The Impact of Light on Health

Kelsey Walker  

Light Paper 1

Impact of Light on Health

I found these articles contradicting upon themselves in the fact that modern LED/blue lighting is both harmful and helpful.  In the modern world we live in, we strive off of electrical lighting.  It is difficult as a designer, to read articles such as this and try to think of ways that can prevent the harmful side-effects and also enhance the positive effects.  As the articles read, our body runs of our biological clocks or our circadian and circannual cycles.  Natural light works on this cycle of night and day giving us a friendly reminder that we need sleep to properly function.  Electric lighting works against this natural cycle keeping us alert and awake.  Is this harmful?  In some situations, the articles say yes and in some the articles say that moderate exposer to electric lighting can be helpful and make us more coherent.  This is where the difference of the lighting comes into play. Modern LED lights give off a blue wavelength color which is actually more harmful to our physiological health.  Geez, can we ever win!  It is hard to really work with health and deal with the light and task of within a building.  Light is needed for survival so, how do we begin to address these issues as designers?  The idea of natural dimming lights that NASA has experimented with is an interesting concept and I think could be a lead to a solution in this issue.  But as we see in these articles, with new technology that influences our natural biology come side-effects.