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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

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

On invitation of the United Arab Emirates division of the international organization Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), Jan Denneman presented the webinar “Good light indoors makes people healthy and happy” on 21 January 2021. The main topics of the webinar are: People need daily good light, like good food and good air, for their well-being. Good light is the most forgotten factor in the design of buildings: the light in buildings is currently wrong for health and well-being of users in the building. The problems of billions of people, who spend their lives in biological darkness. Discovery in 2002 and Nobel prize in 2017: “spheres” (ipRGCs) in the retinae of the eye trigger the synchronisation of the biological clock. What is Good Light? The intensity of the light in buildings needs to be at least 5 times higher than current indoor lighting practice. The history of focus in building design: low cost – sustainability – healthy buildings. How Good Light increases the health and well-being of people in buildings. You can now watch a recorded version of the webinar on: CIBSE UAE Good Light Indoors Makes People Healthy and Happy

Good light contributes to a good performance. Especially in sports, athletes benefit from the positive influence that light has on mental and physical conditions. The Nationale Sport Vakbeurs wrote an article about how light affects us in sports. The Good Light Group contributed with a spoken article. As they call it: Light, a legal and easy performance booster. Photo by Kate Trifo on Unsplash Light indoors often contributes to a pleasant atmosphere but your eyes interpreted it like biological darkness. The light indoors is far too weak compared to the intense light you get when you would be outside, ‘good light’. Good light has a positive influence on your circadian system, which controls your vitality, fatigue, mood, and mental health. Therefore, it’s important to mimic the outdoor light indoors, especially for sportsmen and sportswomen. If you want to be in the best shape, makes sure you train in good light. This can be done by training a couple of hours in natural daylight. If that is not possible, make sure you train indoors as close as possible to the window in order to get enough natural daylight. Or make sure that the electric light fulfils the requirements of good light and is strong enough to have a positive effect on your biological clock. More information: what is good light Click here for the article

We welcome Center for Environmental Therapeutics (CET) as our new partner. CET is paving the way for educating about natural, scientifically based remedies to address mental health issues such as depression, insomnia and fatigue, primarily using light therapy. The use of good light is critical for treatment of circadian rhythm mood and sleep disorders. CET has created a resource for patients, families, and professionals to obtain: - free clinical guides to treatment - free symptom self-assessment tools - free expert advice - latest research reports - design principles for treatment devices To learn more about their activities or just want some information, visit cet.org

On 28 January our board members and participants met online for the second Participant Council meeting. Representatives of 15 companies / universities were present: Bartenbach, Eindhoven University of Technology, Fluxplus, Chronowear, L+RC Consultants, Loerakker Lighting, Luxlight, Medilux, Seaborough, Signify, Sparckel, Stoane Lighting, Toshiba Materials and the University of Groningen. The board presented an overview of the results of 2020 and the strategic plan of our vision for the future. Detailed ideas for the year 2021 were explained and discussed in an online brainstorm session. Many useful ideas and suggestions were contributed . The participants elected Maarten Voorhuis for the second year as chair of the council.

Board member Marijke Gordijn with more than 30 years of experience in chronobiology and sleep was interviewed for an article in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant. In what way will lighting help you get out of bed fresh and relaxed in the morning but also to wind down in the evening? Image Sophia Twigt for Volkskrant Your vitality is controlled by your circadian system and sleep. But the circadian system doesn't quite keep up with the real daytime automatically. Some people’s system is more off than other people’s system. If this isn't corrected most people will go to bed a bit later every day and wake up a bit later as well. But if you make sure you get enough natural light during the day, especially in the morning and keep it dark in the evenings, your circadian system will adjust to the real day rhythm. Read the full article here: Volkskrant How do you ensure you get out of bed feeling energized during dark days?

The Algmeen Dagblad asked Jan and Marijke to test different light therapy lamps. Nowadays a lot of people suffer the winter blues. A daily portion of good light makes you more energetic, happier, and healthier. Make sure during the day that you get a healthy dose of good light. Especially when working indoors. Photo by Jean-pierre Jans for Algemeen Dagblad People will be a lot happier and healthier if we recognize the importance of good light. "Good light is just as important as healthy food and healthy air. You have more energy during the day, your mood will be lifted and you will have a better night's sleep." According to Jan Denneman, it's important to get the right light at the right time. Those who can not be outside all day can purchase a light therapy lamp, but does it help? Test panel Jan and Marijke tested five light therapy lamps. Read the full article here: Algemeen dagblad Light therapy lamps The story is also picked up by the Belgian newspaper HLN. You can read this story here: "In three quarters of the cases, light therapy lamps are an effective treatment for winter depression."

The holidays are over, it's cold and dark, we prefer to sit inside. Nevertheless, you need a daily portion of good light: it makes you more energetic, happier, and healthier. Make sure that you go outside for a good time every day and that you also have enough good light indoors during the day. Daylight is best, but there are also good alternatives with LED lighting and light therapy lamps. Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash Especially at this time of year, this can help prevent the so-called winter dip. A quarter of people in the northern hemisphere suffer from winter malaise. A winter dip has specific symptoms such as being unenergetic, not enjoying regular activities, and sleeping longer. Fortunately, the winter dip only leads to winter depression in four percent of people at which point medical attention is needed. By the time the new year rolls around, everyone has already had a long period of very short days and new year's resolutions are proving to be a lot more difficult to achieve in practice. The endless lockdown due to COVID 19 doesn't help improve our moods either. The sun shows very little, it is cold and gloomy. The mood of many people falls to a low point. We are in the most depressing period of the year and the third Monday of the year is a symbol of this and aptly named “Blue Monday”. What can you do about this? In the first period of the year, people really fall short of daylight. If you don't get enough daylight for a day, your biological clock will be about 10 to 15 minutes behind on average. Eight o'clock in the evening feels like quarter to eight. It works cumulatively: those who stay indoors for a week and don't see daylight are an hour and a half behind. You get a feeling similar to jet lag. You're tired, less alert, and your mood is down. In short, light is needed to keep the biological clock in line. In the eye, on the retina are receptors: rods, cones and spheres. Those spheres are important for correcting your biological clock. The spheres are sensitive to the cyan blue part of the light spectrum and pass the information on to your biological clock in your brain. A large part of the world's population lives and works in biological darkness. For the record: normal electric light in your home and also the lighting in companies and offices equates to biological darkness. The light enables visual tasks, but is too weak to positively influence the biological clock. Fortunately, nowadays there are lamps and luminaires that imitate daylight as effectively as possible. They can't fully mimic daylight, but being exposed to enough intense light in the house can help protect you from experiencing the winter dip. Author: Jan Denneman Chairman and founder of the Good Light Group, non-profit organization promoting the use of good light for health and wellbeing

Luxlight has been actively working for 20 years to bring daylight into the lives of its customers with its products. Based on their passion for people and the importance of good lighting for people, products are developed for flat roofs of homes. With its New Illumy products, Luxlight has made a combination of daylight by adapting a flat roof window, supplemented with artificial light in the right colour, to the right time of the day. The natural daylight lamp.