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The first deLIGHTed talks webinar ‘good life – good light’ was a great success! Almost 200 attendees listened to the free webinar about how good light indoors contributes to health and well-being. Four light professionals were invited to talk about good light and how it affects your well-being. They explained several topics regarding good light: The difference between daylight and electric light. The effect on your sleep- wake cycle, biological clock, and mental health. How exercise, good meals and social interactions are as important. The decrease of myopia when exposed to outdoor light. Recommendations for the right amount of light during the day. How to reset your biological clock when it is disturbed. How light therapy is beneficial for people with a bipolar disorder. The realization of a primary school with good light in every room. Watch the lectures here: ​ Good Light for Healthy, Daytime-Active People | Good Light Group by Annette STEINBUSCH, MSc. S&R Manager Light Quality at Signify, The Netherlands Case Study of a School Project | IALD by Julia HARTMANN, Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Interior Design, IALD, CLD CEO and Creative Director at lightsphere, Switzerland Relevance of Daylight for Humans | DLA by Mirjam MÜNCH, Dr. Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University Wellington, New Zealand Case Study of a School Project | IALD by Julia HARTMANN, Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Interior Design, IALD, CLD CEO and Creative Director at lightsphere, Switzerland Want to read about our recommendations? Get our Good Light Guide, which contains a lot of information about good light. We look forward to the next delighted talks webinar!

You can experience good light now at Martinspark hotel. The M HAUS in the video is the first one built providing a light package which can be equipped with a “light shower” which is 1840 MEDI lux at the eye. Xchange designed it to have a positive effect on the biological clock, as for they do not know any other product in this category that offers more lux or a better solution. Watch the video: The light package was developed with Bartenbach, a company which is known for their expertise. There are different scenarios programmed in M HAUS that can run fully automatic in which it can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the user, or the user can control the colour and light intensity him/herself. Their message: wake up work relax be happy! More info: Good Light Experience Martinspark

We´ve been invited to talk in the podcast ´Get A Grip On Lighting´ to argue about the subject quality darkness is essential to good sleep. We contend that good light during the day is also essential to our circadian rhythm for a good night’s sleep. Get A Grip On Lighting is hosted by Michael Colligan and Greg Ehrich, who have over 30 years of combined experience in the lighting industry. The podcasts feature deep conversations with many industry experts to highlight some of the more pressing questions of today. We discussed that the lighting industry focused too much on energy savings and that they should focus more on providing ´good´ light during daytime which means healthy light, light that mimics the sun, and provide darkness during night-time. But also, what light does to our circadian system, since we are the only species that live inside and the kind of health issues we suffer from because of this. There was even a bet for a beer, Michael claims: ´Withing 10 years there will be scientific proof that sunglasses cause major health issues in humans´. Listen to the podcast here

Watts ON is a Belgium based company specialized in workplace lighting. Their intention is to shift the focus from mainly energy efficiency to the health and well-being that good light can bring to the people working indoors. “Lighting is a neglected element if it comes to the quality and pleasure of working in an indoor environment”, says Lard Vanobbergen, the CEO, in this case the Chief Energy Officer. Lard is on its way to become an authority about the health effects of lighting, and that is the main reason for him and his company to join the Good Light Group as Participant. We will all very much benefit from Lard’s insights. Welcome to the Group! More: Relighting by ON | Watts ON

Today, 7 April 2021, it is the World Health Day, organized by the WHO. The theme this year: building a fairer, healthier world. To support your health, make sure that you get good light. Daily good light regulates your day-night rhythm and has a positive effect on your immune system, helpful to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo by Holly Mandarich on Unsplash We spend 90% of our lives indoors, deprived from natural daylight. This negatively impacts our bodies, minds, sleep, mood, performance and immune system. It may seem unnatural but when the light indoors is good enough to see well, it is still not good for your health. In most cases the power of the light indoors is insufficient to properly regulate the day-night rhythm. The consequence of this is that many people don't sleep well, aren't energetic during the day and suffer from mood swings. The lack of light has a negative impact on health. Make sure you are outdoors for a good time every day, especially in the morning, and get your dose of daylight. If that is not possible, sit inside close to the window and make sure that your workplace is brightly lit. Approximately five times brighter than the current practice. And make sure that you dim your lights in the evening, so that your body prepares for a good sleep. Are you already aware how good light helps improving your health? Read more here

Changing the clock with one hour in order to make better use of natural daylight in the evening is not helpful for sleep and health. Photo by © Myrthe Effing for the newspaper AD For 1,6 billion people in more than 70 countries the time will shift this weekend (or very soon) to daylight saving time (DST), or like most of us call it, to “Summertime”. This means that sunrise and sunset are one hour later. We finally can enjoy the extra hour of daylight in the evening but unfortunately it is not healthy. Most people have an indoor job and are deprived from natural daylight during the day. The first daylight many people will get is in the evening, relatively short before bedtime. The circadian rhythm is confused and our body is not ready for the night. This negatively impacts our bodies, minds, sleep, mood, performance and hurts our health. These days newspapers report a lot about the effects of daylight saving time. Like this interview in the AD. The Good Light Group is in favour of sticking to the standard time and is part of the International Alliance for Natural Time. Good Light means intense light during the day and dimmed in the evening and night. Sticking the whole year with the standard time is the best.

