Impact of Light in Health and Welfare

            After reading the article Influence on Architectural Lighting on Health, I realized how much consideration should go into lighting.  Light can be so impactful to people, from it affecting their physiology and their psychology.  The eyes receive interpretations that allow people to transition from wakefulness into sleepiness through the change in the day – from day to night.  This transition includes a level of hormones called melatonin which promotes sleep and increases in darkness.  There are other physiological effects such as the immune and cardiac system.  As for psychological effects, the lack of daylight can affect emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses.  The fact that light can affect so much on a mind and body is a very serious matter. 

            Daylight has such an importance in people’s lives, it is strange to me that Influence on Architectural Lighting on Health seems to be implying that there is still a continual struggle to focus more energy or effort on lighting in places such as hospitals, where the physiological and psychological are intertwined.  However, it is not only in hospitals but in work places, as well, that we should make a stronger effort and really consider light and its effects on people.  Why do is there so much focus on light in a residential world but not enough in the commercial world?  My mistake was assuming daylight has a big importance in our lives without being aware how detrimental the lack of daylight can be to our health.  It is something I will definitely keep in my thoughts.