The electronics giant Philips has paid for research looking into whether the color of light can affect peoples’ mood. Philips installed special lights with four different colors in school classroom and found a strong link between the color of the light and student behavior. With the addition of skylights to your home or business, you can mimic the benefits by letting more natural light into a room.

Why Does Colored Light Affect Productivity?

People’s internal body clock, or Circadian system, is kept in balance by light received by the eyes. Scientists have long observed how people deprived of any light source lose all sense of time. The body clock is controlled by brain signals that originate as light received by the photosensitive ganglion cell at the back of the retina. The tests by Philips showed how altering not only the amount but the color of light can have a significant effect on peoples’ body clocks. Certain types of light such as blue light can trick people into believing that it is a certain time of day and they adjust their productivity accordingly.

How Can Skylights Affect The Color Of Light?

Unless you apply tinted film to the glass, skylights will not alter the color of light. They will simply let more natural light into your home, office or workspace. The Philips research found that blue-tinted light bulbs affected people’s internal body clocks and helped them to wake up more quickly in the morning. While skylights will not make natural light bluer, they will increase the amount of light coming into a room. If a room is darker and people are relying on yellow florescent lights, skylights will make the light bluer than it would otherwise have been. Combining skylights with blue bulbs will help people who struggle to get into gear in the morning. It can help increase reading speed and reduce errors so it is especially useful for office environments where productivity is essential.

Whiter Light Aids Concentration

The research from Phillips indicated that whiter light can help improve concentration. When teachers in their study turned on the whiter light bulbs, they noted that students could complete challenging tasks with fewer errors. Skylights let you achieve the same effect without the need for whiter bulbs. For any home office or office environment, people will work for longer and make fewer mistakes if the light is whiter. Skylights can give people in the room more natural light and the room will be whiter and brighter than it would previously have been.

Natural Light Is Healthier Than Artificial Light

People’s bodies can tell the difference between natural and artificial light. Skylights let more natural light into rooms and no colored bulb will be able to replicate this. The initial cost of installing skylights is obviously much higher than simply changing light bulbs. In a business environment, this outlay can be easily recouped through improved productivity. As natural light is superior, people in the room will be able to concentrate harder and complete tasks and work with fewer mistakes than they would otherwise have been able to under artificial lights.