Lighting the way to healthier daily rhythms
Date:
March 17, 2022
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
A new report addresses the issue of exactly how bright lighting
should be during the day and in the evening to support healthy
body rhythms, restful sleep, and daytime alertness.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The light we experience across our daily lives has a major influence on
our body rhythms. Modern lifestyles, with 24-hour access to electric light
and reduced exposure to natural daylight, can disrupt sleep and negatively impact health, well-being, and productivity. A new report publishing
March 17 in the open access journal PLOS Biology addresses the issue of
exactly how bright lighting should be during the day and in the evening
to support healthy body rhythms, restful sleep, and daytime alertness.
========================================================================== Professors Timothy Brown from the University of Manchester, UK, and
Kenneth Wright from the University of Colorado Boulder, US brought
together an international body of leading scientific experts to agree the
first evidence- based, consensus recommendations for healthy daytime,
evening, and nighttime light exposure. These recommendations provide
much needed guidance to the lighting and electronics industries to aid
the design of healthier environments and to improve how we light our workplaces, public buildings, and homes.
A key question tackled by the new report was how to properly measure
the extent to which different types of lighting might influence our
body rhythms and daily patterns of sleep and wakefulness. Light affects
these patterns via a specialized type of cell in the eye that uses a
light sensitive protein, melanopsin, that is distinct from the proteins
in the rods and cones that support vision (and upon which traditional
ways of measuring "brightness" are based). Since melanopsin is most
sensitive to light in a specific part of the visual spectrum (blue-cyan
light), the new recommendations used a newly- developed light measurement standard tailored to this unique property, melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance. Analysis of data across a range of laboratory and field
studies proved that this new measurement approach could provide a
reliable way of predicting the effects of light on human physiology and
body rhythms and could therefore form the basis of widely applicable
and meaningful recommendations.
An important next step will be integration of the recommendations into
formal lighting guidelines, which currently focus on visual requirements
rather than effects on health and well-being. Additionally, increasing sophistication in LED lighting technology and the availability of low-cost light sensors are expected to increase the ease with which individuals
can optimize their personal light exposure to best support their own
body rhythms in line with the new recommendations.
Brown adds, "These recommendations provide the first scientific consensus, quantitative, guidance for appropriate daily patterns of light exposure to support healthy body rhythms, nighttime sleep and daytime alertness. This
now provides a clear framework to inform how we light any interior
space ranging from workplaces, educational establishments and healthcare facilities to our own homes."
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Timothy M. Brown, George C. Brainard, Christian Cajochen, Charles A.
Czeisler, John P. Hanifin, Steven W. Lockley, Robert J. Lucas,
Mirjam Mu"nch, John B. O'Hagan, Stuart N. Peirson, Luke
L. A. Price, Till Roenneberg, Luc J. M. Schlangen, Debra
J. Skene, Manuel Spitschan, Ce'line Vetter, Phyllis C. Zee,
Kenneth P. Wright. Recommendations for daytime, evening, and
nighttime indoor light exposure to best support physiology, sleep,
and wakefulness in healthy adults. PLOS Biology, 2022; 20 (3):
e3001571 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001571 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317143718.htm
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