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Lack of Sunlight in Winter Months
It’s getting dark and cold up here in the Northern Hemisphere – it’s certainly getting chilly in the sea…
My social media feed is awash with palm-lined beaches and sparkling surf.
But just getting outside for more than one hour per day, even in a Swedish winter, may be enough to reduce your risk of depression and help you get a good nights’ sleep – Daylight during winters and symptoms of depression and sleep problems: A within-individual analysis.
But artificial light can help
Bright light (2,500 to 10,000 lux) in the morning, especially cool ‘sky blue’ wavelengths (450 – 550nm peak) is as good as an antidepressant and the effects increase over time – Exploring the key parameters for indoor light intervention measures in promoting mental health: A systematic review.
During the winter, sunlight delivers very little UVB wavelengths, key to metabolising Vitamin D, which in turn supports to mood, memory and a range of other cognitive processes. Supplements are the obvious solution. So I was intrigued to find this small-scale research project that placed a low-dose UVB LED in an office task lamp and found improvements in Vitamin D levels compared to the controls – Ultra-low Ultraviolet Radiation in Office Lighting Can Moderate Seasonal Vitamin D Cycle: A Pilot Study.
The same goes for near infra-red wavelengths, also associated with improved sleep, attention and mood. This team found a three-hour exposure to 6.5 J/cm-2 of 850 nanometers/NIR had significant effects- but interestingly these were only felt in winter and not summer months – Effects of Near-Infrared Light on Well-Being and Health in Human Subjects with Mild Sleep-Related Complaints: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study.
Please join me next Tuesday lunchtime for an LIA Tech Talk on lighting to beat the winter blues. Register here.
Why are so many ‘smart’ buildings so dumb?
Please join Miguel Aguado, Ravi Lakhani, Paul Nulty and I tomorrow, Thursday 21st November at 11am for a lively debate about why most lighting controls solutions short-change the client — and what lighting designers can do about it – LiGHT24.
True colours
I’m not so keen on the shorter days, but I do love those autumn leaves
Here with three simple facts you might enjoy
The sun is lower in the sky this time of year. So the rays have to travel further to reach us. The blue wavelengths are filtered out on the way, leaving more red, which is why those colours seem to glow so bright.
That rich multicoloured patchwork of colours and shapes delivers the optimal balance of complexity and order to your visual system. Apparently a landscape with 10 species of trees and vegetation works best – Implementation of the visual aesthetic quality of slope forest autumn color change into the configuration of tree species. But really, any local park will do!
And finally the dominant colours – red and green, blue and gold, hit the sweet spot your colour processing system – the colour opponency theory explains how your rods and cones are constantly dialing up and down along those axes to generate your experience of a multicoloured world. Autumn colours keep that system on the hop sending a playful shiver through your optic nerve – The Opponent Process Theory of Color Vision.
Time to get out there and enjoy them while they last!