Healthy Homes 1: Lighting and Resident Wellness

How PropTech can improve sleep quality, health, and happiness

As consumer decision-making shifts towards people purchasing with better versions of themselves in mind, the health and wellness industry is becoming less niche and more central to a variety of industries. Between nutrition, fitness, mental health, and the myriad other ways that people can invest in themselves, it’s not shocking that the wellness industry is thought to be worth over $1.5T (McKinsey) and poised to grow.

Unsurprisingly, I see this desire for wellness as something worth following in the PropTech world. One’s environment significantly impacts one’s wellness, meaning those of us impacting the built world can (and ought to) make people healthier and happier. So, for the next few months, built-world wellness will be one of the central themes of writing on Vertical.

With that, let’s talk about the sun.

I don’t need to tell you that the sun is important. It puts heat in our world, light in our eyes, and a smile on our faces (especially if you live in Wisconsin, like me).

What does merit some consideration, however, is that the last few centuries have yielded a stark decrease in the amount of time that we’re exposed to the sun’s rays. According to the EPA, the average American spends 90% of their life indoors.

As a result, we’re getting far less exposure to the sun’s natural light. While this may seem insignificant given that we have engineered environments to be lit exactly as we wish them to be at any time of day (more on this later), the lack of exposure throws a core biological system of ours out of sync and into chaos: our circadian rhythm.

Circadian Rhythm: Our Neurochemical Rolex

Circadian rhythm is what we call the biological clock that regulates our hormones to fit the rhythm of the day; contributing to high quality sleep, consistent and positive moods, and neurochemical balance. For the entirety of human existence, this biological clock has been regulated by the big star in the sky that hasn’t taken a day off for 4.6 billion years. We see it rise, and know it’s day. We see it set, and we know it’s night. As a result, our bodies are well-prepared to work, eat, smile, and sleep right when they’re supposed to.

Unfortunately, when we stop looking at ol’ reliable and taking its cues day after day, the circadian system’s rhythm starts looking less like a grandfather clock and more like a slot machine; we don’t know what we’re gonna get and our bodies don’t like that.

For what it’s worth, I am not telling you to ditch your dwellings and return to the forest. However, it is worth considering that today’s environmental stimuli are extremely different than those in which the human species evolved to survive and thrive. While our adaptations have by-and-large succeeded in achieving their immediate aims, the entropy of our world yields some unintended consequences, such as the disruption of our circadian rhythm.

By not gaining meaningful exposure (as little as five minutes) to natural light for hours after wakeup or being assaulted by bright bathroom lights moments before going to bed, we’re sending our bodies all sorts of mixed signals; negatively impacting the core functions that circadian rhythm seeks to regulate.

Spiraling Consequences

Unfortunately, people have grown to tolerate poor sleep as a part of life yet lack an understanding of the hormonal imbalances that result from neglecting proper rest.

When these systems are out of order, the resulting internal imbalance can contribute to sleep disorders, mood disorders, and substance abuse disorders (stimulants to stay awake, depressants to sleep, other narcotics to curb ensuing unease). With these comes an increased likelihood of a slew of undesirable states, including stress, worsening productivity, obesity, and neurological degradation. Unfortunately, these states are all detrimental to sleep quality, creating a negatively reinforcing cycle.

The good news is that there are some fairly simple measures that can be put in place to stabilize our circadian systems that are fundamental to keeping these all in balance.

Solutions for the Build World

Given that this is a PropTech-focused platform, we’ll start with the built-world technologies that can positively impact circadian rhythm. While these solutions vary in price, complexity, and effectiveness, they all fall under two simple umbrellas: smarter lighting and improved exposure to sunlight.

Maximizing Sunlight

To improve sunlight exposure, there are a few relatively simple measures that can make a great difference: eastward-facing bedroom windows, electrochroamatic windows, and smart window treatments.

