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Light isn’t just for seeing — it’s the invisible key to better sleep, sharper thinking, and long-term health. In this webinar for the ASEAN Light + Design Expo 2025 , Jan Denneman shares insights into how light regulates your sleep, energy, alertness, and emotional well-being. Discover the concept of a “light diet” — the right light at the right time — to synchronise your biological clock, improve rest, and boost daytime vitality. Key Takeaways – What You’ll Learn How bright light boosts energy and mental clarity Why dim light in the evening improves sleep quality How to build a “good light diet” — bright days, dim evenings, dark nights Why light is more than illumination — it’s a biological signal

We’ve organised our 22nd Good Light Group meeting, which also served as a council meeting. The topics included: Good Light Group News Review of 2024 Financial overview of 2024 and the 2025 budget Introduction of the 2024 plan Strategic Partnerships  – Roger Sexton Media & Public Engagement  – Marijke Gordijn Impact & Value Creation  – Bruno Smets Future-Proofing the Group  – Dave Hollingsbee Photo by Clement Fusil on Unsplash During the meeting, attendees were invited to answer questions related to these four key topics. Curious about the outcomes or interested in contributing your thoughts?You can watch all parts of the group meeting here: Good Light Group News Media & Public Engagement – Marijke Gordijn Strategic Partnerships – Roger Sexton Impact & Value Creation – Bruno Smets Future-Proofing the Group – Dave Hollingsbee If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us .

Over half (64.9 percent) of young people aged 17 to 23 have problems with sleep, according to the latest statistics released by NHS England . Students are not getting enough sleep, which negatively impacts their physical health, mental clarity, and emotional wellbeing. Photo by Tim Gouw  on Unsplash   Poor sleeping habits, such as a lack of routine or not getting the right amount of sleep, are common, and even normalised, among university students. Sacrificing sleep or sleeping at unconventional times is often accepted as a reasonable way to balance the demands of studying and socialising. Sleep is the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle, affecting everything from physical health to mental clarity and emotional wellbeing. It’s essential for everyone to get the right amount of quality sleep. So, here are some tips for improving your sleep (other than a good mattress): Try to be in daylight as much as possible, at least two hours during the day, especially in the morning. Stay within one meter of a window. After every 20 minutes of screen time, get up and look at the sky for 20 seconds. Install good electric lighting that compensates for the lack of daylight from sunrise to sunset, ensuring you receive at least 500 lux of light in your eyes during the daytime. The light in your room affects sleep, darkness promotes sleepiness. Aim to keep lighting below 10 lux three hours before bedtime by avoiding bright lights and setting your screens to night mode. Eat a balanced diet, stay hydrated, eat meals at consistent times and avoid meals within three hours of bedtime. Aim for at least 2.5 hours of moderate physical and mental activity weekly. Relax in the evening and avoid intense activities 1.5 hours before bed. The optimum room temperature for sleeping is between 16°C and 20°C. Depending on the season, you might need a fan or a thicker duvet*. A wind-down routine is important. Taking time to relax and ‘switch off’ from the day can vary from person to person. Caffeine is best avoided later in the day, depending on when you plan to sleep. Alcohol also impacts sleep. While it might help you fall asleep initially, the quality of your sleep will be poorer.  * Sleep Foundation

We are happy to be part of the Light for Public Health Initiative. It truly supports our vision and reinforces our message about evidence-based public health communication on the non-visual effects of ocular light exposure. Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash Light is a powerful signal for the body, influencing our circadian rhythms, sleep, mood, and cognitive performance. It’s not just about how bright the light is, timing and type also matter. The right light at the right time. Daylight in the morning and during the day – or electrc light that compensates for the lack of daylight - supports various aspects of health, while exposure to light at night can be disruptive. Managing light exposure is part of a healthy lifestyle, just like diet, exercise, and sleep hygiene. Together with the major institutions Center for Environmental Therapeutics , Cie , DLA , Good Light Group  and SLRCH , we hope to spread this message more widely and raise awareness of how important good lighting is for sleep, health, and overall wellbeing. More information

