but not all light is created equal. LED technology can mimic to suns cycle so when we are exposed to artificial light it is in tune with our bodies. As humans, we are evolving and our systems need to evolve with us – we cannot use outdated models to hold us to the past.
3/30/300
Most people might have heard of the 3/30/300 rule, its a basic outline of approx costs to business practices. As a general rule, organizations spend approximately $3 per square foot per year for energy, $30 for rent, and $300 for personnel. This formula should give you a good indication of how important human-centric lighting to the economy and business in general. One of the major obstacles facing organizations of all sizes is recruiting and retaining top talent. Smart companies are looking at the right lighting design to maximize productivity with their talent. For a better understanding of WELL and LEED check out https://www.ledsmagazine.com/leds-ssl-design/networks-controls/article/16695582/a-building-well-lit-and-well-controlled-is-well-certified-magazine
What to do.
Our health is our wealth – that is one saying that will last the test of time. There are many many factors to consider when you look to your overall well being, your environment will play a big tole on the quality of life that you are going to have. LED technology can be a help or a hindrance, use it properly to help you and your employees have a happy healthy life. Do the research and work with people that know what they are doing, learn how to marry the right lighting system with the right control system that will stand the test of time. Build something that you can be proud of. Please reach out to us if you have a project that needs human-centric lighting. We would be more than happy to help.
