A good night’s sleep is an essential requirement for keeping both body and mind healthy and refreshed. Sleep is refreshing, revitalising and renewing. There was a time when most human beings programmed their body clock to a schedule set by the sun. Before technology took over the world and made businesses operational across time zones, it was actually lights out after dark. Now the day never ends, leaving you with bright lights, interrupted sleep patterns and a disrupted circadian rhythm.
‘Circadian rhythm’ is your body’s 24-hour internal clock. It regulates the release of melatonin, a sleep hormone, which triggers sleep. It relies on environmental cues to tell it what to do and when – light, both artificial and natural, being its biggest director.
The blue frequencies present in daylight suppress your body’s production of melatonin, so you’re alert and feisty during the day. But those same blue frequencies need to be absent to let melatonin flow for that beauty rest at night.
Since your body is relying on environmental cues to tell it when to rest or be active, you can seriously mess with your clock if you’re careless with your lighting. There’s good research to back it up.
Essentially, each time you turn a bright light on at night, it resets your internal clock. Instead of flooding your body with this essential sleep hormone, it pulls it back and tells your organs to wake up because hey, it’s a bright and shiny new day.
There’s a solution: Lights for sleep. It’s a thing.
Dimming it down
The sun, when it rises, is considered a ‘warm’ light with a low colour temperature (the warmer the light, the less blue it has). Easing through the day, this temperature increases even though the sun’s light (brightness) is cooler. The cooler the temperature, the greater the blue frequencies, and the more active your body becomes.
As the sun sets, this temperature slowly drops down becoming warm again. You get what’s considered a fireside glow around 2700K (that’s the temp). Studies indicate our human brains like this colour temperature as it makes us feel safe, cosy and relaxed. With lights that dim down even lower than 2700K, you will be lulled into a relaxed state.
Night Shift
At Brightgreen, we call this circadian lighting feature Night Shift – with our lights dipping low to 1800K. As Night Shift lights dim down, so do their colour temperatures (like the sun!) easing you from a warm dusk to total slumber (3100K to 1800K).
Night Shift works well with any standard phase dimmer or home automation system. Watch your whole space make a full colour temperature shift. If you’re feeling like you want to mix up your fixtures, no problems there. Night Shift is available in our downlight, strip, and pendant lighting ranges. So you can get that shuteye in the style you desire.
Let Night Shift reset that body clock the natural way. Your days will be clearer, your nights more relaxed, and somehow you’ll be experiencing life au naturel without the long drop.
See your Night Shift options here and request a quote!
