Optimizing indoor lighting for circadian control | Dr. Satchin Panda
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Artificial lighting allows us to control our lighting levels around the clock. While lighting our world after sunset and before sunrise has undoubtedly benefited humanity, it can perturb circadian rhythms, harming physical and mental health. Conversely, natural light levels vary dramatically by season, resulting in low daylight levels, particularly in countries furthest from the equator. To address this problem, lighting manufacturers have responded by developing lighting systems that mimic those found in nature. In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes how managing our indoor lighting can regulate circadian rhythms and counteract the detrimental health effects of our modern lifestyles.
Rhonda: What about offices? Are there any way we can optimize the light indoors?
Satchin: Yeah. So there are many new technologies and architectural designs that those are now coming into picture for office design. The open office design and having large windows, those are all part of this new scheme. And the fortunate thing is now glass manufacturing has come to a point where glass can be both aesthetic, as well as load bearing. So some of the glasses are strong enough that they can even take some of the load of the building. So that enables designers to come up with large walls, which are just glass walls that will allow enough light to seep in. And then in large offices having cubicles with enough head space through which daylight can come through and kind of distribute throughout the large space is helping to bring daylight, at the same time reduce energy bill by reducing artificial lighting. All of these are helping. Then at nighttime, there's also innovations in office space design. You can have light layering so that you can have more personalized light because you can light up a cubicle or office with LED lights that can be dimmed or brightened up to the occupants own choice. So there are a lot of innovations that will actually help to optimize this anthropogenic world for circadian rhythms. And lighting itself is a $27 billion industry. And for the first time in human history, we have near complete control over the quality, quantity, and timing of light that we can have in our workplace or in our home. So there will be a lot more innovations in this area where, maybe in future, we can have our body sensors talking to the building sensors and building control system to automatically adjust lighting, adjust temperature that will nurture our health.
Rhonda: What about in countries with very little winter daylight? I mean, is there something like some sort of lights indoors that you can buy to kind of help stimulate the daylight?
Satchin: Yes. If you look at many of the big lighting companies, they're actually from those northern latitudes because I guess they have been experimenting with light for such a long time that they come up with all these innovations. And the rule of thumb is if you go to buy purchase a light bulb, then you will see there are three different flavors of light. One that looks orange color, and it's very much like candlelight or firelight. And that's good for evening time in your bedroom or wherever you don't like to have too much bright light. And then there is blue-shifted light, which looks very blue, very alerting, super bright white. And those are the lights that can help us in wintertime. And many of the cold countries of Northern latitude or extreme Southern latitude countries, they have adopted using light to uplift their mood. So many of those designs now incorporate both orange-shifted light and blue-shifted light at different time of the day or in different seasons so that in winter time you can have more of the blue-shifted indoor light to improve your mood and alertness and even brighter light to improve your mood and alertness. And conversely, in summertime, when the days are extremely long, they're also adopting good window blinds, window shades, and orange-shifted light to simulate evening time so that they can go to bed and they can get restful night of sleep. 📍 📍
The body’s 24-hour cycles of biological, hormonal, and behavioral patterns. Circadian rhythms modulate a wide array of physiological processes, including the body’s production of hormones that regulate sleep, hunger, metabolism, and others, ultimately influencing body weight, performance, and susceptibility to disease. As much as 80 percent of gene expression in mammals is under circadian control, including genes in the brain, liver, and muscle.[1] Consequently, circadian rhythmicity may have profound implications for human healthspan.
- ^ Dkhissi-Benyahya, Ouria; Chang, Max; Mure, Ludovic S; Benegiamo, Giorgia; Panda, Satchidananda; Le, Hiep D., et al. (2018). Diurnal Transcriptome Atlas Of A Primate Across Major Neural And Peripheral Tissues Science 359, 6381.
An iron-containing molecule that carries oxygen in the blood. Heme is acquired in the diet from meat, poultry, seafood, and fish and is readily absorbed in the human gut. Although iron is an essential nutrient, high intake of heme iron is associated with increased risk of several cancers, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. Biliverdin, one of the byproducts of heme degradation, is responsible for the yellow color associated with bruises and urine, and the brown color of feces.
An essential mineral present in many foods. Iron participates in many physiological functions and is a critical component of hemoglobin. Iron deficiency can cause anemia, fatigue, shortness of breath, and heart arrhythmias.
A chemical that causes Parkinson's disease-like symptoms. MPTP undergoes enzymatic modification in the brain to form MPP+, a neurotoxic compound that interrupts the electron transport system of dopaminergic neurons. MPTP is chemically related to rotenone and paraquat, pesticides that can produce parkinsonian features in animals.
The highest level of intake of a given nutrient likely to pose no adverse health effects for nearly all healthy people. As intake increases above the upper intake level, the risk of adverse effects increases.
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Circadian rhythm News
- High-intensity exercise in the evening may be associated with greater reductions of the hunger stimulating hormones
- Time-restricted eating prevented obesity and metabolic syndrome in mice with mutations in genes regulating the circadian clocks.
- Caffeine that was given to people 3 hours before normal bedtime caused a 40-minute shift in the body's internal clock.
- After exposure to daytime bright light (6.5 hours), evening use of a tablet for two hours did not affect sleep in healthy young students.
- Acid Suspends the Circadian Clock in Hypoxia through Inhibition of mTOR. - PubMed - NCBI
