Daylight is the most important external time-giver. It wakes us up in the morning and the lack of it makes us moodier during the winter. For this reason, it is essential to strive to make artificial light as natural and efficient as daylight. It controls the hormone balance in our bodies and makes us alert or relaxed. Because our physiological response to light depends on the light’s characteristics such as colour spectrum, intensity and timing, the characteristics of the artificial light in our surroundings will be of significance if we spend a lot of time indoors.
Human Centric Lighting (HCL) solutions use variations in colour temperature, intensity and timing to achieve short-term effects on your concentration and mood, mid-term effects on your sleep patterns and long-term effects on your well-being. Through decades of research we have discovered the connection between light and its influence on the human hormone production. We know how to tune the colour spectrum of the light to achieve a phase-advancing effect on your circadian rhythm. Still, a lot of work remains on how to tailor the light to match individual needs for intensity level and timing of the light exposure to achieve the wanted biological effects. When applied correctly, Human Centric Lighting may adjust the daily rhythm of office workers, school children and reduce fatigue and errors for industry workers and improve sleep patterns and medicine intake for elderly centre residents.
Let us today talk about Human Centric Lighting in various application areas and how it can adjust people’s daily rhythms and improve their motivation, well-being, and productivity.
Human Centric Lighting solution in education
Schools are excellent for tuneable white light features. Here the light is used not only to control daily rhythms for pupils and staff, but also to improve alertness during tests and concentration tasks.
The teacher may switch on an intensive, cool white light during these activities, or a warm white, dimmed light for relaxation and group talk. The right light in the morning, with sufficient brightness and blue-enriched, can help to get you ready for the day. Especially in education, a conscious mind is important for a good concentration during the lessons. It doesn’t matter if the person is an elementary scholar or a teacher. Both can benefit from an optimised lighting environment in a direct or indirect way.
Benefits
- During the early morning hours, the right light can help to wake up with less sleepiness.
• A better light environment can improve alertness and concentration during lessons.
• Lighting systems that give higher light intensities and colour temperature at the right time can help to improve duration of sleep and quality of sleep and thus improve learning effects.
• With biologically optimised lighting systems in educational environments, natural lighting conditions can be achieved more effectively.
Simply said it is possible to imitate natural lighting inside the classroom.
Human Centric Lighting in offices
Lighting technologies continue to evolve and improve, bringing a range of benefits to commercial building specifiers and end-users. These include better energy efficiency and greater freedom and flexibility in how lighting is applied and controlled in the workspace. At the same time, there is a growing body of research and information available on the impact of lighting on human beings, with resonance on its effect upon our emotions, our wellbeing and our workplace productivity. Humans spend most of their time awake indoors. That makes office areas excellent places to implement Human Centric Lighting solutions. Such solutions can bring increased energy and motivation to employees.
Workplace lighting can, in addition to providing sufficient light to conduct work-related visual tasks, affect employees’ alertness, mood, cognition, sleep-wake pattern and health.
Benefits
- Exposure to more intense light may boost employees’ feelings of alertness and vitality during daytime and at night.
• Circadian effective light exposure during the daytime may have a positive effect on office workers’ sleep during the subsequent night.
• The light settings can influence employees’ appraisals of the lighting and the working environment.
• Individuals’ preferred light settings show substantial variations. Individual lighting control will affect job satisfaction positively.
Human Centric Lighting in Health Care
Healthcare lighting is zone-specific coloured and white light for operating- and examination rooms. The light is based on the latest LED technology which combined with control systems makes it possible to create a light that optimises the working environment and increases patient safety.
Benefits
From satisfaction surveys the users mention that the light gives higher quality in the work environment on the following points:
- Less fatigue and headaches by laparoscopic, ultrasound and screen work.
• Prevents reflection of screens and monitors
• Optimises image quality
• Provides better visibility and highlight detail
• Creates greater precision
• Better performance and increased quality
• Increased safety for patients and staff
Human Centric Lighting in Hospitality & Wellness
The well-targeted use of lighting with dynamic colour variation options allows creation of a wide variety of spatial effects, evoking, for example, the impression of open-hearth fires, moonlight or a sunset. Such flexibility is a great advantage for catering and hospitality spaces, as the same room can be illuminated to suit different events and times of day. An atmosphere that fosters a feeling of well-being is also important for hotel rooms, where the correct lighting can provide a special cosy ambience which leaves a lasting impression on guests and encourages them to return.
Benefits
- Helps visitors feel comfortable
• Makes rooms look more elegant
• Atmospheres and lighting quality can be controlled individually
• Easy to control
• Low energy consumption
• Low maintenance requirements
• Reduced heat emission
If the lighting industry wants to get a feel for how well its products are performing, it might like to go out and buy a hotel chain. If ever there was a sector where equipment is pushed to its limit, it’s this one: 24/7 operation with little acceptance of failure or high maintenance demands; and a high expectation that products should work way beyond their quoted lifetimes.
Here’s a handy sustainability checklist for your next hospitality project:
- Given the 24/7 environment, what elements have you introduced into the design to control and reduce energy use without compromising the design aesthetic?
• What assurances have you received that the specified luminaires will meet – and exceed – their stated design performance?
• What strategy do you have in place to retain luminaires, refitting only failed luminaire components (LED modules or drivers, for example) at the end of their active lives?
The hotel lighting trick that could cure jet lag
Lighting which works with our body clock is becoming more popular, in both guest areas and heart of house, creating a stimulating environment which increases productivity and mood and can alleviate jetlag. ‘Imagine if the lighting in your hotel room could fix your jet lag. It is not such a crazy thought but a possibility in time to come.’
The concept is simple: as you walk into your hotel room, your key card tells the control system where you’ve arrived from and the lights then change to the ideal colour temperature to adjust your body to the new time zone.’ INFOREL can assist you in this
We need the right light for our activities at the right place at the right time
Lighting is entering a new age of innovation and it will change the way we live, work and play. It is leading to intelligent buildings, homes, and cities and it will be connecting to data and that, in turn, will bring about new possibilities for how we use it.
If you want to share thoughts or feedback then please leave a comment below.