Lux is just a fancy way of measuring how bright light is. The more lux, the brighter the light. For a well-functioning biological clock, it is important to measure the lux levels entering the human eye. Here are some examples to make it super clear: Outdoors When it's a full moon = you get 1 lux in your eyes On a cloudy day, you will get already a few thousand lux On a sunny day, the lux levels are between 10,000 and 100,000 lux Indoors The lux levels are much lower. It is difficult to reach a couple of 100 lux A bright office: you get only 50-150 lux in your eyes A cozy living room in the evening: 20-100 lux Why should you care about lux? Light isn’t just about seeing things. Light affects your energy, mood, sleep, and health. Getting the right amount of light at the right times can help you feel more awake during the day and sleep better at night. And the lux level reaching your eyes is important! So, hold the sensor of your lux meter, or the camera of the phone if you use a light meter app, close to your eyes.   Here’s how to use lux to feel your best: 1. During the day: Get at least 500 lux in your eyes.Your body needs bright light during the day to feel alert and happy. If you're inside, make sure the light around you is at least 500 lux. Sitting near a window helps a lot! Goal: Stay within one meter of a window for the best natural light.   2. Go outside! Aim for at least two hours during the day The best light comes from the sky. Even on a cloudy day, being outdoors gives you 1,000–10,000+ lux, way more than inside. Goal: Spend at least two hours outside every day to soak in that natural brightness.   3. Avoid bright light before bed Bright light in the evening can confuse your body and make it harder to fall asleep. Goal: Three hours before bed, keep lights low, below 10 lux. Use lamps, avoid bright screens, or turn on night mode on your devices.   4. Take screen breaks for your eyes Staring at screens all day? Give your eyes a mini vacation. Goal: Every 20 minutes, stand up, walk to a window and look at the sky for 20 seconds. It helps your eyes relax and boosts your mood too!   5. No window? Get good electric light If you’re stuck indoors with little daylight, consider getting good electric light that compensates for the lack of daylight from sunrise to sunset. Goal: make sure your light gives you at least 500 lux in your eyes. Special daylight lamps can help.   How to measure it? You don’t need to be a scientist to check your light levels. Easy ways to measure lux: Use a Lux Meter App: Many smartphones can measure lux with a free app (just search for "lux meter" in your app store). These use your phone’s light sensor to estimate the brightness around you. Be aware that most apps are not very precise and often tend to be overly optimistic. Buy a lux meter device: You can also get a small lux meter tool online. It’s super simple to use, just point it toward the light source and it tells you the lux level. Available from €30,- Tip: When checking lux for your health, measure the light reaching your eyes, not just the room. Hold the lux meter or phone near your eyes, pointing at the light source.   Light is powerful, and lux is your guide to using it wisely. Remember: Bright light (500+ lux) during the day = More energy Dim light (under 10 lux) before bed = Better sleep Natural light = The best kind of light Simple changes with light can make a big difference. Try it out and see how you feel!   Want to know more about light? Read our blog about light spectrum, the different colours of light

I’m thrilled to join the Good Light Group as a Science Advisor, inspired by a deep passion for advancing human-centric lighting solutions. Throughout my career, I’ve focused on researching and implementing lighting designs that support human well-being, and I’m excited to contribute to the Group’s mission of bringing science based lighting into everyday life. Photo by Chris Liverani  on Unsplash What excites me most is the opportunity to collaborate with a like minded team dedicated to improving quality of life through innovative lighting. The Good Light Group’s commitment to scientific rigor aligns seamlessly with my background in human-centric lighting design, smart connected systems, and expertise in standards such as CIE, EN, WELL, and LEED. Together, we aim to transform indoor environments into healthier, more productive spaces through thoughtful lighting strategies. I look forward to sharing knowledge, sparking meaningful conversations, and helping drive positive change empowering people to thrive under the right light. Sevda Aliparast

We are happy to annouce that the BDA (Biophilic Design Academy) is joining us! Photo by Maia Habegger  on Unsplash Many designers instinctively know that nature works. But how do you intentionally design for wellbeing, connection, and health? How do you translate scientific insights into tangible design choices? And how to bring clients along in that process? The Biophilic Design Academy was created for designers, architects, and interior architects who want more than just aesthetics — those who aim to design with real impact. BDA offers knowledge, tools, and a community to truly understand and apply biophilic design. From sensory design to systems thinking, from well-founded arguments to creative tools for your own projects. BDA helps create environments where people genuinely feel good. Spaces that are not only beautiful but meaningful — and in harmony with nature. More info

