Light and Health: Investigating the Benefits

It goes without saying that lighting has a significant effect on our lives. We’re creatures designed to operate in daylight, so it makes sense that how we organize our lives is largely dependent on what time of the day it is. 

Even the most ardent nite owl will admit that, for the most part, they probably need to go to bed earlier and enjoy some more daylight. In fact, the effects of light on the human body have been investigated for decades, with startling conclusions being made that can affect our daily lives considerably. 

With the rise of streaming services and ever-larger entertainment systems, people have become increasingly prone to shut-in behavior. Making the day/night cycle that we’re designed for becoming something more difficult to define accurately. 

In the current age of COIVID-19 and the many restrictions that have been placed on our daily lives, the temptation to become even more of a shut-in is even greater. 

As a lighting company ourselves, we’re pretty fascinated by the effects that our steel barn-style lights could have on our customers. So, it stands to reason that we’d investigate a little bit on the topic and figure out how certain aspects of lighting can be improved to match a healthy lifestyle. 

As a result, we’ve gone and made a pretty good article on the topic to help you make the best choices for your own lighting setups. 

Circadian Rhythm & Blues

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. Lighting affects your sleep. Plain and simple. Every human on Earth has something called a circadian rhythm, or an internal body clock that lets us figure out when it’s time to sleep. Most of the circadian rhythm is made of a combination of visual, audible, and sensory cues that, when combined, make it clear to us when we’re tired and when we need to recharge our batteries. 

Circadian Rhythms also have the added benefit of making sure our sleep schedule is not in constant flux or leaving you to rely on your own exhaustion as a way to go to sleep. In the case of humans, consistency and regularity are essential to a happy relationship with our rest. 

Naturally, this kind of runs counter to excesses of modern life. Late nights and the latest Netflix binge have become common reasons why, for many, operating from sunrise to sunset seems like lunacy. 

Blue Light Binging

The reality of modern technology is that most of the light emitted from devices like TVs and smartphones is probably the worst kind of light to be exposed to during nighttime hours. 

A lot of this comes from the fact that most devices emit a specific type of light that we most acutely associate with daylight. This form of light is called “blue light” and is the brightest and most sun-like form of illumination we have. 

On the one hand, this form of light makes it very easy to see and engage with a device like a smartphone or a tv, with the various apps and visuals popping brightly and appealingly to the viewer. On the other hand, this light form has a bad habit of stimulating the brain into thinking that the body is still operating during the day. 

If you’re trying to get some shut-eye, then you can imagine how having a brain that still thinks it daytime might be difficult. 

For the most part, there are ways to mitigate this problem. Blue light filters are the most common and work by filtering out the blue light emitted by screens and devices using an orange film over a pair of glasses. These can help massively to reduce eye strain and protect your circadian rhythm. 

But what about when dealing with your home or business lighting fixtures? 

Healthy Light, Healthy Life

Light, happiness, and productivity are a much more closely related group of ideas than you’d initially believe. 

As previously mentioned, blue light is what we most closely associate with daylight, the bodily reaction to it often being a release of serotonin, the hormone that makes you feel good, into the body. It can be hugely beneficial when trying to complete work or any hands-on task. 

As a result, bright blue light with a color temperature of around 4000K – 6500K is ideal for rooms where being awake is essential, like kitchens, garages, or even a home office. Of course, a home office serves a few functions, so investing in some warmer light can help make those late-night sessions more palatable. 

Task lighting, such as our own wall-mounted barn-style steel lights, excels in these types of rooms. Lights like the Westchester and Venice are trendy for kitchens, barns, and garages for this very reason and can be fitted with LED lights that can closely imitate daylight conditions with relative ease. 

For rooms like the lounge or the bedroom, making warmer lights a priority will pay dividends in terms of your long-term health. Warmer light has more similarity to the late afternoon and early evening, making it easy for the body to maintain a positive circadian rhythm in line with the day/night cycle. 

Big Business

From a business perspective, matching your business’s lighting to the day/light cycles can be massively beneficial. 

In the case of warehouse safety and employee satisfaction, fitting large wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted steel lights can be a massive boon to overall productivity. Employees like to see clearly and with safety in mind, so naturally, having lights that can maximize visibility is hugely important. Similarly, having lights that can match circadian rhythms help employees with time management, with dimmable lights allowing employees to gauge the time of day accurately and rest more efficiently when not working.  

Outdoor lights, like Steel Lighting Co.’s wall-mounted steel barn lights, making this process much easier with their own dusk-to-dawn sensor that aids lights to be more efficient while also assisting an employee’s body clock with an accurate visual cue of when a particular time of the day has been met. 

Popular models, like the Redondo and Gardena lights, are especially welcome in business and warehouse environments where large, industrial lights are required for the sheer volume of space they can light. 

If you need help making the right choice of lighting for your home or business, then contact our friendly team at Steel Lighting Co.,  our friendly team of experts would be more than happy to give some advice and recommendations on what kind of steel barn light can best suit your home or business needs.