11 Benefits of LED lights on mental health in 2021

What are LED lights?

History of LED lights

The history of LED lights is the story of man’s search to banish the darkness from his life and throw light on those long dark winter months.

Discovery of electricity in the beginning of the 19th century began a period of fast development that would lead first to the invention of the incandescent light bulb and, more recently, the eco-friendly LED light.

LED lights have been on the mainstream market for 30 years now and in the last 5 years they have reached their popularity. Many people believe that LED lighting is a 21st-century invention. In reality it all began over 100 years ago.

Today LED lights replace practically any bulb, whether it’s for your home, business or even a car. Let’s take a look back on how the future of the lighting industry was born in the past!

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LED light development

The idea of electroluminescence had been born in the beginning of the 20th century but it wasn’t until 1962 that Nick Holonyak, Jr. from the “General Electric Company” in America developed the first visible LED light. 14 years later, in 1976 the first “high” brightness LED invented by T. P. Pearsall found its use in fiber-optic telecommunications.

The discovery of blue LED lights led to a more effective way to produce white light. Unfortunately the first ones that were produced were very expensive and not commercially within reach.

In 1994 in Japan another discovery saw the light of the day.  Blue, red, and green LED lights all together in combination produced any color of light! Scientists who discovered it, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2014 for their work.

This discovery served as the foundation to the next generation of LED lights – made by coating the blue LED lights with fluorescent phosphors. Next generation of LED lights- the one that we know today, was able to produce a fair amount of light and has a significantly longer shelf life than incandescent bulbs. This discovery had a positive impact on the U.S. Department of Energy, which encouraged further development of white LED lights for commercial and residential use.

One of the first buildings to entirely switch to LED lights was the Sentry Equipment Corporation in Wisconsin in 2008. For New Year’s in 2009 a Christmas tree in Finland was decorated with 720, 2 watt LED bulbs.

The future of LED lights

Many experts believe that the discovery of LED lights is one of the most important developments in recent times. Because LED lights can be used in a wide range of situations, more and more homes and businesses are switching to LEDs. While LED lights took about 100 years to be developed, it has proven to be well worth the effort today. The rise in LED popularity in the last 5 years isn’t due to a trend. It’s quite obvious: you receive the best quality of light while saving the most amount of money.

Human Centric Lighting (HCL)

Human-centric lighting (HCL) is a new movement that studies the relationship between light and mental health.

Human-centric lighting has two purposes:

• Biologically effective lighting to improve cognitive performance
• Emotionally effective lighting to create stimulating environments

This discovered the bigger importance of LED lighting, beyond well-known benefits of energy efficiency, cost, and carbon reduction, into improvements to healthcare, mental health, and overall life quality.

LED lights efficiency

LEDs are very efficient not only because of improvements in human well-being and mental health but also for the environmental benefits:

• LED lights have an extended work life
• LED lights reduce CO2 emissions
• LED lights slash power bills
• LED lights increase energy savings
• LED lights emit very little heat
• LED lights help fight climate change
• LED lights can be recycled

LED bulbs are made to produce light preferably rather than wasteful heat. LED bulbs’ lifespan is for an average of 40,000 hours, compared to incandescent bulbs that burn out in approximately 1,000 hours. It is insane to replace 40 incandescent bulbs to match the longevity of just one LED bulb. Tests have shown that for the same amount of lighting an incandescent bulb uses 60 watts of electricity, while an LED bulb uses 12,5 watts.

According to statistics published by the Statista Research Department, the most used types of light bulbs in the USA are energy-efficient light bulbs, used by 120.71 million Americans.

The U.S. Department of Energy sees LEDs as the lighting source with the greatest potential for the future. They predict that, with the widespread adoption of LED lights, by 2025 the country will:

• Lower electricity demands for lighting by 62%.
• Reduce carbon emissions by 258 million metric tons.
• Diminish the number of materials in landfills.
• Prevent the construction of 133 new power plants.
• Save $280 billion.

