SOMA Living November 2024

HOME DESIGN “Great Caesar’s ghost,” I grunted. My real estate partner, Kim Kelly, laughed, “The lights, right?” “You know me too well,” I sighed. We stood in the living room of a newly renovated home. A dozen recessed lights shone a blinding blue-toned white light down on us. “It’s really not funny. People don’t understand how lighting, the wrong lighting, like this,” I said, looking up at the ceiling, “can affect them physically and mentally.” I squinted my eyes against the light. “Am I in for your sleep cycle rant again?” she sighed. “You are!” I replied. “Can you just give me the Cliff Notes version? We have other houses to see…” she said impatiently. “Over the course of millennia, our sleep cycle was formed by the rising and setting of the sun. Warm sunlight would wake us up in the morning, giving way to cool blue light

during the day, and then at night, the setting sunlight would bring on sleep. The color temperature of light during the cycle of the day would change and tell our bodies what to do. Physically, or more like chemically, in the morning, the warm sunlight, as it turned cooler in color, would produce serotonin, which would wake us up so we were alert and energetic, like in case we had to run from a predator. And at the end of the day, while the sunlight turned warm and we sat by firelight, our bodies would produce melatonin, which helped put us to sleep. Now I don’t know about you, but most people use their living room at night, so why this?” I pointed up. “Just why?” To be continued…

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