Many people often ask us for references to scientific studies and articles that explain the beneficial effects of good light on health and well-being of humans. There are hundreds of articles and publications about this theme. In order to get a quick overview, we recommend the following two review articles. Photo by Matias North on Unsplash Our colleagues of the Daylight Academy, published in 2017 a supplement to Science: “Changing perspectives on daylight: Science, technology and culture”. It gives a comprehensive and worthwhile overview of the diverse aspects of daylight. Especially Chapter 3: “The effect of light on humans” gives a concise and clear overview of how light influences our circadian rhythm. In a recent news post we already paid attention to the consensus recommendations of 18 renowned scientists, who published: “Recommendations for Healthy Daytime, Evening, and Night-Time Indoor Light Exposure”. Both articles explain what good light is, how it works and what the benefits are. If you still want to know more about good light, feel free to contact us.

Our chairman Jan Denneman was asked to write an article about the nonvisual effects of light for the magazine LED professional Review (LpR). Why have indoor lighting practices not evolved with scientific insight? Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash Good Light is as Important as Good Food and Good Air. Scientific studies make very clear that good light is crucial for our health and well-being. More than five billion people spend their lives indoors where lighting levels are often too low and too static to have any positive impact on the human circadian clock. Light that is good for visual tasks is most often not good enough. Want to know more about good light? Read the full article here: Good Light is as Important as Good Food and Good Air Or visit our Good Light page for more information.

We are happy to welcome our new Participant BrainLit. This Swedish health tech company has the mission of improving life with BioCentric Lighting™, a truly mobile and personalized light. BrainLit’s BioCentric Lighting™ system creates personalized circadian lighting environments, with proper variations of light intensity and colour at the right time of the day, to improve individual health and well-being. BrainLit most certainly supports the objectives of the Good Light Group. The light instantly alters the emotional character of its environment and delivers a more natural light to its user. Regardless of the industry you are working in, it helps synchronize your daylight needs and supports beneficial health outcomes such as production of the necessary hormones (e.g., cortisol and melatonin) to keep your body system in balance. For more information, see: www.brainlit.com

Our Group promotes good light, which makes people healthy and happy. Good Light is the right light at the right time. Good light is natural light or electric lighting with comparable beneficial effects on our lives as natural daylight. Being outdoors is the best remedy. Indoors, the light is usually good enough to see but in most cases not good enough to positively influence our biological clock, sleep and mood. Many people have asked for more guidance on good light. With a group of Participants, especially those with a scientific background in the fields of chronobiology, sleep, and lighting, we have composed a practical guide with recommendations for people that are active during the day. Of course, natural daylight is always best, but also needs some precautions. To realize good light indoors requires a few principles. We describe good light in four dimensions: attractive, dynamic, optimized and personal. In the guide we give direction to how to design your lighting indoors. Good luck, and please share your experiences. For more information: Good Light Guide | Home | Good Light Group | Foundation

A good biorhythm is very important for well-being and health. Our biological clock is disrupted because the natural day-night rhythm of light and dark is under severe pressure in modern society. Circadian rhythm disturbance has been associated with a variety of diseases and conditions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, sleep disorders, depression and cancer. The activity of the immune system is also subject to a day-night rhythm. The question is whether these correlations have a causal relationship, and - more importantly - whether the effects can be influenced by light exposure. In other words: can light be used as a medicine? The importance of sufficient daylight for well-being and health is explicitly brought to the attention by various organizations, including the Good Light Group. Also evidence is given that light has a beneficial effect on well-being in the treatment of some forms of depression with light therapy. The question is whether “photoceuticals” are just as good or perhaps better than “pharmaceuticals” for some conditions. Is it conceivable that light therapy is incorporated in the treatment modalities of obesity and cancer? And can the immune system be influenced by light? Intriguing questions, which in turn require thorough scientific research. Scientists from different disciplines have joined forces in the BioClock Consortium to answer these questions. The Good Light Group is one of the partners within this partnership. How do we keep our biological clock healthy? That question recently resulted in a subsidy of € 9.7 million for the consortium. It is one of the projects that receive funding within the National Science Agenda (NWA) program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), for which the public was invited to submit questions to be addressed by the scientists. That will probably result in great answers. Aart Mudde, internist-endocrinologist, mental health doctor and trainer-coach at “Soepel Samenwerken”.

Ciluz recently became our new partner. They want to promote the knowledge and importance of light in human development, to stimulate the use of Good Light. Which is similar to our mission! “The light is present in every moment of our lives. It is responsible for the biological cycles of all natural life. Adequate light generates health and well-being.” Ciluz is a light and energy research center located in Chile which wants to bring light and energy to all people. Their activities: Educate people about the efficient use of light and energy for healthcare and the environment. Development of applied research projects on the effects of light on health, the environment and cities. Representment of the society in the review and update of lighting regulations. They offer all kinds of different courses, workshops and educational experiences focused on the different areas of lighting and energy. For more information visit: Ciluz.cl