Mimic Natural Circadian Rhythms with Light to Improve Sleep-Wake Cycle
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioral changes in people that follow a 24-hour cycle. Connecting aspects of the lighting in a space to a person’s natural circadian rhythm can influence important functions in our health and wellness, such as increasing overall daytime alertness and improving nighttime sleep.
Our eyes relay messaging to our brains depending on the light we are exposed to in our environment, signaling daytime or nighttime and our bodies react accordingly. Shifting cyan content, CCT and intensity of light based on the time of day can allow the spaces we occupy to be aligned with the natural rhythms of our body. In particular, eliminating cyan content and lowering CCT and intensity of light in the time before going to bed has been shown to improve sleep while increasing cyan content and using higher CCT and intensity levels of light can improve alertness during the day.
Residential
Integrating a local scheduler into the design and build of lighting within residential homes can allow designers to enable circadian rhythm components and promote the health of occupants, mimicking the natural light changes of a person’s sleep-wake cycle. Circadian lighting can be integrated into all types of residential light fixtures, both big and small, and can allow changes in cyan levels, CCT, and intensity throughout the dwelling automatically throughout the day in order to promote health, wellness and overall comfort.
Healthcare
Healthcare facilities can implement circadian lighting within a centrally managed system for long-term care patients, as a tool to regulate circadian rhythms and optimize sleep-wake schedules. LED systems have been used in Neonatal intensive care units (NICU) to help very young patients to regulate circadian rhythms and promote growth and development. There is growing research on the positive effects that circadian lighting can have in healthcare settings, including reducing hospital stay length.
ARKALUMEM
Using APT Intelligent Controllers to Implement Circadian Rhythm
Arkalumen’s engineering team work directly with light fixture manufacturers in the design and implementation of circadian lighting solutions. If implemented in a centrally managed system, Arkalumen offers simple and flexible APT controllers that can be easily configured with a custom LED module to achieve the desired spectra throughout the day. If an independent circadian lighting fixture is desired, Arkalumen has engineering experience implementing circadian lighting solutions with embedded schedulers incorporated within their APT controllers.
Depending on the application and the complexity of the spectra desired, the APT CC, CV2, or CV5 product families can be incorporated into the fixture and configured to achieve specific spectra depending upon the time of day. When integrated with approved drivers and custom LED modules, the APT intelligent controller can act as the brain within the circadian lighting fixture.
Create a Circadian Rhythm System Using APT Intelligent Controllers and Bold LED Modules
APT Intelligent Controllers
APT-CC
APT-CV2
APT-CV4/5
LED Modules
