International Day of Light by UNESCO

The International Day of Light on May 16th 2018 is a global initiative that provides a focus point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in every industry including science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications, and energy. The activities worldwide demonstrate how science, technology, art and culture can help achieve the goals of UNESCO – education, equality, and peace.

LEDVANCE is focused on illuminating the topic of Human Centric Lighting (HCL) and how light has a direct or indirect influence on your daily life.
 

THE BIOLOGICAL EFFECT OF LIGHT

Light has a direct effect on our activity levels and therefore on our performance and ability to concentrate.

 
The right light at the right time as we experience with natural daylight allows us to be active and efficient during the day and relax at night-time. The biological effect of light affects all age groups and different spheres of life.

More and more people are seeking ways to stay physically and mentally fit. Light plays a crucial role in this context. That’s because important biological processes in the human body are designed for life with natural light. The problem is that rather than spending time outside in natural lighting conditions, for which our biological system was “programmed” over the course of evolution, most people in highly developed countries like United States spend some 90 percent of their day indoors.
 

Light for controlling our biological clock

 
Additional light receptors were only discovered in the human eye in 2001. These light-sensitive ganglion cells send signals to an area of the brain that acts like a biological clock and controls the body's day/night rhythm – a state also referred to as the circadian rhythm. Light influences different hormones – primarily the “sleep hormone” Melatonin, or the “activity hormone” Cortisol – which affect blood pressure, heart rate, vitality and the mood. Light therefore has a direct effect on our activity levels and therefore on our performance and ability to concentrate.
See below for the effects of light on the body.

 
 
 

INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER STUDY

What do consumers know about light?

 

LEDVANCE takes the day as an opportunity to illuminate the topic of "light" from several perspectives. Get interesting insights into an exclusive international LEDVANCE consumer study on the topic "light". Conclusion here: There are still major gaps in knowledge on many topics relating to current and future lighting technologies. Do you know what Kelvin, Lumen and Watts are and the difference between them? Find out and see how our consumers fared below.

 
  

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