The amount of light in your home may change the way your family can make a difference to how they feel, act, and even affect their health.
In recent studies, research has shown that the amount and type of electrical light you get every day can increase the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer.
The way your home is lit can altar the way your brain works, changing your body clock, and making your brain release the wrong hormones at the wrong time. Bright light in the morning helps your body wake up, and dim light light helps your body go to sleep at night. A problem with using the wrong types of lights when going to sleep is artificial lights reduce the amount of melatonin in the brain, a hormone that controls our circadian cycle, or our body clock. This can have an affect on our ability to sleep, think clearly, release of hormones, and the regulation of blood pressure and glucose levels.
Studies have found that in the workplace, darker environments leave workers with the feeling of depression, in contrast to in adequate lighting, the workers were a lot happier, and had a much more positive state of mind.
Lacking Natural Light in the Home
In your home, this could be affecting you and your family, and you may not even know it. If your home lacks natural light, or you are exposed to artificial light for most of the day, when you wake up or go to sleep, you are most likely at risk of the symptoms of this.
A way of avoiding this is to expose yourself to more natural light throughout the day, especially in the morning, to help align your body clock with the time you wake up. Before going to bed, it is best if you stay away from bright lights, which will give you a better nights sleep, improving your productivity and well-being throughout the day.
These symptoms can also be caused by Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D), caused mainly by lack of sunlight, which mostly occurs in the winter, when days are a lot shorter than in the summer. The effects of this involve the same symptoms as above, and also include depression, and a lack of interest in life. This disorder is directly linked to lack of sunlight, and overexposure to artificial lights in homes and workspaces.