Here is 11 known benefits of LED lights for mental health in 2021

1. LED lights increase better engagement and commitment

You might be surprised to hear that your choice of lighting can have a significant impact on the productivity of your company. In fact, our research found that brighter levels of lighting comparable to daylight-like LED lights are beneficial for mental health, commitment, and productivity at the office.

Employees who are engaged in their work and committed to their organizations give companies crucial competitive advantages including higher productivity. It is not surprising that organizations of all sizes and types have invested substantially in a BETTER WORK ENVIRONMENT that encourages engagement and commitment in their workspace. Engaged employees may be more likely to commit to staying with their current organization. Engaged employees can help your organization achieve its mission, carry out its strategy, and generate important business results.

Enhance employee engagement and commitment with LED lights

There is no ultimate way to define or stimulate the engagement of employees in a company. The crucial fact is that the environment has a significant impact on productivity and overall experience in the workspace. Healthy and happy employees are more likely to feel committed and engaged.

The standard incandescent bulbs that are used in everyday life are producing yellow light that looks almost like sunlight. But in fact, real sunlight isn’t yellow. Natural sunlight is clear and bright and has a perfectly balanced ratio of the different wavelengths that are important for healthy brain function. The most similar solution for the lack of natural sunlight are LED lights. Switch to LED lights and create a space that is enjoyable to work in and an office where your employees want to spend their time.

2. LED lights provide better motivation and efficiency

The challenge for researchers is to design work environments that can best meet the needs of 21st-century workers and ensure maximum levels of well-being, mental health, and performance.

There is an obvious difference between properly motivated workers and those who are not. This means that workers are motivated to have a sense of belonging, recognition, and achievement. If employees are encouraged by motivation, they attempt to make sure that they identify with the organization. Since they are highly motivated, they will perform their functions with all sense of responsibility and efficiency.

Studies suggest that lighting is one of several factors that combine to create healthy work environments that help promote employee motivation, well-being, and efficiency. The employees should be exposed to natural daylight or artificial LED lights, as they play a significant role in mental health.

There is growing evidence for a connection between lighting conditions, shift work, and mental health conditions. In recent years there is a need to redesign modern workplaces to develop and sustain healthy, productive workers. Switching to LED lights is crucial for achieving a better work environment and that increasing motivation and efficiency.

3. LED lights improve focus and productivity

Despite the evidence that lighting at the workplace impacts worker safety, visual acuity, and productivity at work, there have been investigations of the impact of lighting on worker focus and productivity.

Studies of lighting in the workplace have shown that sunlight has positive effects on workers’ subjective well-being and mental health and that employees prefer to work near windows or in workplaces with natural lighting for higher productivity. However, the nature of modern working means that for many workers access to natural lighting is not always possible.

Most employees work in environments where there is a need for artificial lighting for some or all of their work period. This highlights a need to understand how the use of artificial lighting impacts directly or indirectly on worker well-being and performance. Studies have shown that people who work and live under LED lighting are easier to handle feelings of depression and anxiety and other mental health problems caused by lack of natural daylight during the winter months.

The researchers found that the blue-enriched white LED light improves subjective, positive mood, performance, concentration, productivity, and mental health. They also found that daytime sleepiness was reduced, and the quality of subjective nocturnal sleep was improved, by the blue-enriched white LED light.

Tip for night shifts:

If you work a night shift or use a lot of electronics at night, consider wearing blue-blocking glasses.

4. LED lights improve higher concentration

One of the most important benefits of LED lights is to improve concentration and boost a student’s learning. LED lights can be switched on to highlight white and blue light, which boost productivity and concentration. Younger students tend to have difficulty concentrating in the early morning. LED lighting can help to switch their natural biological rhythms to overcome the tiredness they experience early in the morning.

The Environmental Protection Agency established specific rules for schools that use fluorescent lighting in their buildings. If a fluorescent lamp breaks during school hours, the school must be evacuated until all traces of mercury have been removed from the premises.

