16 May 2025

Daylight Academy joins launch of global ‘Light for Public Health’ campaign

Retinal Physiology – How the eye talks to the brain: Light detection beyond vision, illustration by Olivia Walch

The Daylight Academy is delighted to be a founding partner of the Light for Public Health Initiative, a global campaign launching on UNESCO’s International Day of Light, 16 May 2025. The initiative aims to raise public awareness of how light exposure through the eyes affects health and well-being, highlighting the importance of daylight in our daily lives.

The campaign emerged from the 2024 Ladenburg Roundtable “Light for health and well-being: From mechanisms to policy”, where 21 international experts came together to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and public health action. The result is a coordinated science-based effort to inform everyone, from healthcare professionals and architects to parents and the general public, about how to optimise light exposure for better sleep, mood, and health.

Key messages of the campaign include:

  • Light, including daylight, is a powerful biological signal that shapes our circadian rhythms, sleep, and cognitive performance.
  • Timing and spectral quality matter, not just brightness.
  • Daylight during the morning and daytime can support health; bright light at night can be disruptive.
  • A healthy lifestyle includes managing your light exposure, just like diet, exercise, and sleep.

 

The initiative is supported by five leading organisations:

 

The campaign’s scientific foundation is based on 26 consensus statements developed through an expert process, now publicly available at lightforpublichealth.org.

Images by Dr. Olivia Walch, inspired by the consensus statements, beautifully illustrate the campaign.

The effort was coordinated by Prof. Dr. Manuel Spitschan (Technical University of Munich / Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics), current Speaker of the DLA steering committee, with the involvement of many Daylight Academy Members, including Dr. Oliver Stefani, Dr. Marijke Gordijn, Dr. Christine Blume and Jan Denneman. DLA Founding Member and previous Daylight Award winner Prof. em. Anna Wirz-Justice provided a foreword for the consensus statements.

Learn more and get involved at lightforpublichealth.org

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