Lighting and Health: Benefits of Anew Lighting

The link between proper lighting and physical wellness is pretty well known. But did you know that some types of light bulbs deliver more health benefits than others? Between California’s recent ban on CFL bulbs for their mercury content and the latest federal ban on incandescent lighting for its costly energy inefficiencies, more people are seeing how LED light and health concerns are a natural pairing.

As an industry leader in technical innovations, TCP is always focused on creating energy-efficient lighting options that make people’s lives better every day. That commitment led our designers and engineers to develop a brilliant line of lighting options that can help reduce blue lighting exposure in homes and workplaces: Anew Lighting.

Read on to learn what blue lighting is, how your mood and sleep patterns can suffer from the so-called blue light effect, and why Anew light bulbs are a smart choice to bring serious health benefits to today’s hottest home lighting trends.

What Is Anew Lighting?

Our latest series of Anew Lighting is the incandescent alternative that redefines the classics. These brand-new LED beauties probably look familiar — they retain that A19 shape we all recognize, as well as the E26 base that allows them to fit into all the fixtures you used with incandescents. In fact, the big difference in these light bulbs is actually invisible to the naked eye, but it’s crucial to how LED light and health are connected.

First, let’s touch on lighting color temperature and why it matters. In the clearest sunlight, we see bright, white light. It includes every wavelength, from the longest red wavelengths to the shortest blue wavelengths. Lights that skew a bit red or yellow appear soft and warm, even from LED bulbs that don’t emit heat. Lights that lean toward the blue end of the spectrum seem “cooler,” which often makes them seem brighter. Traditional incandescents put out warm light regardless of wattage, whereas standard LEDs cover the full spectrum while often producing a spike of blue wavelengths.

We need the entire spectrum of light to be healthy overall, but blue lighting is an excellent example of how too much of a good thing can become a bad thing.

We take in blue light from many sources, including our digital devices. And while getting lots of blue lighting from being outdoors or in well-lit spaces during the day is great, exposing ourselves to blue light after the sun sets can have a serious impact on our overall health. That’s why experts now recommend that we limit our screen time, especially right before bedtime, or invest in blue light-blocking glasses or screen covers.

How are blue light and health at odds? Let’s take a look.

How Blue Lighting Can Affect Your Health

The benefits of switching to LEDs include saving on utility bills, replacing bulbs less often and being kinder to our shared planet. But it turns out that many LEDs are also a significant source of spikes in blue light wavelengths.

Eye health experts point to negative blue lighting effects on our health that can include:

Vision Problems

The retina is the incredibly sensitive covering over the back interior wall of your eyeball. All light that passes through the cornea and lens is absorbed by the retina, where it’s converted into images the brain can process. Too much blue light can cause vision problems that range from eye strain and dry eyes to cataracts and macular degeneration — a serious disease that permanently damages the most sensitive part of the retina, resulting in loss of central vision.

Mood Disruptions

Exposure to daylight helps our bodies produce a healthy level of vitamin D, which contributes to our ability to regulate our moods and emotions. When sunlight is in short supply, like during the shorter winter months, we often notice feelings of sluggishness, irritability or depression. But the reverse is also true: Get too much blue light, and your health can suffer by interruptions to your natural circadian rhythms that often put us in a foul mood or evoke emotional upsets.

Trouble Sleeping

The main problem with blue lighting is how it can affect our sleep patterns. Our bodies tend to be naturally wakeful while the sun shines and sleepy when it gets dark — that’s known as our circadian rhythm, and it’s kept regular when our bodies produce a hormone called melatonin. Exposing ourselves to extra blue light by looking at digital screens after sunset disrupts our melatonin production, which interrupts those natural sleep cycles. And not getting enough sleep leads to a host of health problems, like higher risks for insomnia, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Health Benefits of Anew Lighting

To help reduce blue lighting exposure in homes and workplaces, our engineering pros have developed several TCP natural light and low blue lighting options. Anew Lighting is our latest line that connects the brilliance of LED light and health-focused light spectrum adjustments to produce light that closely matches daylight without blue light spikes.

Improve your family’s everyday experience and overall well-being with these Anew Lighting health benefits:

Reduced Eye Strain

Anew light bulbs deliver 60-watt-equivalent brightness with an incredibly high color rendering index (CRI). That means the light from these beauties covers the full spectrum with that familiar incandescent glow — and the colors of objects and skin tones remain true to themselves as they would under bright, direct sunlight. All this without those pesky blue light spikes translates to less eye strain, meaning fewer instances of headaches, dry eyes, blurred vision and neck strain.

Well-Regulated Sleep Patterns

When we reduce blue light exposure on a daily basis, we are upping the odds that we’ll get a better night’s sleep on the regular. And that means not only being in bed for 6 or 7 hours but sleeping soundly without interruption through all the cycles of sleep. When you get a good night’s rest, you’re not only healthier — you feel ready to tackle the world!

Better Memory, Mood and Motivation

We’ve all been there: You didn’t get much sleep last night, and today you’re feeling super irritable, you can’t remember details about your work, and you have zero inspiration to engage in the activities you normally enjoy. Here’s where the rubber meets the road as far as blue light and health are concerned. Less blue light means better sleep, which helps improve your memory, regulate your mood and spark your motivation. By reducing blue light exposure and protecting your natural circadian rhythms, you’re giving yourself, your family and your colleagues the gift of the very best you.

Staying Healthy With TCP

Check out all the health benefits of swapping those old incandescent light bulbs for Anew Lighting from TCP. You’ll feel better and see a brighter future by nixing the blue lighting effect and embracing the clear brilliance of these blue-light-spike-free LED lights.