Lighting Design House

Light Therapy videos

In her new four-part video lecture Light Therapy Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Mary Rushton-Beales examines the relationship between light and well-being, separating the science from the sales patter and drawing on her own experience. Each segment lasts approximately a quarter of an hour.

Light Therapy Part One  Research from The World Health Organization and other bodies show the health effects of light and lighting, including both dangers and benefits.

Light Therapy Part Two Just how much evidence it is there that daylight can be therapeutic? And what does this mean for architects, clients and energy specialists?

Light Therapy Part Three Many claims have been made for coloured light therapy but do they really stand up and what are the risks posed by LEDs and blue light hazard?

Light Therapy Part Four  How do can light therapy be applied in the real world now and in the future?

Patients ‘would benefit from Light Diet’

Hospital patients would benefit from the ‘Light Diet’ proposed by Lighting Design House, senior designer Dina Chowdury told a recent panel discussion between NHS facilities and energy managers and lighting professionals, chaired by Lux magazine. ‘In hospitals, the ideal is to have LED panels to achieve general lighting of 150 lux on wards, which can be automated with manual override at the nurse station,’ Dina told Lux. ‘Patients would then have local task lighting via a bedside light, with colour options that they can control. The perfect formula is a pinch of blue to kickstart activity, a dollop of sunlight, some swirls of visual delight, a pinch of amber red later in the day and a big dollop of darkness to aid sleep.’


In addition to how to use hospital lighting to improve patient outcomes, the panel also looked at ways to save the National Health Service energy. The NHS needs to standardise its LED lighting, Dina said. ‘You can get LEDs with 2700K colour temperatures now and CRIs of 90 which perform like halogens. But whereas halogens can all run on the same transformers, every LED lamp has a different driver. Standardisation is needed because otherwise the NHS will be left with an inventory problem.’

Click Lux magazine on hospital lighting to read the full report

Why we need a balanced ‘diet’ of light

A healthy recipe for lighting has been proposed by longtime advocate of light as part of well-being, Mary Rushton-Beales, who says architects and employers need to create healthier workplaces, based on providing a balanced ‘diet’ of light and darkness 

 

Running towards the light
Running from the light

 

We have evolved to respond to a natural cycle of light and dark, day and night, that changes gently but dynamically over time. But in our very recent history we have deliberately ignored these natural rhythms and we expect our bodies to cope with instant and prolonged high levels of artificial lighting. It is like fast food: many of us are getting the wrong light, at the wrong time. We need to think about the amount and quality of light we need and avoid bingeing on it.

We need a varied diet of light. We have all been swept along by the energy efficiency of LED lighting and there is a tendency for clients to demand all-LED lighting solutions. But they do not produce the full spectrum of natural light and are not suitable for every application. You need balance, variety and a range of techniques in lighting, just like you do with cookery.

Recipe for healthy lighting

Drawing on a wide range of research, Lighting Design House has developed a recipe for healthy lighting. Like most recipes, it relies on timing for its success. This means matching the quality and amount of light both with your mood and with the physiological needs dictated by your body-clock. The key ingredients are a big fat dollop of darkness, a few pinches of brightness, several swirls of visual comfort, season with visual delight.’

Balance of ingredients and techniques

Visible light has a number of ‘ingredients’ that can have a positive or harmful effect on us, Rushton-Beales explains. ‘The natural light that we can see combines all the different wavelengths of light from ‘warm’ red through to ‘cold’ blue and ranges in intensity from strong sunlight to weak moonlight. The intensity and colour temperature of light, how long we are exposed to it and whether our body-clocks are telling us to be active or to rest are all linked.

As well as sending information along the optic nerve, which the brain translates into what we see, the also eye sends non-visual messages to the part the brain that houses the body-clock. That keeps us tied to a 24-hour or circadian cycle and stimulates or suppresses hormones for sleep, running our immune systems and controlling our ability to metabolise food.

Research has shown that you can stimulate the brain when it wants to rest, using a bluer, cooler light to increase alertness, much as you might perk yourself up with a coffee, but that is not good for you in the long run. And we know, now, that people who work the night-shift for a long while can end up with health problems.

YOUR PERSONAL LIGHT DIET

Key ingredients:

• A big fat dollop of darkness
• A few pinches of brightness
• Several swirls of visual comfort
• Season with visual delight

TIMING, CONTENT and CONTEXT
Morning. Awakening

• Allow your eyes to adjust from full darkness before opening curtains or allowing daylight to enter the space and before checking lit devices such as a tablet or phone.
• Slowly increase the amount of light using selective switching dimming or blinds/sheers/curtains on
• windows.
• Consider simple changes such as brighter light in the bathroom or kitchen when getting ready to go out.
• If you are tired, give your eyes and body longer to adjust to the morning.
• Get some bright light – ideally from a 20‐minute walk in daylight. If that’s not possible, use artificial light.

Morning working

• Ensure background light is balanced for visual comfort: not too much contrast between ‘task information’ such as notes and your screen.
• Ensure that background light is of suitable brightness for the task. If not, increase light locally.
• Vary your lit environment during the working morning – brighter or dimmer – walk to get a coffee; focus on different tasks for a few minutes, enjoy the view.

Lunch break

• Get some bright light – ideally from a 20‐minute walk in daylight – otherwise use artificial light.
• Vary your lit environment.

Afternoon working

• Repeat morning work ingredients: a balance between task and screen; the right light for the task, and moving around to get plenty of variation in light levels.

Early evening leisure

• Get some bright light – ideally a 20‐minute walk in daylight – but if not, use artificial light.
• Ensure background light is balanced for visual comfort and of suitable brightness for the type of leisure activity.

Late evening leisure and rest

• Gradually reduce background light using selective switching dimming or blinds/sheers/curtains on
• windows.
• Turn off hand‐held devices.
• ‘Wind down’ in low light levels that do not stimulate the body clock.
• Full darkness – ideally using curtains rather than an eye mask

Lighting (re)surfaces

Mary Rushton-Beales and Gordon RoutledgeThe newly (re)launched Lighting magazine has commissioned a series of features from Lighting Design House’s Mary Rushton-Beales. The series explains issues related to lighting all types of surfaces and uses a ‘sketchbook’ format with illustrations of the type often used to explore concepts at an early stage of lighting design. It begins with the ubiquitous but tricky medium of glass. The series is mainly aimed at the magazine’s large readership of architects, as well as lighting professionals.

Although Lighting magazine has been in existence since 1969, it was recently relaunched with new publishers in the UK and USA. The revivified magazine has a new high-end format and production values. Mary’s ‘sketchbook’ sits alongside extensive articles on subjects such as architect Jorn Utzon’s use of natural light; bioluminescence and other topics relating to ‘illumination in architecture’.

www.lighting.co.uk

Image: Mary Rushton-Beales and Lighting magazine co-founder Gordon Routledge

The scourge of ‘spec busting’

Mary Rushton-Beales of Lighting Design House will tackle the perennial problem of ‘protecting the specification’ as one of featured speakers at an online conference.

Known as ‘spec busting’, the widespread practice by contractors of substituting poorer-performing fittings and sources for those carefully researched and chosen by the designer, undermines lighting schemes and short-changes clients.

Mary will be tackle the subject at the Online Lighting Solutions Conference hosted by Lighting and Interiors Online. The conference will look at all aspects of lighting specification and procurement facing the lighting industry. All the conference materials will be available at any time for six months for £9.99 paid to the organisers.