Working from Home: How Light Affects Mood and Spaces

The relationship between light exposure, productivity and our overall well-being is significant. Light impacts everything from our mood, to our appetite and energy levels. The popularity of the hybrid working model means millions of Australians are still working from home on a regular basis. With that said, it’s important to take the impact of light into account to ensure you can maximise productivity and focus. Below, the team at Somfy outlines the benefits of smart light bulbs, motorised interior blinds and new blind controls that help to control light.

Light and Energy

Exposure to light during the day makes us more alert and energised. This heightened alertness lasts for a full half hour once blue light exposure ends. Blue light comes from the sun as well as from our lights, phone screens and computer screens. This heightened alertness is great but it’s important to balance your light exposure. For example, lighting that’s too harsh or too dim will strain your vision, negatively impacting how well you can focus on work.

Meanwhile, too much light exposure at night can disrupt your circadian rhythm and make it difficult to find energy during the day. For that reason, it’s important to consider light exposure both during your working hours and after. Dimmer lighting as it gets later allows our bodies to adjust, making us more relaxed and calm when it’s closer to bedtime.

How Smart Lighting Helps

Smart lighting solutions make it easy to set the right lighting for the right time of day. For example, you can set lighting in your home to mimic the bright, blue-white light of daylight to boost productivity and alertness during work hours while dimming at night. Adding smart sensors can allow your lightbulbs to automatically adjust to outdoor conditions, making it easy to light your home in a way that’s in tune with our natural sleep-wake cycles.

Lack of Natural Light Impacts Health

Ensure you look beyond just your light bulbs. Poor exposure to natural light is often responsible for fatigue and headaches, as well as an increase in the symptoms of depression, anxiety and poor immune function. One study found that seven weeks of  increased sunlight exposure, can help alleviate the symptoms of some health issues.

Importance of Natural Lighting

Controlling natural light exposure during the day and ensuring you get moments of silence while working from home will help improve productivity and creativity, whilst also helping you sleep better at night. For fine-tuned control over natural lighting, there’s nothing better than motorised interior blinds. With centralised control from a Somfy remote or the magic of voice control via Connexoon Window RTS, controlling light in your home is seamless, never distracting you from your work.

Maximising Home Office Comfort

Other impacts on productivity include noise and temperature. Moments of silence while working from home are absolutely crucial. Meanwhile, feeling too hot or too cold can disrupt your focus on the task at hand. Motorised interior blinds help maintain a comfortable temperature in your home office in addition to regulating natural light. Somfy's smart home controls provide easy, smart blinds that help in light adjustment. Automated schedules open and close blinds at certain times throughout the day to maintain the ideal temperature and lighting.

Temperature and Light Control at a Tap

You can even connect your blinds to outdoor temperature sensors so they automatically open and close to maintain a comfortable indoor environment year-round. Somfy’s Connexoon Window RTS app can control both natural lighting through your motorised interior blinds as well as your smart light bulbs, offering a seamless, holistic solution for a comfortable and productive home office.

Contact Somfy for Smart Blinds Helping in Light Adjustment

Create a better home office environment today with the latest automation solutions. Contact Somfy about our range including blind controls helping to control light and improve your work from home space.