Dear Reader:
Humans spend 90% of their time indoors, a big portion of which under electric lighting. This subjects us to the prospect of physical imbalances, which in turn can make us not only less happy, but less productive. Now, hold that thought.
Fact: the sleep aid market has grown an average of 29% annually since the year 2000. That’s annually, with compounding year after year for the last 22 years. Why is that?
It’s because people continue to spend more and more time indoors and spend a large and increasing amount of time with electronic devices. As a result, our Circadian Rhythms are generally out of sorts, and this plays directly into employee absenteeism, and how productive we are while on the job. Color temperature is important, and the ability to ‘tune’ the color of lighting in your facility can combat the effects of low color temperature, and the resulting imbalances of melatonin on the human body.
Sigma Luminous has published some comprehensive literature about their color tuning technology. Within their sales piece they’ve done a very good job of describing what Circadian Rhythm is, human melatonin production, the impact of electric lighting on that production (and when), and how to balance it with color tuning, geared to align the colors of the electric lighting to nature.
Getting You Back in Rhythm includes a number of charts that illustrate how a person’s rhythm progresses naturally over the course of a day, and how Sigma’s tuning technology enables dynamic color shifting over that course of time. We can’t describe color tuning better than they did:
“A company can use the Office Setting on the controller to start the day at 6500K to wake employees up. After two
hours, it gradually drops to 5000K, for optimal focus and alertness, where it will remain until an hour before the end
of the workday. It will then gradually drop to 3000K, as the employees calm down and get ready to leave work relaxed and ready to rest before coming back to work refreshed.”
Why would you want your employees to ‘calm’ before they leave work? So they relax more in the evening, sleep better at night, and come back to work refreshed the following morning. It’s a human well-being play, worthy of your attention.
This is a science with a significant body of work completed, and one with promise as it makes its way onto the plant floor in industrial lighting. And now, with ever-growing premiums being placed on employee recruiting and retention, the astute Facility Manager might want to follow this.
