PART NINE: THE POWER OF NATURAL LIGHT
A lack of natural light in your home can be far more noticeable during the shorter winter days, so Oliver Heath discusses what you can do to increase it and make the most of its mood-boosting benefits
Natural light has an immeasurable impact on our wellbeing: whether that be that physical, mental, or emotional. When it decreases during colder months, many of us will notice a significant shift in how we’re feeling —whether that is fatigue, lower moods, or increased irritability.
This is because natural light dictates our circadian system — the natural rhythm our bodies go through during the 24 hours of a day as a result of contact with the changing colours of natural light. This influences the production of melatonin and serotonin – the sleep/wake hormones – affecting our mood, behaviour, and energy levels. With many of us now spending more time in our homes (largely due to home working and the pandemic lockdowns), just how can we ensure that our domestic environments are supporting us during the current darker months?
MAXIMISE THE NATURAL LIGHT
As sunlight hours decrease, it’s important to capitalise on our limited access to natural light by ensuring we’re letting it into our homes wherever possible. If building a new home, or completing a more comprehensive renovation, ensure you have considered how the sun tracks around the property —adding in glazing in a way that considers the issue of solar heat gains and ushering in natural light. In addition to tactically placing glazing, the use of skylights and sunlight tubes will help increase natural light in areas where it is lacking —such as stairways and liminal, or transitional, spaces.
For more interior focused renovations, ensure curtain rails overshoot any glazing so drapes can be pulled right back, and consider reflective colours on sills and surfaces —allowing for maximum sunlight penetrating in. Place your furniture in a way that aims to increase exposure to natural light in relation to glazing —although this may seem obvious, it makes a big difference if you have seating options where you are facing light in terms of our circadian rhythms. Even 30 seconds of standing in sunlight can have a considerable impact on our wellbeing.
REPLICATE THE NATURAL LIGHT
There are also ways to introduce natural quality light through existing fixtures within the home. Circadian lighting systems, which colour render to replicate the natural changes in daylight, can be purchased as both complex smart home products and as a single light bulb. Both these options can be automated to change throughout the da
