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Published in spring in English, the comic book Enlighten your clock: How your body tells time is now available in 21 languages! It explains how light not only affects plants or animals but also our bodies. How we need light to produce sleeping hormones or wake up and feel energized. It was celebrated with an online event, hosted by the Daylight Academy. During this event Daniel Smith shared his views about sleep, light and mental health in teenagers. You can watch it now online. You can download the comic book in these languages: আলোকিত হোক দেহঘড়ি (Bangla) Descobrindo seu relogio biológico (Brazilian Portuguese) Il·lumina el teu rellotge (Catalan) 了解你的生物钟 (Chinese) Kast lys på dit indre ur (Danish) Verlicht je klok (Dutch) De la lumière sur votre horloge biologique (French) Un reloxo con moitas luces (Galician) Unsere innere Uhr (German) Διαφώτισε το ρολόι σου (Greek) अपनी सर्केडियन घड़ी को प्रबुद्ध /सचेत करें (Hindi) おしゃべりなネコに学ぶ (Japanese) Apšviesk savo laikrodį (Lithuanian) Opplys klokken din (Norwegian) ساعت بدن خودت رو کوک کن! (Persian) Ilumina o teu relógio (Portuguese) Просвети свои часы (Russian) Hágase la luz... en tu reloj interno (Spanish) Kroppens egen klocka (Swedish)

In this webinar, organized on October 14th by Reliable Lighting, our board members Jan and Marijke will tell you everything you need to know about how light affects everything from Mood to productivity and sleep. So, if you're an Interior Designer, Electrician, Architect or anyone else who makes decisions about people and places, this webinar is for you. Things that are covered: What is Good Light, and why do we need it? How does light affect our physical and mental health? What can we do to bring good light into our spaces? Watch the webinar here

Join the Good Light - Good Life 2nd edition webinar and listen to the explanation of the negative effects of daylight savings time and how to cope with the dark period of the year. After the lectures you can join the panel discussion to discuss all aspects of clocks and time and the trending topic 'daylight saving time'. Together with the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR), the Daylight Academy (DLA), the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), and Luger Research (LR), we are organizing and presenting the “Good Light – Good Life” lectures. Visit our event page for more information

Anne, a freelance marketing consultant, participated in the ‘30 days Good Light experience’ with a simple solution to create Good Light at her workspace. This solution consists of two flexible desk luminaires each with a smart bulb with high lumen output (more than 1500 lumen) that can be varied in intensity and light colour. You can control the smart bulbs with an App on your phone or tablet. The App has a circadian rhythm option (day/night rhythm), so the light mimics daylight and changes every hour. If you are interested in more details of this simple good light solution, send us an email at info@goodlightgroup.org Anne installed the lights at her home office. She always thought her home office had plenty of light, she has a window behind and next to her, but the lux meter (a measuring app for light) showed it was way less than the daily light requirement. After the 30 days experience she really doesn’t want to work without this good light solution anymore. “Now I notice the amount of light I was getting before the experience was not enough and this new set-up is much more comfortable for my eyes. I don’t squeeze my eyes since I’ve installed the lamps, which is less tiring. Maybe it even delays wrinkles, since I don’t squeeze my eyes all the time. I’ve noticed that I’m very tired at 22.00/23.00hr so I go to bed earlier than before but wake up at 7.30 without alarm and with way more energy. It might even have improved my mood, maybe it’s because of my improved energy level. Before I used those lamps, I was a bit cranky and negative and now I feel like myself again.” She will continue to use this set-up, so she can enjoy the ’30 days’ Good Light experience for as long as she wants, so not a 30 days experience for her but a lifetime Good Light experience. A short list of her experienced advantages: - Improved energy, less tired during the day. - Improved focus at work. - Less squeezing with her eyes. - More regular sleep pattern - It might even have improved her mood. Do you want to participate too? Please contact us for further information

The amazing Katia is a lighting designer who puts her heart and soul into her job. She is the founder of ‘the lighting police’ and curator of ‘woman in lighting’. She started the Good Light experience on July 13th, so she is on to her second week now. “Goes very smoothly so far. Eye adaptability is much better since day 1” according to Katia. She received the light ‘Alven’ from BrainLit. It has a personal connected, dynamic and free-standing LED luminaire-powered BioCentric Lighting™ system. It instantly alters the emotional character of its environment and delivers a more natural light to its user. Alven helps synchronize with daylight and supports beneficial health outcomes. Visit and follow her Instagram for an update of her experience. Katia Kolovea

The journalist Jeroen Kreule was the first person who participated in our 30 days good light experience. We provided him with a lamp from our Participant Sparckel designed for use on a desk, so perfect for a home office. He wrote an article about his experience in last Saturdays newspaper AD with a very wide reach. Jeroen Kreule freelance journalist. © Jean-Pierre Jans We started the challenge to bring the positive effects of good light under attention. Since most people are not aware of the fact they need good light, we want to let people experience it. Jeroen Kreule was our first participant and just finished his 30 days of good light. He was very positive about how good light exposure affected him. He sleeps better, he is happier and has a better mood. In his article he tells his personal story and he interviewed Jan Denneman for more background information. More information about the 30 days experience Read the full article

