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For many years Studio Kleurmerk has been advising organizations about 'good' and 'healthy' light. "I tell the same story again and again: what light can do for them. In hospitals, nursing homes, schools and more, it sometimes feels like I’m a missionary. It's the power of repetition, so we don't give up." However, Erna says, I am a little embarrassed to confess this, I had never experienced good light for myself. Until one of my employees needed a demonstration model for her presentation. Afterwards the model ended up on our desks. And then it happened: I now literally practice what I preach. Consequently, there are no more slumps during the day, I feel fit all day long and enjoy a very good night's sleep. I can't get around it anymore. The difference is so big for me and it is almost addictive. A day off and I notice it, immediately! Even more than before, I feel the need to make organizations aware of the obvious, healthy effect. In our designs we create 'healthy light' in a 'good lighting plan'. For us the use of colours, the materials, the sight and walking lines are also part of our design and advice. With this integrated approach we hope to keep on making many more students, elderly and employees healthier. It works for me! Erna van het Erve Director Studio Kleurmerk

We are very happy to anounce our new Science Advisor: Inge Declercq. Below is a brief summary of her article in the VRT, a Belgian newspaper. Sleep disruption and poor mental health have become a sad and seemingly inevitable part of our lives. The pandemic has duly fulfilled its role in amplifying these serious health issues. About one on five adults take on-prescription hypnotics and anti-depressants, the sale of over-the-counter sleep aids has raised up to 44% last two years, many of those containing melatonin. People seeking for help seem to want the miracle solution, despite of there being little scientific evidence that these drugs as stand-alone treatment have a sustainable effect on solving sleeping problems such as insomnia. The good news is that a solution that is back-up by solid scientific evidence and without side-effects exists! That sleep and mental health invariably come together needs no more debate. The one thing that nourishes this intertwined relationship is light. The right light at the right time, meaning bright light as from the morning and dim light in the evening. Let’s call it “Good Light”. “Good Light” is natural light, or indoor light mimicking natural light as much as possible. Because if your daily situation really hinders your possibility to catch bright daylight, then adapting your indoor light can be part of the solution. Always together with dimming your light exposure as from two hours before you go to bed. Because every time you light up your digital screens in the evening it is as if you take a drug that poisons your sleep and your mental health. Your brain needs the correct light signals that it catches through your eyes, to know when it’s time to activate your daytime energy, to nourish your health and to know when it’s time to sleep. So, do you want to manage your health without taking drugs? It’s simple: manage your light exposure correctly! Inge Declercq, MD, Neurologist, Sleep expert https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/02/07/slaapexpert-over-stijging-verkoop-slaapmiddelen/ https://www.plan.be/publications/article-2079-nl-geestelijke_gezondheid_in_belgie_de_verborgen_kosten_van_covid_19 https://www.goodlightgroup.org/good-light-guide https://www.pelckmansuitgevers.be/slaap-wijzer.html#gref

In 2021, a large group of scientists, clinicians, local governments and societal partners joined forces in the BioClock Consortium to study the biological clock in modern society. The project was funded by a 10 million euros grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the framework of the National Research Agenda (NWA). The consortium aims to tackle three major goals: Firstly, it aims to promote the health of the biological clock across society by developing and implementing lifestyle changes and lighting strategies for work, school and home. Secondly, BioClock aims to improve patient care through the application of chronobiology to clinical practice. It will do so by, amongst others, promoting cyclic conditions for patients in hospitals and develop medications to strengthen the biological clock. At last, BioClock aims to develop sustainable, non-invasive strategies to minimize the negative effects of light pollution on biological clock in nature. A great diversity of organisms will be studied (including plants, insects and fish) and researchers will focus on the lighting conditions that will aid biodiversity. The Good Light Group participates in workpackage 1.1, led by the University of Groningen. This project aims to study the mechanisms of light on our behavior and performance. The ultimate goal is to find light conditions that are optimal for our wellbeing 24 hours a day. The Good Light Group will assist in the research design, and indicate what information is missing to communicate a good and clear message to society, more importantly, that the knowledge is going to be actually used. In the next 6 years, these research goals will be addressed by 25 PhD and Post-doc candidates across 13 universities, research institutes and universities of applied sciences. More information can be found on BioClock Consortium