With LED lighting, this kind of interruption would never happen because LED lights do not contain any hazardous materials found in fluorescent lamps. While LEDs do contain some other chemicals, they’re free of mercury, which is toxic and can be found in traditional light bulbs. LEDs are not considered toxic by current U.S. laws and can be easily disposed of. If an LED light does break, replacing it is a quick, easy process. LEDs are also recyclable, which makes them environmentally friendly.

5. LED lights improve learning performance

In recent years, a lot of research has been conducted to determine the right amount of lighting to increase productivity at work, or even to improve sleep and mental health. But the question is:

If it can affect worker productivity, would it not also affect student learning performance?

For optimal learning performance, “cool” or “blue” light is better while “yellow” or “warm” light is the most relaxing. Sunlight has a correlated color temperature (CCT) of about 6,500 K (Kelvin), while incandescent bulbs emit light between 2500 K and 3000 K. The great news is that LED lights can easily adjust their CCT, unlike incandescent or fluorescent lamps whose CCT stays fixed.

To improve student learning, busting out walls to create larger windows may not be the best “in the budget” solution for the school. Luckily, LED lights to offer a similar and more cost-effective solution for educational and other buildings.

Students who learn under LED lights scored better than students learning under fluorescent lighting. They remain more alert and focused throughout the day, absorbing all the necessary information. Poor lighting can lead to sleepiness, less productivity, and concentration, and even poor test scores. The quality and color of lighting have been proven to impact students’ learning in several studies. Fluorescent lights, which are evident to flicker and dim over time, are also associated with visual distress and headaches in classrooms.

Bright white LED lighting in classrooms has been shown to improve student concentration and productivity, which then leads to better learning and testing.

6. LED lights elevate mood

Studies have found that the color of lighting can have an effect on a persons’ mood and work performance. Workers have displayed a low mood when the lighting was too bright or too pale, but the mood improved when the lighting was at the right level of color and brightness.

The temperature of light in Kelvin is a numerical measurement of the colour of light. Unlike air temperature, measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit, warm color temperatures have low Kelvins, and cool color temperatures have high Kelvins. The Kelvin scale runs from 0 – 10,000K but most LEDs will be between 2,000 and 6,500K. The color of light is emitted when an object is heated at a high temperature. As the temperature increases, the object changes colors and emits certain colors of that light.

For example, when a blacksmith is heating up an iron horseshoe, as the temperature increases, the horseshoe will start to glow different colors. From red, then orange, yellow, white, and finally, it will emit a bluish-white color. Lower color temperature light sources are called “warm” because they emit red, orange, and yellow colours. Higher color temperature light sources are called “cool” because they are on the violet and blue end of the color spectrum.

The material used for LED lights determines its color. The two main types of LED lights are:

• Aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP, sometimes rearranged as  AlInGaP) for red, orange, and yellow LED lights.
• Indium gallium nitride (InGaN) for green, blue, and white LED lights.

Slight changes in the composition of these alloys change the color of the emitted light. Warm LED lights have a relaxing impact, and blue LED lights help to keep us alert. Blue LED lights have found use in elevating mood in offices, but some areas of the home are used for both relaxing and concentrating. Luckily, manufacturers have come to appreciate this situation and have innovated LED fixtures with changing color temperatures. These fixtures combine two sets of LED chips, cool and warm temperatures, which users can alternate between.

So, if you don’t have access to natural sunlight, working under “blue-enriched” LED lights will increase work performance by supporting mental health, mood, and alertness while reducing tiredness and daytime sleepiness.

The next time you find yourself eager to get into the office in the early hours and not mind staying late after hours, it’s possible that new LED lighting has changed your rhythm and gave you a slight advantage.

7. LED lights reduce stress

Employee well-being is a wide concept that can incorporate a variety of factors from subjective feelings of work satisfaction to clinical measures of employee mental health and stress.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, more than half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress costing the industry about £9.6bn every year. In fact, there is evidence of increased work-related stress across many developed and developing countries due to changes in work design, a faster speed of work, and more recent changes in the global economic climate. The well-being literature identifies several factors that induce significant stress levels in companies, including a poorly designed work environment that has the most relevance to interventions based on improving lighting.

