A recent study from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Illinois revealed that natural light in an office improves the general quality of life, including sleep and physical activity.
The study was conducted to establish if natural light has some influence on the health and wellbeing of office workers. It was proven that those who worked in spaces with a lot of natural light, sunlight and fresh air, slept better and were more active than those who worked in darker offices with less natural light.
Phyllis Zee, senior study author, Northwestern Medicine neurologist and sleep specialist, said about this study: “There is increasing evidence that exposure to light, during the day — particularly in the morning — is beneficial to your health via its effects on mood, alertness and metabolism. Workers are a group at risk because they are typically indoors often without access to natural or even artificial bright light for the entire day. The study results confirm that light during the natural daylight hours has powerful effects on health.”
Our advice is to seek and embrace natural light, enjoy sunlight, even if it you’re not outside and it comes through your windows while working. Maybe you don’t have large windows to let in as much light as possible, but there are a few tricks to bring it in your home.
Of course, the most obvious thing you could do is to add more windows if you can, but when this is not possible, you can:
– replace interior solid doors with glass doors
– take down unnecessary walls if you can and enlarge the space
– paint your walls in light colours, white would be the brightest, but cream, pale yellow, warm green, pale blue, they all work
– hang a large mirror, or a couple of smaller ones, to reflect the natural light
– stay away from heavy, dark coloured curtains. Use instead light, see through ones
– use white or transparent furniture: a glass table, transparent acrylic chairs
– also, use light coloured fabrics
Using our tips can significantly brighten up your home and your mood should follow!
