How to Boost Health & Productivity by Using Adequate Levels of Light

1. Regulate your sleep and weight levels better using natural light – We have an abundant source of natural light that we oftentimes forget to take advantage of: sunshine. What can sunshine do for us? For one, exposure to sunlight can boost production of Vitamin D, which we don’t always get enough of from food. Vitamin D helps to protect against heart disease, diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis. Sunshine also plays a big role in improving our mental health by increasing production of serotonin, a hormone in the body responsible for elevating our mood and improving our sense of well-being and happiness. Sunlight exposure also helps to regulate our sleep by helping our bodies to produce more melatonin, which helps our bodies to know when it’s time to sleep and when to wake up. Sitting out on a patio actually helps to prevent winter weight gain, which is something that I personally experience each year between December and January where I tend to gain 3 to 5 pounds. During this time of year, I tend to spend more time indoors due to the fact that the temperature drops close to zero degrees C and there’s also more rain. Getting 10 to 15 minutes of sunshine between 8 am and noon each day if you’re fair-skinned (and up to 30 minutes is okay if you’re darker skinned) a day is said to be enough to be beneficial for the body without it causing any health problems like skin cancer.

2. Control too-intense natural light using dimmers and window covering – Throughout the day, you probably won’t need your artificial lights open in your home and will get most of your lighting needs from sunlight that streams through your windows (except maybe on your work table, which will usually be lighted the whole day using a desk lamp, unless you’re sitting next to a window, in which case you can shut it off). However, if your window is facing East, West, or South - which are the three warmest sun exposure directions – you may want to use some kind of window covering, like a roller shade, fabric curtain, or horizontal blind to control the heat. Eastern exposures get the morning sun and can be ideal for people who like to wake up with the sun shining brightly in their faces. South-facing windows get the noonday sun (which is the warmest and can get a bit uncomfortable, which makes window coverings all the more important especially in a work area). I find that West-facing windows that catch the afternoon sun on its way down also a bit too hot for my taste, which is why I favor living rooms, bedrooms and work areas that face North, as these don’t get the sun shining into the room as much, so the light is pretty much even during the day. That said, these rooms also tend to be the coolest. And when you live in colder climes like Vancouver, B.C. it can get really chilly in these rooms. Another simple and effective way to control the level of lighting is to install dimmers so that you can adjust the brightness of your bathroom vanity light, dining room table pendant or living room chandelier (if you have one) especially when you lose sunlight at the end of the day.

3. Distribute light evenly throughout the room - Walk by any street in the world and you’ll find a lot of interesting lighting situations, like underlighted living rooms, poorly-lighted bedrooms, and harshly-lighted dining rooms (or kitchens). Why are living rooms underlighted? That's because most homes rely on just two table lamps to illuminate either side of a sofa. That’s why most living rooms are too dark. There’s not enough light and the lumen level is too low. I recommend having 4 table lamps plus 2 wall scones (or floor lamps) at 1600 lumens per bulbs to adequately light a living room. You might say that’s too bright but you can always lower the number of lumens and not switch on all the lamps if you like. The important thing is to have as many turned out as your mood – and level of sunlight – will require. For the most part, people don’t have enough and so they end up with dark living rooms. I still see some bedrooms lighted from the ceiling like a factory, or dimly lighted, using a ceiling mounted round fixture in a white colour. These homeowners don’t see the need for any table lamps since they watch TV or read from an electronic devices which is backlighted by blue light, which is not exactly ideal. Having two table lamps (for reading) and 2 floor lamps on either side of a media cabinet or chest of drawers opposite the bed is ideal, using between 800 – 1600 lumens depending on your preference. When you have this number of table and/or floor lamps you don’t even need ceiling lights in your bedroom. Observe the kitchen below with its array of recessed ceiling and bulkhead fixtures, a trio of pendants over the island, and undercabinet lighting, all of which give it an even (but not harsh) glow. When it comes to lighting, you can never have enough light fixtures in your home.

4. Use energy efficient bulbs with the correct level of brightness – You might have noticed that LED bulbs - which have became more ubiquitous - are now the go-to choice in commercial, educational, hospitality and residential applications in the last 10 years. They emit the least amount of heat (about 15%) and last for 20,000 hours. Compact fluorescent bulbs became popular around 1995 as they replaced the more inefficient incandescent bulbs which have been around since 1878 and only last for 10,000 hours and emit 90% of their energy as heat as opposed to CFLs which release 80% of their energy as heat. Most homes have completely eliminated incandescents and CFLs due to longevity and cost. I find that most living rooms tend to be underlighted as they only follow the 1,000 – 2,000 lumen guideline (that’s the equivalent of two 60W or 800 lumen bulbs). I like to put 1600 lumen (or 100 watt equivalent) soft white LED bulbs on each of my four table lamps and two 800 lumen bulbs wall mounted lamps in my living room so that I have sufficient brightness. I used to have 1 more floor lamp (for a total of 7) in one corner but replaced that with a plant, but 6 light fixtures of with a total of 8,000 lumens at eye level are just the right level of warmth and brightness. I have 8 recessed ceiling fixtures with 800 lumens (about 60 W) each as kitchens require a brightness level of between 4,000 – 8,000 lumens in a soft white or daylight colour. That said I do also have puck lights mounted to the underside of my upper kitchen cabinets for extra lighting when we’re chopping up ingredients or cooking. I like to light my dining rooms to a medium level of brightness which is why I might use a pendant with four LED bulbs in a soft white that are 800 lumens in brightness as these areas require about 3,000 – 4,000 lumens. Bedrooms require only between 1,000 – 2,000 lumens but you can double that and use 1600 lumen bulbs (instead of 800 lumen), in case you’ve got weak eyesight like I do or simply like to make your bedroom a little brighter.

5. Use task lighting on top of general lighting on separate switches – I always like to have alternate sources of light so in a living room, I will have a variety of light fixture options: table lamps that will go on either side of a sofa, floor lamps, wall sconces, and recessed ceiling fixtures. For convenience, I like to light up all my table lamps at the same time with one switch (you can ask an electrician to wire the wall outlets so that they operate from one switch to save you the trouble of opening each table lamp separately) and then give myself the option of lighting up some wall sconces (if I do have them) on a second switch and ceiling lights on a third switch if I would like to. You might say 3 levels of lighting is overkill and that may be the case if you live in California or Mexico where there is abundant light throughout the year. But when you live in a place where it rains a lot and is cloudy for most part of the year, like Vancouver or London (which is also cold and grey for the most part), you’re going to need lots and lots of light as the natural light that streams through the windows has a certain silvery colour that isn’t really as bright, I find, which is why I have to resort to installing extra artificial lighting just to help lift my mood. And believe me, you can open several layers of light throughout the day: (1) you can just use the table lamps in the morning and late afternoon, (2) you have the options of opening 2 layers, the table lamps, floor lamps, and wall sconces (3) rarely do I open the third layer, which are the ceiling lights except when I have company over or during winter when the nights are long and the days are short and I have to make sure that I keep the blues away. Having adequate lighting will help with that like in the space below where table & floor lamps are controlled by one switch, the wall scones with a second switch and all the ceiling fixtures using a third switch.