Iar333: Impact of Light on Health and Welfare

As a result of research pertaining to light over the past centuries researchers have discover that light affects the way people behave and perform as well as the importance of light affecting the humans mental and physical health. This being said, the impact of light on humans is important for their health and welfare which means it is crucial to consider when designing a space.

As the body is exposed to different lights it reacts in different ways mostly due to the changing of melatonin level in the body. The receptor cell called ganglion signals the changes of light which synchronizes the brain’s and body’s response to circadian rhythms which is the daily pattern of light in which the body react to brighter light with wakefulness and darkness with sleepiness. When being subject to electric light, it influenced the natural circadian rhythm preexisting in the body. As far as I have understood having a regular and natural circadian rhythm is much more beneficial to one’s health and welfare.

During the wonder month the days are shorter therefor the body react to this. In several studies it showed that a person’s body clock is regulated mainly by natural light emitted from the sun rather than a clock. Since the body is regulated by the ganglion then the increase of darkness during the winter months affect our body by making us sleepy and less energetic, also because of the colder weather people tend to stay indoors and are not exposed to sufficient levels of sunlight. This is associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which involves episodes of depression that occur every year during fall or winter.

Personal relation:

During the winter the days are much shorter making me feel slower and less energetic. During this time I am generally at school staying indoors without obtaining much sunlight. This year it resulted in me being vitamin D deficient. The difficult part about this situation is that I do not have the choice of going outdoors to obtain sunlight I am too busy with school work (which would be difficult to accomplish outside of studio.