Providing employees with a workplace that allows them to feel comfortable is a fundamental human requirement. There is plenty of research concerned with ways in which companies can reduce stress levels, enhance well-being, and improve mental health. Most studies demonstrate that to be successful, employee well-being and mental health must be systematically and holistically managed. Factors such as lighting, humidity, and temperature are now seen as being as important as team-building activities, supportive supervision, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making.

8. LED lights decrease the occurrence of headaches

Many companies use fluorescent lighting to light large areas because it’s a fairly inexpensive option. Unfortunately, a significant body of research investigated how fluorescent lighting, specifically the luminous flicker produced by such lighting, leads to visual discomfort, stress, and headaches. The good news is that there is an alternative!  LED bulbs do not flicker, and in turn, can help ease headaches.

There are 3 ways poor quality lighting can trigger headaches:

• The shine on computer screens from any overhead lighting
• The shine from overhead incandescent lighting
• The flicker from fluorescent lighting

Basically, this poor quality lighting overloads your system to receive large amounts of light and visual information without allowing your brain to relax and process the information. As a result, in some people, the brain can’t handle this amount of information which creates migraines, headaches, and discomfort. Working in a poorly illuminated environment can be just as uncomfortable as working under bright lights.

A study conducted by the American Society of Interior Designers showed that 68% of employees were not satisfied with the lighting quality in their offices. Lighting is considered one of the most important factors in ergonomics, but unfortunately, this part of an office’s design is overlooked, rushed, or sacrificed for style.

Windows in a workspace environment are the number one factor of an employee’s content with a building. Natural sun lighting not only affects how well we are able to see, but it can also boost our mood, energy level, productivity, and hormonal balance. However, natural light comes with the unwanted side effects of heat and glare. In the hot summer months, nobody wants just a tiny stray passing through their window. Also, the larger part of the power that is used by incandescent bulbs is producing heat vs. light. And the heat intensity increases the longer the bulb is in use.

The good news is, there is a solution. LED lights, unlike traditional conventional lighting, emit very little heat. This means LED lights can be safely left on for longer periods of time. LED lights emit very little heat no matter how long they’re used. In addition, LED lights can operate on low-voltage electrical systems, which adds to their safety aspects.

9. LED lights Balances Circadian Rhythm

Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions and processes. One of the most important and well-known circadian rhythms is the sleep-wake cycle.

When properly balanced circadian rhythm can promote consistent and revitalizing sleep. But when this circadian rhythm is discontinued, it can create significant sleeping problems, including insomnia. Research is also revealing that circadian rhythms play an integral role in various aspects of physical and mental health.

The optimal function of the body’s circadian rhythm depends on the right exposure of light. This vital process helps your body to determine when you should wake up, go to bed, and even focus and relax. If people are regularly exposed to lighting that doesn’t match their circadian rhythm, it can disrupt their sleep-wake cycle. And people who aren’t getting enough sleep are at increased risk of issues with mental health.

People who don’t have enough exposure to natural sunlight are at higher risk to have issues with mental health and physical well-being resulting from abnormal hormonal secretion. The result can be sleep deprivation, also known as Circadian Disruption. Other problems include depression and circulatory issues. Unfortunately, traditional lighting does not provide the specific spectrum of light required. With traditional incandescent and fluorescent lighting, it is very difficult to even achieve the recommended light levels in a tolerable manner, and impossible to provide the critical light spectrum for circadian light.

Fortunately, LED lighting is far more controllable in terms of the light spectrum as well as in terms of dimming and low radiance. Emitted light from a source can be measured in the spectral power density (SPD) at a specific light spectrum in nanometers. LED lights are used in top-quality lighting to have a perfect score of 100% SPD at the desired light spectrum as suggested by a leading brain scientist. This is important, as the critical light spectrum can be indirectly delivered at controllable levels of light in the environment.

