How light affects your health

How light affects your health

Whether directly or indirectly, light (both natural and artificial) can have an impact on our health. As a supplier of a range of indoor lighting (including table lamps and pendant lights) and outdoor lighting (such a bollards lights) we felt we should properly explore the effects of light and how it can have both short and long-term effects on a person’s health in positive and negative ways. In this article we will look at some of these affects and how you can avoid the negatives and maximise your exposure to the more beneficial effects.

Effects Of Light On Your Eyes & Sight 

Our eyes are extremely sensitive to light. They use light to function, but the wrong type of light can damage them. Blue light is the worst for this forcing you to strain your eyes, especially when trying to concentrate on something such as when reading. Simply ensuring you read under warmer lights and use blue-light blockers on mobiles and other devices can go a long way in avoiding or reducing the strain on your eyes and the headaches which often accompany it.

Effects Of Light On Your Skin

There is no denying that we need light. The planet wouldn’t last very long without it but that doesn’t mean that in comes without drawbacks. Even natural light which helps not only keep us alive but sustains the entire planet comes with a few negative repercussions. Thankfully the risk of suffering these can be greatly reduced with a few reasonable precautions.
We have already addressed sight, but natural sunlight can also have a negative impact on our skin – with sunburn for example. The obvious preventative measures for sunburn are to use sunscreen and after sun lotion.
Not all effects of light on the human body are negative. Sunlight is essential to people for many reasons one such reason is that it provides us with vitamin D, which is a crucial ingredient in bone development.

Effects Of Light On Your Sleep

Our bodies run on their own internal operating system and one of the functions controlled by that system is sleeping. Our bodies take ques from its environment to help regulate sleep with one of the biggest environmental factors it looks at being light.

Light is used as indicator that we need to wake up and it helps keep us alert. Likewise, an absence of light is one of the most common conditions in creating an environment in which we sleep. As such, too little or too much light can throw off our interval body clock and in turn disrupt our sleep patterns.

 
Keeping your lights low in the evenings ahead of sleeping and avoiding electronics such as mobiles which emit bright lights before sleeping might help you sleep better. In addition to this maximising your exposure to bright light will help your body transition out of its sleepy state in the morning. 

Despite its many great benefits, some of which are discussed above, light both artificial and natural can have some drawbacks. For the most part though they are easy to counteract. For artificial light being precautions about the amount of exposure to devices such as TVs and mobile phones and being mindful of when you are using them can have a big impact on your health. Furthermore, adjusting your home lighting where necessary can go a long way in aiding your sleep and protecting your eyes.

As for natural light taking the safety measures we are all familiar with is a great place to start in enjoying the many benefits of the sun without suffering the consequences of over exposure.