
Age of Enlightenment: The Promise of Circadian Lighting - anarbadalov
https://undark.org/article/circadian-lighting-human-centric-lighting/
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jimnotgym
Since these kind of stories are pretty popular on HN I maintain a list at
[https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression](https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression)

Maybe it will help someone.

For anyone who thinks this is medically reckless, please see the earlier
discussions where it has already been discussed to death.

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upofadown
I have a bank of blue LEDs that shines on my white ceiling in the living room.
I live at a northern latitude so the big interest was in avoiding the blahs in
the dead of winter.

I initially had them on for 12 hours a day centred on solar noon. That
produced a feeling I associated with spending the day out in the sun which I
did not find pleasant. After some messing around I now have them turn on for
12 minutes every 2 hours during the day. The first blue light interval is an
exception, it is 24 minutes. Having 12 minutes for "daybreak" just didn't seem
to be enough.

The only objective result I can report is that I no longer find myself opening
the blinds on the living room window. Before the blue light system I used to
open them daily. So ironically I now spend most of my day in semidarkness.

I leave them running in the summer when the problem is an excess of light. It
doesn't seem to make a difference and it means that I no longer notice when
the bue light is on or off.

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mkirklions
Is anyone else unaffected by lighting and screens?

Ive been 'addicted' to the computer/tv since I was 1 years old apparently.

I dont find myself affected by any of these blue or yellow lights. I tried
making the change and thought it was easier on my eyes, but I didnt feel
different.

~~~
derefr
My hypothesis is that the people who get majorly affected by blue light at
night, are that way because they’re not getting a strong-enough pulse of blue
light _in the morning_ for their circadian clock to calibrate itself by. It
latches onto whatever signal it can find, and thus begins to think that
“sunrise” happens at 9AM when you sit down at your blue-light-emitting
monitor, rather than at 6AM when blue light starts coming down from the sky.

Or, shorter: maybe it’s because you have large east-facing exposure in your
house.

~~~
thekingofh
Do you mean West facing? If you had a large East facing exposure then it would
give you that pulse of blue light in the morning. I've got a big East facing
exposure and don't have any issue with blue light screens. Watch TV every
night before bed. No problems.

~~~
mfgs
That depends on which hemisphere you're in.

~~~
pishpash
Unless you're on another planet, no.

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ggg9990
I’ve installed this lighting through the ground floor of my house. It’s not
continuously variable but has three different white point LED strip lighting
systems that are transitioned from one to the other based on the color
temperature reading from outside.

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realitygrill
Where can I buy such systems?

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ggg9990
I built the high level system but out of stock components from the usual
suspects. I used off the shelf components though. Standard High CRI LED
strips, stock power supplies, 0-10v dimmers, and a Raspberry Pi in charge.
Most of the hardware and heat sink from superbrightleds.

~~~
chillacy
LED dimmers introduce another problem in some people, which is the high
frequency strobing, which can cause headaches and eyestrain.

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amluto
A good LED dimmer won’t do this. There’s even a standard now: IEEE 1789. It’s
possible, albeit hard, to find IEEE 1789-compliant dimmers.

~~~
ksec
I was about to back to Halogen Lamp, and I was hoping there are improvement to
Halogen Lamp then anything else.

Are there any Consumer LED Products, that offer High CRI 95+, may be with less
UV since that should be less indoor, Long Life, Little degradation on CRI and
Lighting over time, and more importantly NO / Zero flicking?

I have been asking and thinking, assuming all our electricity is green and
cheap, why would I want a LED over Halogen Lamp? All the problem I have, which
I absolutely hate and drive me crazy are colour inaccuracy and flickering.
Both of which are non existent to Halogen Lamp.

~~~
amluto
> All the problem I have, which I absolutely hate and drive me crazy are
> colour inaccuracy and flickering. Both of which are non existent to Halogen
> Lamp.

Not really true. The fancier halogen lamps (e.g. MR16s with reflectors that
pass IR) have CRI below 100. Halogen lamps _do_ buzz, especially when
connected to a dimmer. (Many halogen lamps are 12V, too, and most of the
transformers also buzz.) And they _all_ flicker — the power delivered to the
filament is roughly sinusoidal at 120Hz, and the thermal mass is low enough
that there is a good amount of modulation in the light output. IIRC it’s about
30%. It just so happens that the residual 120Hz modulation is low enough that
it doesn’t affect most people.

A crappy LED driver modulates much deeper than 30% at 120Hz and might even
modulate at 60Hz. A good LED driver doesn’t.

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neves
All the site looks like an ad. It is interesting, but does not take in
consideration factors like the damage that blue light can cause to children's
eyes: [https://vu.ca/en/journal/blue-light-a-danger-to-your-
childre...](https://vu.ca/en/journal/blue-light-a-danger-to-your-children-s-
eyes/)

~~~
opencl
The sun puts out enormous amounts of blue light. Yet actual research[1] shows
that children with more exposure to UV-B (obviously highly correlated with
sunlight exposure) are _less likely_ to suffer from myopia. This site just
says 'blue light is bad for you' and presents no scientific research. And is
literally selling blue light blocking lenses.

[1]
[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullartic...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullarticle/2588252)

~~~
dTal
Lots of sunlight = outside a lot = lots of far objects to focus on

Staring at a screen all the time = eye constantly focused close

It doesn't seem like rocket science to me. Blue light seems like a very odd
explanation, unless you're selling something...

