SAGE Journals(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage) have published a new research paper on Human Centric Lighting and its impact on health. The research team – headed by Dominika Cupkova of the Department of Cybernetics andArtificial Intelligence, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics,Technical University of Košice, Slovakia - has been looking at key areas of the application of artificial illumination on areas of the human psyche including the emerging need for the development of applications that are try to meet people’s emotional needs through the control of colour temperature, illuminance levels, and light direction.

Human Centric Lighting (HCL)is the process by which the correct control of the lighting can improve the emotional wellbeing, comfort, health, and productivity of people in the environment. There are several factors taken into consideration:

- Circadian rhythms—blue light at night can intrude ourr egular hormone flow;Mood—certain colors or light can affect emotions, mood,and cognition;

- Visual acuity—adding more blue to the light can increase the visual acuity in other words, clarity of vision.

- Perception—factors that may help people perceive the course of the day, the amount of energy they should have at a particular time of day or the year in addition to the amount of light and spectral distributions for circadian rhythms,

- Sustainability—dimming and Kelvin changing LED system scan save notable amounts of energy, which decreases the carbon footprint;

- Productivity—high correlated colour temperature fluorescent lights could present a beneficial intervention to enhance well being and productivity.  

Applications of HCL

The paper supports existing research that highlights how HCL may be applied to various settings.

HCL can be used in several application domains—healthcare, workplaces, education, retail, industrial, and home environment.

In healthcare, there is evidence of improved recovery rates and enhanced medicated efficiency and also stimulation by light and colours despite outdoor conditions. Creating a more effective healing environment using the natural power of light by adjusting lighting automatically with a human circadian rhythm helps hospital patients to sleep better thus heal faster.

In workplaces, some health disorders have been linked to abnormal amounts of blue-rich light during working hours of the day. Taking into consideration a five day working week, steps need to be taken to get natural light. By simulating natural light in workspaces, it is possible to improve concentration and energy, but it can also increase employee’s motivation and commitment and improve work performance, awareness, and satisfaction.

In the education field,research done by Govn et al. shows that ambient lighting can have a positive impact on children’s chrono biological systems.

Moods and academic performance are impacted.

By adjusting lights, it is possible to increase concentration as well as decrease fatigue in classrooms.Students with biologically optimized lighting had up to third fewer errors inconcentration-based tests. Contributing to the positive results was the fact that biologically optimized light provides stimulation to the body as if the person was outdoors.