If the key to success is an efficient working environment, how should the lighting of an efficient working environment be?
Osram Opto Semiconductors’ main administration building in Regensburg is fully equipped with Human Centric Lighting solutions. More than 1,000 people-oriented lighting fixtures have been installed throughout the building. Approximately 3000 luminaire control units, more than 350 sensors and several KNX pushbuttons are networked to enable innovative light management applications such as timed control, daylight control and swarm control. While a natural daylight is simulated, 3000 Kelvin is provided at 6 am, then dynamic daylight is provided with 6500 Kelvin during the day and continued with 3000 Kelvin after 6 am. Of course, lux values are also a very important detail here.
People work longer hours in offices and indoor areas where brightness levels are much less than natural daylight. A constant lack of light or improper lighting can lead to significant sleep and eating disorders, lack of energy and even depression.
So how does the light leave this effect on us?
When we take our phones before going to sleep at night, we lose sleep, our mothers say that if we don’t leave the phone, we cannot go to sleep. Actually they are right. Nowadays, smartphone manufacturers can activate the melatonin hormone again with a yellower light by reducing the screen brightness from 6500 kelvin to 3000 kelvin with the night shift feature.
To put it more scientifically, consider a physiological clock that is basically adjusted based on daylight. Our body’s reactions to the hormones we secrete during a 24-hour period form our circadian rhythm. In this rhythm, melatonin is the sleep hormone that we start to secrete at 21:00 in the evening and stop being secreted in the morning with daylight.
So how is Melatonin activated?
There is a nerve pathway that enters the retina and responds to daylight, which is a very strong light. After the light enters, the melatonin hormone is cut off, and in the dark, melatonin is secreted.