Eco Origin LED panel lights to have indirect light and a pleasant glow to the eye, even at the higher light levels, and are light approved under New South Wales Energy Saving Scheme and Victorian Energy Upgrade Initiative for various types of spaces (schools, office buildings, residential, and much more).

10. LED lights prevent SAD

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern. This mental health problem is sometimes known as “winter depression” because the symptoms are usually more apparent and more severe during the winter months.

Symptoms of SAD:

• Low mood
• Lost interest in normal everyday activities
• Irritability
• Feelings of depression, guilt, and worthlessness
• Lacking in energy and feeling sleepy during the day
• Sleeping for longer than usual and finding it hard to get up in the morning
• craving carbohydrates and gaining weight

The main theory is that a lack of sunlight might stop a part of the brain called the hypothalamus working properly, which may affect the production of:

• Melatonin- a hormone that makes you feel sleepy
• Production of serotonin-hormone that affects your mood, appetite, and sleep;
• May Impact the Body internal clock (circadian rhythm) – lower light levels during the winter may disrupt your body clock and lead to symptoms of SAD

LED light Therapy

In the lack of natural sunlight researchers had found a way to cope with struggles of all kinds of depression- LED Light Therapy. With the regular use of LED Light Therapy, it can decrease the risk of depression and SAD, and overall support your mental health. Controlled sunlight exposure helps improve your mood and feelings by boosting the serotonin levels in your body.

LED Light Therapy supports your body to naturally produce melatonin, which has a wide range of effects on the brain, from improving sleep to synchronizing your biological clocks, and lowering stress. It’s important to say that LED Light Therapy emits a healthy spectrum of light, doesn’t contain UV rays (no suntan), and doesn’t contain vitamin D. The great thing about LED Light Therapy for those suffering from a mental health illness is that it is completely natural. Many veterans suffering from mental health illnesses do not want to take mood-altering medications with adverse side effects. Light Therapy can help improve mental health in the most natural form. Hospitals are now using LED lighting that has high color temperatures to keep employees alert and for the good mood, faster healing, and well-being of patients.

One in three people in the UK suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This impact on mental health and well-being in the winter season of the year has an impact on NHS services too. Reports from the Health and Safety Executive from only 5 years ago said that the impact on mental health cost the British economy around £13.8 billion in 2011.

11. LED lights Provide Improvement in Visual Performance and Comfort

When you’re making plans to decorate or build a home or office space, do you consider the best sources of light and their effects on your eyes? After all, these places have everyday purposes, whether it’s to rest and relax, or get to work and be productive, so the last thing you’re focused on is lighting. The type of light you use and are exposed to most often affects not only the ambiance and your mental health but also your eye health. So choosing the right lighting source requires careful consideration.

In a study published in 2011 in the American Journal of Public health researchers have found a 12% increase in eye diseases caused by exposure to bright, cool, fluorescent lights.

Glare and Flickr are two issues associated with conventional lights. Glare often causes you to blink or look away and can be caused by one of two things — excessively high luminance or excessively high luminance ratios. Especially when performing tasks that require intense focus, poor lighting can result in uncomfortable symptoms that accompany eye strain.

Install Ambient and Corrective LED Lights

A smart combination of ambient and corrective LED lights is a great way to keep from eye strain. The key is to spread out the lighting in your home and office space to ensure adequate lighting. Ambient LED lights are ideal for lighting up any room in your home as they emit a warm and gentle light that creates a comfortable lighting environment. It’s also a good tip to place corrective LED lights behind your computer or TV screen to ease out the exposure to bright light.

To create a lighting environment with no distraction to the eyes, use multiple Eco Origin LED light products such as LED downlights, LED spotlights, LED globes, or LED battens that illuminate the space sufficiently without producing shadows. Multiple light sources eliminate hot spots and harsh contrasts as they increase the overall amount of light.

The 21st century brought us increased exposure to phone and computer screens, so it is high time to start giving visual comfort a priority. Make changes in your lighting setup today with Eco Origin LED lighting solutions that are soothing on the eyes!