Light + Health

By Carson Alsop, WELL Faculty & Manager of Lutron Electronics’ two New York City Experience Centers We now spend nearly 90 percent of our time indoors, making interior design more critical than ever to our health and well-being. Across green building standards like WELL and the Living Building Challenge, daylight and biophilia are central themes. [...]

  Researchers have identified a new cancer treatment approach using molecules dubbed molecular jackhammers (MJHs), which are aminocyanines capable of mechanically disrupting cancer cell membranes through vibronic-driven action (VDA) when activated by near-infrared light. Key Concept: Vibronic-Driven Action VDA operates through subpicosecond whole-molecule vibrations of aminocyanines bound to cell membranes, initiated by targeted light exposure [...]

  Circadian lighting in hospital wards was found to significantly reduce falls among patients, by 50%, according to a retrospective observational study published in Healthcare (Basel), in July 2025. Study Context and Purpose Falls in hospitalized patients remain a major safety and health concern, often leading to complications, increased length of stay, and greater healthcare [...]

By Christa Belasco, PE, IALD, LC, Senior Lighting Designer, HGA For individuals with neurological conditions such as autism, Asperger’s, ADHD, or Sensory Processing Disorders, a simple visit to the doctor can become an overwhelming sensory experience. Individuals with certain neurological conditions can be particularly sensitive to the sub-visible flicker of direct lighting sources, frequencies that neurotypical [...]

  UC Davis researchers at The Color Lab have discovered that amber lighting has significant soothing effects on stress and anxiety, and they are now working on implementing human-centric lighting designs aimed at optimizing well-being in real-world settings. This innovative research is the product of an interdisciplinary collaboration between the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) [...]

I was impressed to read about the lengths to which display makers were going to improve eye comfort for users. Let’s look at the new TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus 11” tablet, as an example. First introduced in 2020, NXTPAPER is a hardware and software combination designed to manage blue light output from devices “while maintaining excellent visual [...]

By Bill Chan, President, LiteController Inc. Melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance (M-EDI) is widely used to assess circadian-effective lighting, but is it truly optimized for human biological responses? What is M-EDI? Melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance (M-EDI) is a metric used to evaluate how light impacts our circadian rhythms, based on the sensitivity of Melanopsin, a photopigment [...]

A new study was published last month, Non-Image-Forming Effects of Daytime Electric Light Exposure in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Physiological, Cognitive, and Subjective Outcomes, in the IES journal Leukos. Light exerts numerous nonvisual or non-image-forming, effects – such as its impact on melatonin suppression, circadian phase-shifts, sleep quality, and alertness. While research [...]

By Bill Chan, President at LiteController Inc. We know how nighttime light affects Melatonin production – but do we truly understand how light exposure during the day influences our circadian system?  Current circadian lighting metrics do not fully capture the biological effects or circadian entrainment of daytime light exposure. The two circadian lighting metrics (CS [...]