April. 2025; Jakob Zeihlund, The Danish Road Lighting Group &    Joachim Stormly Hansen, GLG Science Advisor and Ocutune. Good light during the evening and night is very important. Aim to keep lighting below 10 lux three hours before bedtime by avoiding bright lights! See our 4 steps to good light. In December 2024, the new and updated version of the Danish Road Lighting Handbook was published. This handbook is one of the most used Danish standards to meet the Danish Road Lighting Guidelines, and is heavily adopted within state roads, municipalities and road infrastructure. In May 2024, the Danish Road Directorate published the report “The Impact of Lighting on Animals, Plants, and Humans.”  This report, along with international publications, has since formed the basis for the measures the Danish Road Directorate has incorporated into the recently updated road lighting handbook (standard). So what’s new? – the handbook, among others, introduces three new terms and concepts concerning light pollution, good light and biodiversity. These also aim to align with recommendations such as Good Light Recommendations for light, and Human responses to light on the circadian system, and other brain targets of ipRGCs, sometimes referred to as ipRGC-influenced responses to light (IIL responses) (CIE, 2018 and CIE TN 015:2023). These new terms are:   Environmental Zones  G-index  mDER (Melanopic Daylight Efficacy Ratio)   The environmental zones are adopted through the CIE 150:2003 Guide on ‘the Limitation of the Effects of Obtrusive Light from Outdoor Lighting Installations’. The purpose of this Guide is to help formulate guidelines for assessing the environmental impacts of outdoor lighting and is also adopted in the new CIE standard EN 12464-2 for outdoor workplaces.    It outlines five environmental zones to establish a basis for outdoor lighting regulations. The aim is to reduce the overall light pollution by helping to limit, or in some cases eliminate, light pollution and its consequences. These zones range from E0 (Darkness, Dark Sky and biodiversity rich areas) – E4 (e.g. A city centre). They describe the various lighting environments and the surrounding context to a given site. Defining the environmental zones helps guide the designer into defining the maximum and minimum permissible levels to avoid obtrusive light and mitigate light pollution. For each environmental zone it is recommended to make use of mDER for used light sources, the abbreviation of Melanopic Daylight Efficacy Ratio, which is defined by the CIE and introduced in the CIE S 026/E:2018  document. mDER shows the ratio of the amount of light in the range of melanopsin sensitivity (mEDI, using a ref. D65 light source ) to the amount of photopic lux, the range of visual sensitivity. The other recommendations are to make use of a lower mDER ratio at night from 0.30-0.35, using the estimations of CIE TN 015:2023.       Further to this, the G-Index is also introduced. We know that short-wavelength light if emitted and/or reflected to the sky, can allow for more Rayleigh scattering, which can potentially lead to more skyglow and light pollution. The spectral G-Index  is a variable that was developed to quantify the amount of short wavelength light below 500 nm in a visible light source relative to its visible emission. The smaller the G-index, the more blue light a lamp emits relative to its total output. It is used in order to select outdoor lamps that minimise skyglow and ecological light pollution. The Spectral G-index was developed to get insight into the amount of short-wavelength light compared to the rest of the visual spectrum, with a guideline of minimum 1.5 for areas with a focus on Biodiversity. As such i n their "core criteria", to mitigate light pollution, it is recommended that "in parks and areas considered by the lighting designer  to be ecologically sensitive, the G-index shall be ≥1.5". For regular light sources, as a ‘rule of thumb’, this corresponds to an LED with a colour temperature of around 3000K and lower, which is also recommended by the Dark-sky association. The introduced efforts seek to provide sustainable outdoor and road lighting which ensures user safety, as well as mitigating skyglow, providing access to the night sky and protect biodiversity, and to open up the discussions on this important field within outdoor lighting. The full text can be accessed through the Danish Road Lighting Authorities:   Picture 1 Road lighting Handbook with the new updates - Vejbelysning    Picture 2 the Danish Road Directorate published the report “The Impact of Lighting on Animals, Plants, and Humans.” - Belysningens indvirkning på dyr, planter og mennesker

Willie Duggan Lighting is passionate about the transformative power of light—not just in shaping spaces, but in supporting human health and well-being. That’s why they’ve joined our group.   Indoor lighting should do more than simply illuminate; it should work in harmony with our natural rhythms, supporting rather than disrupting human biology. We are delighted that the like-minded professional organisation Willie Duggan Lighting is joining our group. Photo by Nick Abrams  on Unsplash Together, we can raise greater awareness. Through collaboration with lighting professionals, manufacturers, designers, and health experts, Willie Duggan Lighting aims to drive innovation and develop solutions that enhance well-being in indoor environments.   Their mission—to push the boundaries of lighting design and promote a more holistic, balanced approach to artificial lighting—aligns perfectly with ours. We believe that by working together, Willie Duggan Lighting can expand the range of options available to both professionals and the public, ultimately helping to create healthier, more human-centred spaces.

