Natural light from the sun is healthful, but light also comes from manufactured sources, and therein lies a number of problems. The wrong kind of artificial light can make students irritable in school, reduce production among factory workers, and make office workers sluggish and prone to error. Scientific studies show that not getting enough sunlight can interfere with calcium absorption in the body and contribute to brittle bones. Low levels of outdoor light and ineffective artificial light indoors can also lead to Seasonal Affected Disorder (S.A.D.) and winter blues.
Artificial light can and does produce negative energy detrimental to your body. When you are indoors, you are not only deprived of natural sunlight, you are actually subjected to irritating and harmful artificially produced light from incandescent, halogen and standard fluorescent light bulbs. These bulbs produce, essentially, a yellow-based color that irritates the nerve endings, creates glare, stresses your body and impairs the immune system. In addition, the standard fluorescent light, operating at a 60-hertz pulse rate (from magnetic ballasts), creates more radiation, flicker rates and related negative effects on the body. The glare produced by these lights is very hard and irritating on the eyes.
These detrimental effects can be eliminated by switching the fluorescent ballast in the fixture from magnetic to electronic and by replacing fluorescent tubes and all screw-in bulbs with full spectrum bulbs (see Full Spectrum Lights). The newer mandated T8 thin fluorescent tubes all come standard with electronic ballasts. Newly developed white light-emitting-diode (LED) bulbs will also negate some of these effects. The price of these bulbs will continue to be become more affordable as they become the standard lighting in homes.
Why Do I Feel Tired Under Most Artificial Lighting?
The yellow color of most lighting irritates the nerve endings of your skin and keeps you in a constant state of low-grade stress. Full spectrum lighting does not have this effect. In addition, if your regular lights are fluorescent, they flicker 60 times per second. This flicker is just above your visual limit of 45 times per second. So while you don’t always notice it consciously, it is still acting as an irritation to your body. Using “electronic” ballasts can eliminate this flicker. These ballasts, in your light fixtures, boost the flicker rate up to 25,000 times per second.
What Causes Glare when Reading Under Artificial Lighting?
The yellow color from incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lights does not absorb into white paper, but bounces back creating glare and eyestrain. This does not occur in sunlight, nor under full spectrum lighting.
How Can Light Counteract Radiation from Computer Terminals and Unshielded Fluorescent Tubes?
Computers, TV’s, and fluorescent lights are cathode-ray devices and as such radiate soft x-rays up to three feet. These rays penetrate the body and cause iron in the hemoglobin of the blood to clump. This reduces oxygen flow and results in drowsiness. When sunlight or full spectrum light enters the eyes, it is transmitted throughout the body, including the bloodstream, where it causes an un-clumping of the blood counteracting the adverse effect.