Light is more than something you see. When it enters your eyes, it reaches parts of your brain that regulate your sleep, your mood, your alertness, and your long-term health. This happens every time you step outside, sit under a lamp, or look at a screen, whether you notice it or not. And the pattern of light you live in, bright or dim, day or night, shapes how well your body works. How light shapes your body clock Every cell in your body follows a roughly 24-hour rhythm. Thi

Jeroen Bosch Hospital (JBZ) in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, has reported encouraging early results from a new night-shift system called a “chrono-schedule”. In a pilot study, nurses working under the new system said they felt less exhausted after night shifts, had less difficulty staying awake, and recovered more quickly afterwards. Photo by Amir Arabshahi on Unsplash Instead of working a full night shift, staff worked shorter shifts from 8.00 pm to 4.00 am or from 4.00 am to

Sleep is fundamental to our health, performance, and wellbeing — yet it is increasingly disrupted by our everyday’s actions and the way we design and light our buildings. This CIBSE-approved CPD course explores the science of sleep, our internal body clock, and how integrative lighting design can actively support healthier sleep–wake rhythms. Photo by Gregory Pappas on unsplash Understanding sleep: more than just “switching off” A clear overview of what sleep actually is, bre

Sleep doesn’t start when your head hits the pillow, it begins hours earlier with the signals you send your brain. One of the most important signals is light. To support deep, restful sleep, it’s recommended to keep light levels below 10 lux starting three hours before bedtime. Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash How Light Affects Your Sleep Your brain uses light to decide whether it’s time to be awake or asleep. Bright light in the evening, especially artificial lighting a

Last week, Jan Denneman had the opportunity to speak at Light + Building in Frankfurt as Chair of the Good Light Group. What continues to strike him is this: we spend around 90% of our time indoors, yet the light around us is fundamentally misaligned with our biology. The impact is not subtle. It shows up in poor sleep, low energy, reduced wellbeing, and long-term health risks. And still, we treat this as normal. The reality is simple. During the day, most indoor environments