We're waking up an hour earlier throughout the summer because the clocks have gone forward – our bodies really don’t like it. Many people struggle with the change for days, sometimes even weeks. Yes, it does mean an extra hour of daylight in the evening, but that late light can actually make it harder for our bodies to wind down. When it's time to sleep, we're simply not ready for a deep, restful night. As a result, we sleep poorly and wake up feeling groggy. So, it’s time to end daylight saving time! It serves no real purpose and only disrupts everyone’s sleep.

Have you ever wondered why the sky looks blue, why sunsets are orange and pink, or why some indoor lights just feel … wrong? Let’s take a trip into the world of light! What is light, really? Light might look white to our eyes, but it’s actually a rainbow in disguise. White light is made up of many different colours, which together form the light spectrum. Think Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. You’ve probably seen this in action when light passes through a prism or in a rainbow when it’s raining and the sun shines at the same time. Each colour in the spectrum has a different wavelength: Red light = long wavelength Blue/violet light = short wavelength Photo by Zdenek Machacek on Unsplash     But why does the sky look blue (And not rainbow)? When sunlight hits the Earth’s atmosphere, it bumps into tiny molecules in the air. These molecules scatter the light, but they don’t scatter all colours equally. Shorter wavelengths like blue get scattered much more than the others. That’s why the sky looks blue during the day!   Why are sunsets and sunrises orange and red? At sunset (or sunrise), the sun is lower in the sky, so its light has to pass through more air to reach your eyes. By the time it gets to you, most of the blue light has already been scattered away. What’s left? The reds, oranges, and pinks. Which makes those beautiful sunset and sunrise magic!   Daylight vs. bad electric light Not all electric lights are created equal! Only high-quality daylight lamps are designed to have the right light intensity and spectrum that compensates for the lack of daylight from sunrise to sunset.   Daylight (the gold standard) Full of all the colours of the spectrum. Feels natural and comfortable to our eyes. Helps regulate our body clock (circadian rhythm) because of the change of colours and intensity throughout the day. Boosts mood and energy and helps you focus and improves sleep which is very important for your health!   Bad electric lighting Most of the lights miss parts of the spectrum or have the wrong intensities of certain colours. They might have a weird yellow or bluish tint, and sometimes flicker, which you may not notice, but your eyes and brain do. Can cause eye strain, headaches, and make everything look kind of dull or unnatural. It can disrupt your circadian rhythm if you spend too much time during the day under electric lighting, which causes sleep problems and negatively affects your health and mood.   Why daylight is so important for your health Since the beginning of human existence, our bodies have been completely programmed by daylight. The natural cycle of the sun rising and setting tells us when to wake up, when to be active, and when to rest. Daylight’s full spectrum of light helps keep our body clock, also known as the circadian rhythm, running smoothly. But today, we spend more and more time indoors, under electric lighting that isn’t good enough. Many indoor lights don’t give us the full spectrum and intensity of light our bodies needs during daytime. And in the evenings, the light intensities are often much too high. That’s why electric lighting can mess with your sleep, mood, health, and energy.

On March 11th, the Good Light Group held its 6th Strategy Day, was an inspiring and energising meeting, featuring both constructive and engaging discussions. The day was filled with constructive discussions, valuable insights, and a shared commitment to driving positive change. During the wrap-up, the group identified four key focus areas that will guide the group’s efforts moving forward: Strategic Partnerships:  Collaborating with like-minded organisations to amplify the group’s message and expand its reach. Media & Public Engagement:  Leveraging (social) media and public-facing initiatives to enhance involvement and awareness. Impact & Value Creation:  Transitioning from storytelling to demonstrating tangible economic benefits. Future-Proofing the Group:  Ensuring long-term sustainability by securing financial and human resources. This strategic roadmap underscores the Good Light Group’s commitment to growth, impact, and lasting change. With renewed energy and a clear direction,we are ready to take the next steps toward a future where good light benefits everyone. What’s Next? In the coming weeks, the Board will refine action plans with input from our Science Advisors, Participants, and Partners. We will keep you updated on this process and welcome your contributions and ideas. If you would like to be involved in shaping the next steps, please reach out, your support makes a difference!