Lighting for the circadian lifestyle 🎞

📱 Seven places we encounter electric light.

Hi,

I recently noticed two trends in the circadian lifestyle community. This newsletter focuses on the Back-to-Nature side of things: candlelight, moonlight, daylighting, time outdoors, and other cost-free solutions. Beeswax, anyone?

Candles do not disturb circadian rhythms at night. Photo by Hakan Erenler.

Better technology is the other side of the circadian question. For example, our electric lighting regulations haven't changed much since the 1950's. At that time, we didn't have any research about the non-visual effects of light¹. We know a lot more now! Thus, all around the world, we are now retrofitting and setting new standards based on what we have learned.

Screens at night? Proceed with caution! Photo by Taryn Elliott.

Where do we encounter electric light?

Some places to think about the quality and quantity of electric light include:

• screens and devices

• indoor lighting

• exterior lighting

• street lighting

• workplace lighting

• vehicular lighting (cars, planes, trains, boats)

• campgrounds and recreational places

Improving lighting technology in these settings may reduce or end health problems for many people²! It's an exciting new&old frontier of wellbeing. Once upon a time, humans were innovating new glass compositions that didn’t block UV rays the way modern windows do. Some of this history can be found here: Benefits of Sunlight: A Bright Spot for Human Health.

The human-centric lighting and dark sky movements going on now are re-approaching these lighting issues. Human-Centric Lighting focuses on mental health and productivity. Dark Sky focuses on wildlife and sky-view preservation/restoration. But these two movements have a lot to share with each other! I hope to bridge these concepts through this newsletter.

Just Get Flux

Use https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/ to see what your screen could look like with Flux!

Today, what I want to share is an app focused on lighting for screens and devices. Since I am publishing this newsletter digitally, I know you are using a phone or computer to read this info. One thing you can do to help yourself is use the app flux. This app will automatically tune the amount of blue light your device emits based on the time of day. It was one of the first things that proved the ill-effects of blue light at night to me. Here's the link so you can try it yourself:

https://justgetflux.com/

If you are reading on an iPhone, there are built-in settings for this you can use instead if you prefer. I pinned some tutorials showing step-by-step how to change your phone’s settings on my new circadian lifestyle Instagram (@brighterdays.darkernights) here:

Story Highlights for iPhone setup

Is Blue Light Bad?

Since we’re talking about blue light restriction, I also want to clear up a common confusion. Is blue light “bad”? No! It’s just a matter of timing. We need bright blue light during the day (the sky is blue). The problem is, we also need darkness at night. In nature, there are no natural sources of blue light at night. Even if dim, bright blue tones stimulate daytime processes and suppress melatonin, which we need to flow freely for many hours per night for rejuvenation and healing.

Enlighten Your Clock

While browsing the Flux website, I found a link to a comic that describes circadian rhythms and how to tune them through environment, exercise and mealtimes, just as we have been talking about. Here you go!

Enlighten your clock: How your body tells time

30.3MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Written and illustrated by Coline Weinzaepflen. Edited by Manuel Spitschan PhD. Citation: Weinzaepflen, C. & Spitschan, M. (Ed.) (2021). Enlighten your clock: How your body tells time. (C. Weinzaepflen, Illus.). DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/ZQXVH

Download

Tactical Night Vision

From a tactical standpoint, bright blues at night also make our pupils constrict, which reduces nighttime vision. This is why sailors (and pirates!) have always been savvy about keeping the lights below-deck nice and dim and red. As long as lighting is dim enough, pupils stay dilated and night-vision remains at it’s strongest. This has implications for the whole night-lights/flood-lights and crime/safetey conversation. If you are interested in this topic, IDA Dark Sky made a nice and succinct post and video about the topic here:

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/lighting-crime-and-safety/

Anyways, using Flux can help preserve your night vision while you are awake as well as your sleep quality once you are ready for bed. I hope you will give it a try!

Which approach resonates most with you?

Between going “back-to-nature” and improving technology, which do you resonate with more? I’d love to hear in the comments how you are incorporating elements of either or both ways of sychronizing and strengthening your rhythms.

That's all for today, but you can always review past posts at nikkokennedy.substack.com/archive. I will continue to share back-to-nature tips as well as better technology tips in future posts.

Best,

Nikko

1. Alkhatatbeh, B., Asadi, S. (2021). Role of Architectural Design in Creating Circadian-Effective Interior Settings. Energies, 14, 6731.

2. Hatori, M., Gronfier, C., Van Gelder, R., Bernstein, P., et al. (2017). Global rise of potential health hazards caused by blue light-induced circadian disruption in modern aging societies. npj Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, 3:9.