31st August 2020

Day Shift - And why you want it in your home.

Have you been struggling working from home? In other words, are you in your pyjamas reading this? A lot of things are out of your control with your home office setup: the neighbours arguing about… everything, the small humans requiring entertainment, and/or the four-legged creatures knocking over your laptop.

Distractions multiply on top of one another, but you can find the light. Not at the end of the tunnel (avoid that one), but circadian lighting that helps you focus (or relax) throughout your day. It’s of benefit in your whole home, but the fact that you’re now working from home makes the need a bit more, shall we say, in your face? Let’s get into it.

Circadian Rhythm

You’ve got rhythm, even if it’s not on the dance floor. Circadian rhythm is the natural internal process that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. And light, whether natural or artificial, is the biggest influence on that rhythm.

Essentially, photoreceptors on your eyeballs pick up lighting cues from the environment to determine time of day. These cues regulate your sleep-wake cycle by controlling the body’s melatonin (sleep hormone) production. The technical term for all this is equivalent melanopic lux, but who wants to be technical? Here’s an eyeball visual:

As we all decided to be civilized beasties who live indoors, we don’t pick up these lighting cues from the sun. Enter, circadian lighting. How does it work? Well, it mimics the sun. (In colour temperature, not the whole ball of flame thing.)

CCT Tuning

CCT, if you don’t know it, stands for correlated colour temperature. It’s the measurement (in kelvin) of light given off by, well, the light itself. Cooler temperatures create that midday sun feeling while warmer temperatures hit the twilight vibe (not the vampiric one).

CCT tuning allows you to simulate the progression of the sun in the sky with your own indoor circadian lighting design. You want to do this not only because it improves your sleep-wake cycle, but because it also increases focus during working hours and relaxation post-shift.

Day Shift

And here’s the product plug, our new smart light range has dynamic CCT with day and nighttime presets. We call this feature Day Shift. It’s pretty self-explanatory in name, but here’s the breakdown anyway. Day Shift technology gradually increases brightness and CCT to increase feelings of wakefulness and focus during the day before decreasing them to put you in a relaxed state in the evening. So, you’ll wake up in the morning with 3000K before gradually shifting up to 6000K by midday before dropping down to 2700K after work.

The low CCT and brightness in the morning gently ease you awake. We’re not looking for the shock and awe of an ice bucket over the head. It’s a natural wake-up followed by increased CCT to get those brain cells jogging. It works better than that mug of java to bring you around to your day.

Then, when evening hits, you’ve already been exposed to a gradual downward shift in CCT, so you’re feeling more relaxed. Like sipping a glass of red wine after hours. (Yes, we do like our beverage visuals.) It’ll help you shake off the workday and get that full night of shut-eye.

The Light You Need

All living things—including plants—use circadian rhythms to regulate internal cycles. For a flower, the rhythm controls when it opens its petals in the sun before closing up shop at night. For you, it’s a sleep-wake cycle that has you alert and focused (with the right lighting) during the day and conked out snoring at night.

Accept that you’re a beastie deep down and get the lighting that will bring natural structure to your day. Call us for a little Day Shift conversation: 1300 672 499.