Near Infrared: Bring the Outdoor Light Back In

While accessories and apps for blocking blue light and adding some red light into your home are a step in the right direction for managing toxic light environments, it’s not enough. Most people don’t know anything about lighting and its extraordinary impact on health.

As the lighting industry developed fluorescents, compact fluorescents, and LEDs to deliver much-needed energy efficiency, it focused on lighting spaces instead of light’s interaction with the human body. At the time, the positive health benefits of near-infrared energy were largely unknown.
The near-infrared spectrum that is present in natural sunlight was not included in these energy efficient bulbs. They only included the visible light spectrum.

Our guest Scott Zimmerman- optics engineer and multiple patent holder, illuminates us on the topic of the nonvisible light spectrum and why near-infrared light exposure matters to our health and what to do to improve our lighting environment.