The Truth about Circadian Lighting – IESDC Event

I enjoyed this event a lot because I am really interested in circadian rhythm. The learning objectives for this event was: (1) to be able to understand the basic science of circadian rhythms and its interaction with light, (2) be able to describe the design consideration needed for implementing circadian lighting, (3) be able to understand how color tuning addresses circadian lighting needs, and (4) and to be able to understand how color tuning affects blue light hazard possibilities.

I learned about the Hawthorne Effect, Telephone part company in the 1920’s looked to see how lighting effect productivity. And a lot of big smart words like melanopsin, measured acute brain effects, and chronotypes. When they were talking about chronotypes they talked about night owls and early birds and they health effects of jet lag - greater chance of obesity, increased addiction to nicotine and alcohol consumption, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, increased risk of metabolic disease, and overall attenuation of circadian process. Humans spend more than 90% of our time indoors under electric light.

There was a test: take a group of college students out on a two-week camping trip to see how chronotype changes. They measured the variance of chronotype before the camping trip; then measured the variance of chronotype after the two weeks. The results were: the experiment was done when day were getting longer, and the control group mid-sleep was 30 minutes earlier and Office workers entrained to the office lighting. I think I got the right, my notes got a little mixed up.