Thursday the 27th we organized the 3rd participant council meeting which was also the 8th meeting with participants. In this meeting we talked about the future of the Good Light Group, where we are now and how much we have grown as an organisation. One of our participants, Liz, gave a really interesting presentation about ‘how to start a movement’ she explained a lot about movements, what they are, how organisations start a movement and why this is important for the Good Light Group. You can watch both parts of the meeting on YouTube: Activities of the Good Light group All about movements

Professor Linnartz and Ph. D Charikleia Papatsimpa wrote a very interesting article in the latest LED professional Review. Light has an unquestionable effect on human health, physiology, comfort, productivity and mental wellbeing. Light influences our sleep/wake cycle, hormone secretion and subjective alertness and performance. We understand and can predict the effects of light more and more. Photo by ludovic toinel on Unsplash Light gives our biological clock an indication of time. The central biological clock maintains a temporal synchrony between internal periodic cycles and external environment that is thought to enhance overall organismal function and survival. But can we mimic this daylight with artificial lighting? A wealth of insights is available from studies in controlled lab conditions. The non-image forming effects of light on circadian rhythms are even modelled as a set of different equations. This gave a starting point for their research. Future light recipes were tested which allowed the preselection of the optimal light recipe for the individual based on his/her particular needs, responses and sensitivity to light input. Different people have different needs and are exposing to different settings. A lighting recipe designed to make an evening person wake up earlier in the morning is not the same as the lighting recipe for a morning person. It’s proven that light late in the evening and at night delays the circadian wake propensity rhythm, as a result people that are exposed to bright evening light have late spontaneous sleep and wake-up times. For an evening person that effect can be detrimental because they already have a clock that runs at a slower pace and receiving light at the wrong time of the day can shift their sleep schedule even later. This negative effect can to some extent be counteracted by increasing light during the day, especially during the morning. A morning person however should not be receiving light in the early morning, their clock is already in a phase where light delays the clock. They would need a late afternoon light boost. During this research some important lessons were learned: one of those is that the impact of light exposure is a slow and subtle process, the effects of light on the specific users are preferably tracked over longer periods of time. Preferably, one should not aim to drastically shift their circadian phase and sleep cycles. Read the full article here on p. 38

Some say the most depressing day of the year, but why? The third Monday of the year, the New Year's resolutions turn out to be more difficult to keep than expected. It’s cold and dark, and the last months we’ve been mostly indoors. We’ve developed a winter blues and depressed feelings. In this time of the year, we definitely need light indoors that mimics daylight. Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash The best way to avoid a winter depression is by getting enough good light during the day. It’s very healthy to go outside and enjoy the daylight for a couple of hours. But for most people this is not possible.. We developed the 20-20-2 rule, which helps you bringing enough Good Light in your life. Because light is such an essential part of feeling happier, healthier and more energetic. This is what you need to do: If you are inside, measure the light that’s entering your eye with a lux meter app on your phone (the light should be at least 1000 lux during daytime). Make sure you have Good Light while working. Locate your desk within one meter from a window or increase the electric light level to 1000 lux entering your eyes. Live by the 20-20-2 rule. After every 20 minutes of screen time, look at the sky for 20 seconds. Spend at least 2 hours outside every day, preferably in the morning. For more information see our infographic or download our Good Light Guide

In October we were interviewed at the occasion of mental health day. This interview is now online! For mental health it’s important to have significant light levels indoors since we nowadays spend most of our time indoors at work or at home. We have to compensate the lack of daylight indoors by mimicking daylight with artificial lighting or by working or staying close to a window. The intensity should by at least five times higher than we usually get indoors. Daylight is the best light. During the time humankind evolved we lived most of that time outdoors. Even our ancestors, only a couple of 100 years ago did! Light can be an enormous help to prevent getting mental issues and seasonal effected diseases. A way to prevent this is by getting enough Good Light each day. Light triggers your biological clock which makes you feel energetic or sleepy, if you don’t get daylight your biological clock starts running free. After a couple of days without getting sufficient daylight you start having kind of a jet lag feeling which means your quality of sleep is going down and you’re not energetic during the day. The rods and cones in your eyes take care of the vision. There are also spheres as well, which need blueish white light with a higher intensity (melanopic intensity). The more blue the light contains the more the percentage of the melanopic lux increases. If you go outdoors you easily get 50.000 to 100.000 lux in your eyes. Research has proven a minimum of 1000 lux is enough, so make sure you get those 1000 lux in your eyes when you are inside during the day and of course at night it should be dark! You can now watch the full interview here

