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Lighting plays a much bigger part in our day to day wellbeing than we realise. For a start, it’s actually pretty crazy that most of the light we get is artificial…unless your job involves you being outside for prolonged periods of time.

The takeaway is that lighting isn’t just about being able to see clearly - it’s a key factor in determining how we feel.

What Is Wellness Lighting?

In a nutshell, wellness lighting is lights that are designed to support our mood, energy and health. How does it do this?

It’s by utilising the correct type and colour lighting  for the right times of day, in order to match our circadian rhythms as closely as possible.

Put simply, our circadian rhythm is basically our body’s internal clock that can be influenced and sometimes governed by lightness and darkness.

In theory then, this means that if we can engineer our home lighting to mimic what the sun does during the day, we can get better sleep and better energy levels throughout the day.

How To Use Wellness Lighting At Home

At a most basic level, what we want to do is have bright lights in the morning and during the day, to give our body the correct signals to be awake.

Brighter lights (or cooler if we’re talking about colour temperatures), help suppress melatonin in the body, which is the hormone that makes us sleepy.

Dimmer, warmer lights in the evening do the opposite, and promote melatonin production, though the best thing for melatonin production would be to switch the lights off completely - as this mimics our natural surroundings once the sun sets.

The Benefits

Starting from the top of the day, the main benefit of brighter lights is more energy. The ‘harsher’ lighting replicates what you’d normally feel when the sun rises, and you get that white, well-lit aura of the morning sun.

Then, once you’re into the daily routine of work or household chores, the brighter lights mean you won’t suffer from any unnecessary eye strain, reducing fatigue and increasing productivity.

When we start winding down towards the end of the day, softer, dimmer lighting replicates the orange hues you get from a setting sun, which crucially sends the signals to our brain to start relaxing.

Prioritising this works wonders for your sleep quality, increasing the amount of deep sleep you get, as well as time spent under REM sleep. Incidentally, the increase in sleep quality then compounds your energy levels when you get up!

Aside from the impact it has on circadian rhythm, lighting can also help with moods and your general wellbeing.

As we’ve already established, yellows and oranges are great for relaxation, whereas whites and blues are better for energy and alertness.

However, did you know that purple lights can help with creativity, and green can help with concentration and understanding too?

Tech That Helps With Wellness Lighting

General traditional lighting might not be the best thing as far as wellness lighting is concerned. The reason for this is that your conventional bulbs and spotlights are mainly only capable of one type of light or shade.

Dimmable lights are one way to mitigate this, but you’re still more than likely only going to be able to benefit from a single shade.

This is where something like LED strip lights can really make a difference. Nowadays they’re bright enough to be used as your source of general lighting, and they’re also capable of changing colour, depending on which model you buy.

Our 14W Dual Colour Aon LED Strip Lights for example can switch between Warm White (3000K) and Cool White (6000K), giving you the choice for any given time of day.

You can go one step further and get our 21W RGB+CCT Aon LED Strip Lights. This gives you access to pretty much any colour, as it has dedicated RGB chips, in addition to the 3000K and 6000K chips that you get in our Dual Colour tape.

Where you get really inventive with your lights is by going smart. Not only does this let you switch colours and brightnesses on the fly, but it also allows you to automate your lights too. Here’s an example.

You can set up an automation where your Dual Colour or RGB+CCT tapes switch to warm white automatically at sunset, and conversely switch to Day Light (4000K) or Cool White (6000K) during the day time. The best part is that this is super easy to set up too.

It’s Easy To Upgrade Your Wellbeing

There’s been a rush of people over the past few years looking to add a more holistic edge to their day to day life, and this can be difficult in today’s digital world. This is where LED lighting can help, especially given that most of our light exposure is from artificial sources.

And remember, this is a fundamental change to the way we live our lives, for the better. It’s not just a passing trend.

Even more importantly, is that the changes we’ve suggested are for the benefit of your wellbeing, and can be used to really look after yourself.

Now if you need help picking out your wellness lighting, our team can help you out, all you need to do is give them a call on 0116 321 4120, or send them an email to sales@wled.co.uk.

You can also send us a message on our Facebook and Instagram pages too. If you need to keep up to date with all things LED lighting, be sure to check out our YouTube channel.