Time is another factor to be considered. “Specifiers don’t think about this when they are designing,” Figueiro says. “As researchers, we have to develop better strategies for disseminating this information to architects and lighting designers so they understand the link between luminaire type and color temperature and the effect that has over the course of a 24-hour cycle.” She notes that controls will play a big role in meeting the needs of both the circadian and the visual system.
Still, there are obstacles. The two principal communities involved in the discussion—designers and scientists—do not speak the same language. Figueiro also believes there is the need for a “mentality change” among members of the design community for them to take this information seriously and start applying it to real-time scenarios and spaces. “You have to expand the discussion to architects and that hasn’t happened yet. I think this topic is completely foreign to architectural designers.” Yet in Oberkircher’s opinion, there is “a wonderful synergy between fields that have worked independently for too long.”
SPACE AND BEYOND Funding sources are growing scarcer. In the past eight years the current administration has substantially eliminated the bulk of science and medical research funding at the NIH, the nation’s premier research institution. Researchers studying light and health, in turn, have had to become more creative in how they seek financial support looking beyond traditional outlets, for example, through two of the NIH’s branches, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging. And as researchers begin to investigate potential links between light and certain types of cancer, the National Cancer Institute has become another funding resource. As Zeitzer explains, “If you are doing basic research and you can hook onto a specific disease already under investigation, it will be a lot easier to receive funding for your particular area of research.”
NASA also has been a great source of support for light and health research. As the space program continues to send humans into space, it is critical for NASA to understand how space travel impacts the circadian cycle. According to Brainard, who works extensively with NASA, studies already have shown that space flight disrupts the human circadian cycle. In fact, astronauts suffer from chronic partial sleep deprivation and even with sleep medications can only obtain 4-1/2 to 6 hours of sleep while in space.
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a branch of NASA, also actively is involved in exploring leading-edge technology. With the potential of one day colonizing the moon and Mars, architecture suitable for these environments will be necessary, in addition to lighting systems that can respond to the lighting conditions of these other planets. How would the human body adapt to these different light levels and what steps would be required to sync the human circadian cycle with these other planetary systems? As Brainard says, “We are in the early days of a revolution. Ten years ago it was an issue of if light impacts health. It’s not a question anymore, it’s how and when.”