Our board member Marijke, an expert on Chronobiology, was invited for the Dutch tv show ‘de Slapelozen’, translated it’s called ‘the insomniacs’. They talked about our biological clock which always ticks with a rhythm of approximately 24 hours a day and tells you when it is time to sleep. Some reasons to be unable to sleep are a disrupted clock or not listening to your clock. Your biological clock is not the same as our regular time. The time which you see on your watch is your social clock, which is used to bring order to your day and to make appointments. But your biological clock is telling you when it is appropriate to make these appointments and when it is your biological night and you better go to sleep. The clock reacts to daylight. Light entering the eye not only allows you to see but it is finetuning your biological clock to the natural light dark-cycle. It may signal to the biological clock in your brain that it is running out of phase and should speed up or delay. By synchronizing the rhythms, light has a positive impact on your health and well-being too. That’s why it’s so important to be outside during the day so our eyes can signal the right sign to our brain. Being inside all day is often too dark which results in a disrupted clock which may make you sleepy during the day and sleepless at night. Besides discussions about the biological clock, the TV program also interviewed people who suffer from sleep problems related to the biological clock. Like what to do when you work nightshifts, how to cope with such a demand of working against the biological clock? And what it’s like to live with a delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, the result of a disrupted clock? You can watch the full episode in Dutch here

You can now read all about Katia Kolovea’s 30 days of Good Light experience! Every day she worked with a Good Light Lamp on her desk. The lamp is programmed to mimic sunlight and therefore the light-dark cycle. So it’s very bright during the day and less bright during twilight. Katia will tell you everything about her views on Good Light, the positive and the negative aspects of her experience and the two questions that came to mind during these 30 days. Some of the outcomes and reflections of Katia: A full experience of what Good Light actually is Productivity boost Improvement of her sleep Her eyes were having trouble adapting to the Good Light lamp. Read all about her experience here

We wish you a happy New Year! May the coming year enlighten your life with lots of good light, good sleep, energy, happiness and health! We challenge you to adopt the 20-20-2 rule and feel the difference! Good light is essential for our wellbeing. Especially in the wintertime we spend most of our time indoors. We need light to feel happier, more energetic, healthier and we sleep better with the right light at the right time. It makes sure our biological clock is in sync with the 24-hour day. So, this is what you need to do: If you are inside, measure the light that’s entering your eye with a lux meter app on your phone (the light should be at least 1000 lux during daytime). Make sure you have Good Light while working. Locate your desk within one meter from a window or increase the electric light level to 1000 lux entering your eyes. Live by the 20-20-2 rule. After every 20 minutes of screen time, look at the sky for 20 seconds. Spend at least 2 hours outside every day, preferably in the morning. For more information see our infographic of download our Good Light Guide.

It’s not uncommon to feel a bit down during these cold and short days. You might have the winter blues. But what can you do about this? Psychologist and sleep expert Annelies Smolders talks about this subject in the Belgium tv show ‘Laat’, translated in English it’s called ‘Late’. Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash It’s cold, raining or snowing and the days are short. It’s winter which often comes with a winter depression. Even Mick Jagger suffers from it, since he wears light glasses. These glasses will increase your daily amount of light. It helps because light is XTC for the brain. You wake up, get energy and are happy because of daylight. When daylight enters your eyes, your production of serotonin and cortisol increases. Serotonin is the hormone that makes us happy and cortisol makes us feel energized. If it gets darker your eyes signals to your brain it has to produce melatonin, the sleep hormone. So light is very important for our sleep-wake cycle. The consequences of biological darkness are big! In the winter we spent more time inside, the light inside is often to dark which means that our eyes tell our brain it has to produce melatonin and makes us feel sleepy during the day. So, the winter blues actually is a shortage of light. You’ll feel a bit down and melancholic, you’ll eat more and even your libido will decrease. To get your recommended amount of daylight you’ll have to go outside at least two times a day, each time two hours, preferably in the morning. For most people this is impossible. What also works is moving your desk in front of a window or Good Light lamps. Source VRT Winterdip

We want to let all people know they should enjoy Good Light. So everyone becomes aware about the difference between biological darkness and good light and how “vitamin-L” affects your health. You can now support our message and become our friend! Photo by Helena Lopez for Unsplash You can donate once or monthly and help us spread our message! Let our organization grow. Friends will receive the Good Light Group newsletter on a regular basis and can participate in our public and web events. Let's be friends