Light + Health

In collaboration with the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) has launched guidelines for lighting manufacturers to help lighting designers more easily determine if their designs meet the WELL Building Standard criteria. The WELL v2™ pilot is the latest version of the WELL Building Standard, a rating system that focuses exclusively on the way that buildings and everything in them—including lighting—can improve our comfort and enhance our health and wellness.

In December 2019, UL published Design Guide 24480, which provides guidance on how to design lighting systems that support circadian entrainment. To learn more, I talked to Adam Lilien, Global Business Development Manager, Lighting, UL, LLC. The resulting interview informed an article I wrote for the May issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR.

In a research project funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Dr. Mariana Figueiro, Professor and Director at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is investigating whether a tailored lighting intervention can lessen the impact of these symptoms in older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and has published her latest findings in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

UL has published Design Guide 24480, Design Guideline for Promoting Circadian Entrainment with Light for Day-Active People. The goal of the 60-page guide is to encourage lighting practitioners to provide daytime light levels in buildings that promote a more natural pattern of bright days and dim nights, which is conducive to circadian health.

While some lighting designers are taking a wait and see attitude about circadian lighting, others are taking a proactive stance. The industry may not agree on the same numbers, but there is consensus that more light in the day is positive for circadian stimulus. A panel of three experts at the National Lighting Bureau’s Annual Lighting Forum discussed these issues, focusing on the question whether the industry should wait for more research or begin implementing what we know today.

Researchers from the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) recently published the latest in a series of studies exploring how light impacts alertness during the day and sleep quality at night in daytime office workers.

The California Lighting Technology Center recently announced a new, targeted collaborative with the Lighting Research and Innovation Center at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) to co-develop circadian lighting design specifications for patient healthcare and assisted living applications.

On October 3, 2019, the International Commission on Illumination issued the second edition of its position statement on non-visual effects of light, focusing on recommending the proper light at the proper time.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) recently awarded a new 5-year grant totaling $3.8 million to Dr. Mariana Figueiro, Professor and Director at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to investigate whether a long-term (6-month) lighting intervention designed to promote circadian entrainment will improve sleep, cognition, and memory in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is an “at risk” or potential prodromal stage of dementia.