Special Guest – Lisa Bartlett, IALD, RA

Dr. Barter welcomes her sister, Lisa Bartlett, an award-winning lighting architect, to discuss the massive impact light has on our overall wellness.

Many people do not understand just how much of an effect natural and artificial light has on their health. In modern times, people are generally far more exposed to the latter instead of the former, as most people work (and live, of course) indoors. As humans have moved further away from our agrarian ancestors, we have also moved further away from healthy sleep habits, most notably due to the artificial light we “trick” our bodies with. That’s not at all to say we aren’t lucky to be alive in a time of electricity and technology, but with such advancemets comes hard research and thoughtful design, which gives us the tools to better mitigate the risks while reaping the benefits.

It’s well known that poor sleep quality is one of the unhealthiest things for us on an ongoing basis. It’s also a contributing risk factor to almost every disease process known to medicine. Unfortunately, all to often, the medical community chalks up poor sleep to just another symptom of our hectic lives, not the physical cues our bodies have evolved to react to over millenia.

These physical cues reacting and creating physiological changes, such as hormone regulation, is known as our Circadian rhythmn.

With Lisa’s passion for wellness-supporting design she helps us understand:

– How the Circadian system works begining with the photoreceptors in the retinas.
– What type of indoor lighting is least disruptive to our Circadian system?
– What fixture positioning and bulb coloring can do to mitigate Circadian distruption.
– Product recommendations for healthier bulbs and dimming systems (light dimming is key!)
– Sleep hygiene recommendations based on lighting that you can implement immediatley