Your Home Your Way | 2023

SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2023 • YOUR HOME YOUR WAY • THE BRANDON SUN

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night-light in the bathroom for middle-of-the-night trips, Veitch advises keeping it dim and warm (in the amber to red zone), so it’s less likely to compromise your ability to fall back asleep. The same goes for the hallway. For the living room, Pedit- to recommends warm, am- bient lighting because it fa- cilitates relaxation and social interaction. The same is true of bedrooms; plus, warm, am- bient lighting won’t interfere with your ability to fall asleep, Veitch says. While these lighting guidelines apply to most peo- ple, individual responses can vary, so you may have to ex- periment to see what works for you. “Choosing lighting is so much more complicat- ed than it used to be,” Veitch says, “because there are now

If your home doesn’t get much natural light, you can still achieve an ideal level of daytime brightness with full-spectrum lightbulbs, says Kati Peditto, a psychologist in Denver and director of the Human Experience Lab at architecture firm Perkins and Will. These bulbs repli- cate natural sunlight, and can be found at hardware stores, grocery stores and online. “Full-spectrum lighting includes visible and invisible forms of light [such as in- frared and ultraviolet], and it has a daylight-mimicking effect that lowers stress and boosts alertness,” she says. (Full-spectrum light is associ- ated with lower levels of stress hormones such as cortisol in the human body.) In artificially lit spaces, experts also recommend us- ing different “temperatures” of light at different times. During the day, Augustin ad- vises using cool light — which ranges from blue to white in tone — because it’s energiz- ing, and promotes concen- tration and focused work. On the other hand, spending time in warm light — which ranges in tone from yellow to orange — fosters relaxation and creative thinking, often making it well suited for later in the afternoon or evening. In general, Augustin rec- ommends using cool lights high in the room (such as in overhead lighting) and warm lights lower (in table or floor lamps), for optimal function- ality and mood. When you are lightbulb shopping, look for labels indicating coolness (such as “white,” “cool white” or “daylight”) or warmth (“soft white” or “warm white”). To imitate the setting sun, put lights on dimmers, so you can gradually turn them down. Sitting beneath bright lights at night can suppress the release of melatonin,

so you can clearly see yourself but warm enough in tone so your skin doesn’t take on an odd hue. If you keep a plug-in

making it tough to fall asleep, as can exposure to blue light and white light with blue hues — common culprits include electronics such as comput- ers, cellphones and TVs, and LED and fluorescent bulbs. DIFFERENT LIGHTS IN DIFFERENT ROOMS “You can create zones in your home with light, using pools of light for different ac- tivities,” says Augustin, whose firm Design With Science uses principles from neuro- science to create spaces that foster positive mental states. Try task-based bright light- ing in your kitchen — with under-cabinet lights, for ex- ample — to enhance safety while avoiding eyestrain, or a golden-hued bulb in an office desk lamp to spur creativity. In the bathroom, “colour quality matters because we judge how we look by look- ing in the mirror,” says Jenni- fer Veitch, an environmental psychologist in Ottawa and principal research officer at the National Research Coun- cil of Canada. The light needs to be bright enough (at least 60 watts, depending on the size of your bathroom and what the fixture can handle)

so many options.” » The Washington Post

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