Around the year 2010 LEDs became the lighting industry’s main light source. The trigger for this transition was energy saving. Their introduction was one of many enormous contributions from the lighting industry to fight global warming. Lighting systems became an integral part of smart buildings and sometimes even the backbone. This enabled several additional features like connectivity, LiFi, presence detection, indoor positioning, asset tracking and management, information about the use of buildings or streets, etc. This is the first LED revolution and it’s in full swing. Illustrations by Anne Vermeltfoort The second LED revolution is the introduction of ‘good light’. This will be even more impactful because it affects the billions of people that have to live and work inside. We spend more than 90% of our lives indoors where we are to a large extent deprived of natural daylight. Science is very clear about this: we need daylight to synchronise our biological clock. Lack of exposure to daylight causes poor quality sleep which can make us unfit and subject to mood swings. The second LED revolution is focussed on health and wellbeing. People need daylight. The lack of natural daylight in buildings can be compensated with Personal Good Light. This will make the lives of billions of people healthier. It will bring them better sleep, more energy during the day and an improved mood. Upgrading the current ambient lighting systems and adding Personal Good Light is an obvious way to go to improve the life quality of billions! Join the movement of Good Light. Here you can read the full article And here you can read the full magazine

We created a project page, here you can find places where they have installed Good Light. You can read about experiences, where to visit these places and about the supplier. For example the Good Light Project: NatureConnect by Signify. The NatureConnect lighting innovation by Signify is built on the visual, biological and emotional benefits of natural light to reconnect us to the outside world. It mimics the natural patterns of daylight indoors to create rich and meaningful lighting solutions for comfortable, engaging and attractive indoor environments that support wellbeing. The NatureConnect system contains different lighting elements that all have their own role to collectively create natural lighting experience. It provides the right light at the right moment during the day by automatically following the rhythm of the sun. With the intuitive wireless user interface, the end-user can switch from the circadian rhythm to a lighting scene best suited for the activity in the space. The project page will be regularly updated with all kinds of new projects, so stay tuned and visit the page often. Visit our projectpage

Our board member Marijke Gordijn was a late night guest in the Dutch NPO radio 1 show ‘de Slapelozen’ translated ‘the Insomniacs’. The theme of this night was ‘rhythm’. Together with the host ‘Frits Spits’ and photographer ‘Mischa Keijser’, she talked about light, darkness, melatonin, sleep-wake rhythms, light pollution at night, photography, music, art and the silence of the night. The radio show is especially created for everyone who can’t or doesn’t not want to sleep during the night and is broadcasted for five nights in a row from 02.00 till 04.00 a.m. In a season of five episodes a sleep expert, behavioural therapist or psychologist is a guest in this show, people can call the show to talk about their sleep problems and can ask for advice. The radio program will be followed by a television program in November 2021. Listen to the broadcast: First hour Second hour

Back in 2016 the community of Würlingen, Switzerland detected the need for additional classrooms. The number of children was expected to rise significantly. So they wanted to build four additional primary school departments, two kindergarten departments and one double gymnasium. The architects who created this building collected all information regarding solar position and designed the classrooms in a way they don’t block daylight impact unlike most classrooms. They managed to create a feeling of openness and closeness at the same time, they play with daylight and artificial light in such a way you think there is only daylight coming in. For more information watch the presentation of Julia Hartmann, Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Interior Design, IALD, CLD CEO and Creative Director at lightsphere, Switzerland Watch here

Mr. C. Ticleanu recently published an interesting overview article about the research of the impacts of home lighting on human health. A combination of bright light and night-time darkness is essential for our circadian rhythm and maintenance of a regular daily sleep-wake cycle. Home lighting is mainly developed for our vision, to enable safe movement between spaces, a sense of aesthetics and energy efficiency but how it affects our health has not received similar consideration. Photo by Josh Hemsley on Unsplash His conclusions are in line with the Good Light Guide which has recently been published by our Group. Some of his recommendations to maximise health benefits are: Spend as much time outdoors as possible. When indoors, occupy rooms that have outside views and receive daylight. When necessary, supplement insufficient daylight with electric lighting to achieve adequate light levels on the task areas and at the eyes. When using electric lighting, ensure it is brighter and has a cooler white colour appearance from mid-morning until early afternoon, towards the end of the day dim it down and set it to warmer white colour. After sunset do not use blue or near blue colours. Reduce the use of display screen equipment after sunset. At bedtime, switch off all light sources and close blinds to avoid any light ingress from outside. C. Ticleanu worked ten years in lighting design and research. Now he leads the Lighting Fundamentals module at The Barlett and works as a Principal Consultant in Lighting for BRE, where he leads and undertakes consultancy and research projects for public and private sector customers into all aspects of electric lighting and daylighting. His areas of expertise include: energy efficient lighting; lighting impacts on well-being and performance; lighting surveys and optimisation; POE studies; light pollution; computer modelling of daylight and electric light; and delivering presentations and training on lighting. Read the article here

We need time to indicate when we need to get up, go to work or to an appointment. This is our social time, the time you see on your watch or clock. We can adjust this social time easily to the time we want it to be, but that doesn’t affect our bodies, for example when we feel tired or energized. Our bodies have an internal clock, a biological clock, to indicate the time of the day. This clock needs light to synchronize with the natural light-dark cycle. The sun is at it’s highest at 12.00, this is the time you feel most energized and around twilight hours you begin to feel more tired, this is because your internal clock signals to your body it’s going to be dark soon and needs to produce the sleeping hormone melatonin. This is the function of our biological clock, to anticipate the predictive 24-hour pattern of our environment. Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash What if there is no light? This is the situation when you are inside all day. The light levels indoors are too low during daytime and too high in the evening to set our biological clock effectively. Your sleep/wake cycle would go from 24 hours to a 24 hours and about 15 minutes cycle. Your body can’t synchronize with the environment; the timing of when you are actually ready for sleep shifts day by day. Scientists compare this with living with a permanent jetlag and you could risk depression and insomnia.