Impact of light on human health

For 50 years now many surveys have been studied about light and its influence on the human body and also on animal behavior. It has been proved by scientists that our body has physical responses to light and dark patterns and we have a special hormone, which is produced by our body in the evening and during the night, this hormone is called melatonin which causes sleep. Also it is a circadian that we have, it means that during the night our bodies want to go to sleep and during the day they want to be awake this happen every day.

Some research have expressed the lack of normal light patterns in a significant amount of time could have negative effects on our health. These affects could be both physically and mentally. SAD or seasonal affective disorder is one of the effects of inadequate levels of daylight which probably many of us have this experience, in fall or winter when it is cloudy and the light is not shining as the summer is, some people have the experience of depression in these two season; fall and winter.

It has been expressed by scientists that inadequate light levels contribute to many health problems such as diabetes and could continue to other problems such as cancer. We also know that different colors have different affects on our body. Red is one of the colors that might makes one feel sleepy or blue could makes one awake. Different people have different experiences with light and its effects on the colors.

It is very important as a designer to provide adequate amount of light for spaces and pay attention to lighting affects related to health issues in our design.

Light related experiences

All of us have many different experiences with light. We started to know about light during our childhood with forms of different toys or different places. Some of the light experiences are personal. It depends on our experience of the world or our attitude toward life. Some are the same for people who have the same culture or grow up in a same society and some experiences with light are universal; everyone has the experience of moonlight, sunlight, etc.

We all know light is not just a reliable source which gives us the ability to read and write or make objects visible, but also it relates to place, time, climatic zones and thermal comforts.

Every place has its own experience of light and depending upon where the location is, if it is in South Africa or the north of Canada, the experience would be different. It was in winter when I was in the Canary Islands. It was full of light everywhere until late at night, while the next week, when I was in Sweden, it became dark at 3pm; this is because they are located in different climatic zones of the earth.

Light and nature are also related to each other. The waterfall of Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the best residential design examples that were mentioned in the article. If I want to make an example of what reminds me of the relation between light and nature, it would be the photography of Gergely Nagy, which makes me deeply think about nature when I look at the images he captures.

Discussing light and climate reminds me about my country Iran. While some people living in dry areas and want to prevent the sun light from going into their interior spaces, others who live in cold areas welcome the light to use the heat of the sun within their spaces. This is how light becomes connected to thermal comfort.

Light also is related to the time of the day and the season of the year. We could see different colors and different patterns of light and could have different light experiences in different times and different spaces, even in different times of one day.

One of my related experiences was in Berlin, Germany. I was listening to violin played by a man near an old church. I was there for some hours capturing pictures and listening to his music. When I saw the pictures after my journey, I realized how significant a place or building could be in one day, but at different times. The church had different colors in my pictures from different times of that day.

Light also has connection with tasks and what activities are going to be done in interior spaces. For example, within a museum it is better not to have too much light in the space and it is better to have some wall wash or wall grazing light to emphasize objects. Another example related to light and task could be at school where students need to read and write. They need adequate amount of light in their classrooms. Light is related to many aspects of our lives and in my opinion, light is life itself.