The most elemental of these is to have exposure to sunrise in the morning. If there isn’t a window facing the sunrise, we must move on to secondary lighting solutions (discussed below). If sleep areas are fitted this way, however, technologies like smart window fixtures (we’ve outlined these extensively in PropTech Angel Group research) can be significant, as fixtures that automatically open to allow sunlight in sync with your daily wakeup times and close during nighttime wind-down maximize the benefits of the sun while eliminating any hands-on intervention. Even in existing homes, rearranging the layout so your bedroom has windows with sunrise exposure can significantly improve the consistency of your biological clock. If nothing else, situating your morning routine near a window can yield greater circadian consistency.

Another solution, particularly in hot climates where temperature motivates people to keep blinds shut as much as possible, are electrochroamatic windows. These limit indoor exposure to UV and heat from the sun while allowing in the natural frequencies of sunlight (such as morning blue light) that naturally calibrate circadian rhythm.

Smart Lighting

While the solutions above satisfy the circadian purists and are the best way to integrate true sunlight into our daily lives, there are elements of the indoor life that are detrimental to circadian rhythm regardless of the amount of sun in the home: bright white lights at night and delayed morning exposure to natural light.

The first bucket, limiting exposure to evening light that your brain perceives as daylight, is more an effort of mitigating certain lights than anything else. The nighttime circadian killers are bright, white overhead lights during the evening; bathroom lights are the perfect example of a major circadian disruptor that most people expose themselves to immediately before bed. To support this mission, there are a few simple substitutions that can be made such as dimming and color-shifting lights (smart-home compatible AKA no manual intervention required) and motion-activated lights for nighttime navigation. You can even get a motion-activated light in your toilet bowl, negating the need to choose between your circadian rhythm and nighttime accuracy.

The other side of this indoor lighting equation is ensuring regular exposure to bright, sun-replicating light regularly during wakeup when exposure to real sunlight evades us. For this, there are solutions ranging from simple, bedside lights (Verilux Happylights are the industry leader in this department) to whole-home solutions such as those by Nano-Lit which seek to create equator-level circadian exposure throughout the entirety of a space. Note that Nano-Lit’s solution runs a rate of $1k/light (don’t expect to have less than five suggested for an apartment unit) while Verilux’s solution can be acquired for 1/20th of that price. Granted, Nano-lit is a whole-home solution, but given the patchwork that can be done with the different suggested technologies above and the various behavioral changes (listed below) that can be instituted, it’s far from the only answer.

Behavioral Changes

For the self-motivated circadian engineer, there are also a range of behavioral changes that can be instituted to help keep your body in sync and increase the accompanying benefits in mood, sleep quality, and neurochemical balance. The simple principles here are to stick to a consistent biological schedule, get outside, and have a good wind-down routine with minimal blue light exposure.

Having a regular biological schedule is relatively straightforward; wake, eat, and sleep at similar times each day, and your body will thank you.

Getting outside is also quite simple. As little as 20 minutes outside in nature has a host of benefits. Circadian benefits, in particular, increase the closer this outdoor time is to wakeup time, as sunlight in the morning is magical.

Lastly, unintended blue light exposure stems from a number of technologies that tend to sneak into our nighttime routines, including phones, computers, and TVs. While activating warm or nighttime color settings on these devices can help, blue light glasses offer a more surefire solution. Better than all of these is to shut these devices off 90 minutes before you aspire to sleep. While this is the perfect solution, any of these options in conjunction with lighting solutions to minimize bright-light exposure prior to bed (mentioned above) should improve melatonin onset and bring your body a bit closer to being in harmony with the rhythm of your life.

In conclusion…

Circadian rhythm optimization is a product of your environment, awareness, and habits. By instuting solutions such as morning light exposure, nighttime light minimalism, and consistent daily habits to naturally favor a better circadian rhythm, you’ll be handsomely rewarded with better sleep quality, mood stability, and neurochemical balance. If you have any questions, comments, or other follow-ups to these ideas, please reply; I’d love for this to be an ongoing discussion. If you’d like to continue learning how the built world can make people healthier and happier, subscribe to Vertical premium content for more.

With that, I wish you well and hope this serves as a reminder to spend some quality time in the sun. 🌞