Has anyone tested bright indoor lighting and its effect on their own sleep.
I have some LED studio lights for video work by my desk all the time. I'm wondering if I should just turn them on while I work each morning. From what I can tell:
1. LEDs won't cause sunburn/skin damage
2. There's no blue light risk of them if they're not rates above a certain level of light output and you don't stare directly at them.
I have to check the light rating, but it seems like there shouldn't be negative side effects to this. My new apartment gets little direct sunlight, so I've been feeling daytime darkness more acutely.
Plural of anecdote doesn't make data, but I've got one for you in any case:
I used to suffer quite badly from winter dips, I've since installed a IKEA Floalt panel right next to my desk. I turn it on when I sit down and turn it off when I'm done for the day. I run it at full brightness at the medium color temperature (which is still fairly reddish in my opinion). Since then it definitely seems that my winter dips have gotten significantly less severe, though actual sunlight still seems to work better.
Now all that said I'm aware it might just be a placebo effect, but honestly if a placebo stops me getting all gloomy I'm all for it. To me at least it seems that my winter dips are heavily influenced simply by environment brightness.
I bought a huge 10,000 lux lamp that was supposed to emit similar wavelengths to daylight because I found myself to be a bit sleepy during winters all day long. That one managed to "wake me up" and I ended up as productive as in summer. Some people also use it to alleviate their seasonal depression (never had that). I have it illuminating my workspace behind my back. I believe our eyes have some special "wake up" receptors that react to sunrise and this type of lamp seems to engage them.
I have one of these, but honestly haven't used it enough to assess it. It seems well made and bright enough to make a difference without being intolerable. I think it draws 14 watts.
Verilux HappyLight VT43 Luxe 10,000 Lux LED Bright White Light Therapy Lamp ($100)
for anyone interested - HL-NHB285-NP08B is a 30k lumen light for 150 dollars. it's 5000 kelvin color temperature. i parked one over my home office desk. it's like being outside at the park feeding birds, but inside. says 92 dollars per year power consumption. i dont know the terms of that calculation
tbf i know your unit of lux takes into account the distance over which the energy is dispersed and mine of lumens, does not
edit: a friend asked how to wire it. this is probably illegal in your jurisdiction but you can just lop the ends of an extension cord off, and direct wire the copper ends in and plug it into a wall outlet. you dont even need to buy wire nuts or any other accessory, other than possibly a hook, to hang the hook mount that comes with this unit. it took me like 10 minutes. this is not advice, no warranty is implied by my comment, i disavow all your actions if you do this. someone please correct my post and i will edit mine.
The light is very strong even while diffuse, having it behind my back doesn't hurt my eyes and the effect is same. It's a non-LED one, not sure what is inside but it initially took 10 minutes to light up fully (now it's instant, probably some firmware for initial burn-in). I'll have to find box somewhere to tell you exact type.
I use similar ones for cinematography. Never occurred to me to use them at home as well :D When I think about it now, studios have huge lights that take a bit to warm up but then it feels like daylight, maybe my 10k lux is a similar tech...
LEDs could still have all the same issues, it depends on the LED and it's particular output spectrum and the energies for each wavelength. I would check all that before concluding they would be good or bad.
Exactly! Blue light doesn't mean just the colour of the light, but the wavelength, power output, flicker rate and so on. It's a good step, but pay attention to details ;-)
In college I lived in a windowless room for a year. I would have to get a light on a timer to flick on when I wanted to wake up, or else I'd wake up completely delirious at like 1-2pm rather than around 9am. I eventually switched to a full spectrum bulb and that helped with waking up a lot.
I have some LED studio lights for video work by my desk all the time. I'm wondering if I should just turn them on while I work each morning. From what I can tell:
1. LEDs won't cause sunburn/skin damage 2. There's no blue light risk of them if they're not rates above a certain level of light output and you don't stare directly at them.
I have to check the light rating, but it seems like there shouldn't be negative side effects to this. My new apartment gets little direct sunlight, so I've been feeling daytime darkness more acutely.