To determine if you’re living and working in good light, its’ best to spend at least 2 hours outdoors in daylight each day. Daylight is always good for people. However, if you are indoors, how can you ensure you have sufficient light indoors?
To determine if indoor lighting is sufficient to improve your health, sleep and happiness, we need to measure the intensity of light that reaches our eyes. Light levels are typically measured in ‘lux’ which quantifies the amount of light per square meter and thus indicates the intensity of light perceived by our eyes. Lux helps to understand the brightness or dimness of a space.
The recommendation is to have indoors at least 500 lux light in your eyes, which is rather easy if you are close to a window. If you are further away of a window you need to compensate the lacl of daylight with electric light to get to 500 lux.
Think of it like this: if you're in a room with large windows and plenty of sunlight coming in, it will have a high lux level. But if you're in a dimly lit basement with only a small lamp, it will have a low lux level. Because our eyes adjust to the lux level of a room, they aren’t a reliable measurement tool. That's why we use a mobile app or a lux meter to measure light.
Lux is important because it affects visibility and can influence productivity, health and mood. For example, in workplaces, having the right amount of light at the right time can help you work more efficiently and boost your mood.
Our recommendation is to aim for at least 500 lux during the day and less than 10 lux during the night.