The human race as currently configured, along with all our close and distant relations who share the planet with us, has a relationship with the sun - our primary source of energy in this heavenly abode - that has developed over million of years. I think its reasonable to assume that we’ve found some use for everything that the sun has to offer and, as a consequence, we’ve found a way to stay alive across the generations.
But how much do we actually know about the impact of sunlight on human health? For the past decade, the lighting industry has been concentrating on the importance of circadian lighting - the day-night cycle of life that helps us to achieve a healthful balance of wakefulness and good sleep patterns.. When we get that balance wrong, our health flies away and all sorts of problems come a-calling.
But is that it? New research is coming along that suggests that, while we’ve been looking, and I use that word LITERALLY, at the impact of visible light, there is an awful lot more going on. It’s possible that we hadn’t noticed because, well, we couldn’t see it.
Let’s do that defining light thing again:
An everyday definition of Light: the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible
But a scientific definition is more like: Light is defined as the electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between 380 and 750 nm which is visible to the human eye
Now, if we think about Light as just a small section of the electromagentic spectrum, what else might be going on? What - across those millions of years might we have learned to take from sunlight? We’ve long known to avoid ultra-violet light at the blue end of the visible light spectrum (Lesst than 380nm), and we all know the warming effect of infra-red at the other end of the visible spectrum (Greater than 750nm). But is there anything going on in those near-visible areas of the spectrum that might be doing us some good. Just because we can’t see it - doesn’t mean it’s not there.
I had a call from my good friend Deborah Burnett who suggested that I might like to hold onto my hat while she told me a story. And once she’d told me the story, I said that we needed to go through the whole thing again; this time with her collaborator, Scott Zimmerman - and a Zoom recording.
We’re going to talk about the healthful effect of Near Infra-Red; why its so important; and the baleful effect of avoiding it in our indoor spaces now that we no longer have IR-generating light sources (tungsten lamps to you and me).
Something that might encourage you to take the time to watch this conversation are Deborah’s closing remarks: “You have to be almost a paramedical in order to be a really good lighting designer these days; if you really want to make a biological difference, other than just sell ‘circadian lighting’ because it comes in a box. You have to be more than that.”
But a health warning before you sit down to this. This will last longer than a cup of coffee; we’re sitting at 1 hour, twenty minutes - it needs to be. So I suggest that you prepare for what’s to come; wear comfortable clothing, relax - and try to get near some sunshine ,if you can.
Негізгі бет Ғылым және технология Deborah Burnett & Scott Zimmerman: Near Infra-Red (NIR) and human health
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