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Trends: Circadian Lighting

Like a Mood Ring for Your Room: Seeking Comfort in a Brighter Shade of Pale

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By Amy Saunders | June 18, 2018 | Innovative

Words By Tim McKeough © 2018 New York Times News Service

The Honeybrains cafe in Manhattan’s NoHo neighbourhood serves curry cauliflower bowls, turmeric omega juice shots and mood-boosting supplements all intended to enhance mind and body.

 

If you sit at the communal table long enough and gaze up at the honeycomb-patterned ceiling, you just might notice the lights shifting between different shades of white. They, too, are meant to contribute to your well-being, by delivering optimal brightness and colour temperature at different times of day.

 

Honeybrains is an early adopter of a technology that is becoming the next frontier in LEDs: circadian lighting. Just a few years ago, manufacturers of LEDs were struggling to replicate the static warm glow of incandescent bulbs; now most are experimenting with products that offer a range of colour temperatures, mimicking the brilliant midday sun, the gentle lapping of candlelight and all the shades and intensities in between. The benefits, lighting companies say, include interiors with happier vibes and improved sleep and overall health for the people who spend time in them.

 

In a photo from Ketra, lighting from Ketra in the Manhattan headquarters of the advertising and design agency R/GA. Lights cycle between warm and cool white over the day, and colors are used for special events and to identify conference rooms. Image: John Muggenborg/Ketra, The New York Times

 

Circadian rhythms are still mysterious enough to whet the intellectual appetites of scientists. In fact, the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to researchers who identified molecular mechanisms that control the process. Circadian lighting aims to keep the body’s internal clock aligned with the 24-hour diurnal/nocturnal cycle by emitting bright bluish light during the day to suppress the melatonin that our brains produce as a natural sleep aid. As evening approaches, the system switches to dim yellowish light, allowing the hormone to flow freely.

 

“Whether people are ready for it or not, it’s happening and coming,” said Natalia Lesniak, a senior lighting designer at Lumen Architecture, the New York firm that worked with Vamos Architects to create the lighting for Honeybrains.

 

“It’s like green building 10 years ago — it’s going to become the default,” said Lesniak. “And LEDs are the technological advantage that are allowing us to do it.”

 

Acuity Brands, Cree, Osram, Philips, USAI Lighting and other companies have introduced what they call tunable or dynamic white LED light fixtures, most of which are intended for offices and other commercial spaces. Philips’s marketing materials say these products even deliver “a stimulus similar to a strong cup of coffee” during the workday.

 

In a photo from Danny Batista, the daytime look in a Ketra display room showing lighting that changes as the day passes. Lighting that syncs to your circadian rhythms is making waves in interior design. Image: Danny Batista, The New York Times

 

Many are playing catch-up to Ketra, an eight-year-old brand in Austin, Texas, that works exclusively on circadian lighting systems — or what it calls “natural light.” Ketra’s bulbs and fixtures can be found in Whole Foods Market at Bryant Park in New York, the offices of Squarespace and Vice Media, Manhattan’s TMPL gym, the Art Institute of Chicago, and, yes, restaurants like Honeybrains.

 

“The lighting we want when it’s bright outside is fundamentally different than what we want when it’s dark outside,” said Nav Sooch, Ketra’s chief executive. “We concluded that what the world needed was lighting that would adapt for the situation and the time of day.”

Many studies in recent years have identified health benefits from circadian lighting strategies. A 2017 study by the Lighting Research Centre at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in partnership with the United States General Services Administration, for instance, found that office workers exposed to bright bluish light during the day fell asleep faster at bedtime, enjoyed better sleep quality and reported lower levels of stress and depression than those who did not.

 

The deleterious effects of sleep loss are also well documented. In 2006, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research published a report citing numerous studies that associated sleep loss with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression.

 

In a photo from Danny Batista, the evening look in a Ketra display room showing lighting that changes as the day passes. Lighting that syncs to your circadian rhythms is making waves in interior design. Image: Danny Batista, The New York Times

 

The Lighting Research Centre has partnered with the U.S. Navy to test circadian lighting in submarines; it has collaborated with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York to evaluate the light’s use in recovery rooms for transplant patients; and it has worked with the National Institute on Aging to increase the comfort of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

 

However, Mariana G. Figueiro, director of the Lighting Research Centre, warned that homeowners swapping out a few bulbs shouldn’t expect the same results as participants in a controlled study.

 

“I’m afraid that some manufacturers are overstating the benefits,” she said. “We caution people that you really need to measure to make sure that you are delivering the circadian stimulus that you need to. Your eyes alone won’t tell you whether you’re delivering the right amount of light.”

 

Featured Image: Magda Biernat/Ketra, The New York Times

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