The role of daylight for humans
Background
Human beings evolved under natural light/dark cycles. Artificial light exposure interacts and competes with this natural light/dark cycle. What are the consequences of our living conditions in industrialised urban areas with much less daylight (and more artificial light) on our health and wellbeing? Most review papers and recommendations conclude that there is 1) a lack of well powered, long-term (field) studies with daylight and 2) a great heterogeneity on how to assess the influence of (day-)light with respect to human needs. The reason for this may be due to three main gaps of knowledge in daylight research:
- Uncertain (day-) light quantities and qualities needed for ‘optimal’ physiological and psychological functioning including visual comfort.
- Lack of recommended practicable measurement/assessment methods and tools for real (day-) light situations relating to short and long time variables (circadian, seasonal).
- Insufficient integration of daylight research from disciplines (biology, medicine, architecture etc.) at different stages of research, designing processes, interventions and real life situations.
Lead and Team
Dr Mirjam Münch, University of Basel, Switzerland (Lead)
Prof. Manuel Spitschan, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics & Technical University of Munich, Germany
Prof. Debra Skene, University of Surrey, UK
Ass. Prof. Katharina Wulff, Umeå University, Sweden
Updates
13 June 2024
Publication in the “DLA Reprints” series
We are delighted to announce that the publication “Open-Source Python Module for the Analysis of Personalized Light Exposure Data from Wearable Light Loggers and Dosimeters” from Hammad, G., Wulff, K., Skene, D. J., Münch, M., & Spitschan, M. (2024) is now available in the “DLA Reprints” series.
The digital version can be found here.
19 October 2023
Preprints
We’re excited to announce that two preprints on our work are available for reading:
- Spitschan, M., Hammad, G., Blume, C., Schmidt, C., Skene, D. J., Wulff, K., Santhi, N., & Münch, M. (2023). Metadata recommendations for light logging and dosimetry datasets [Preprint]. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3452267/v1
- Hammad, G., Wulff, K., Skene, D. J., Münch, M., & Spitschan, M. (2023). Open-source Python module for the analysis of personalized light exposure data [Preprint]. OSF Preprints. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/msk9n
These preprints are currently under consideration at peer-reviewed journals. When the peer-reviewed version is published, we will post the references here.
31 May 2022
Publication in the “DLA Reprints” series
We are happy to announce that the publication “The relevance of daylight for humans” from Wirz-Justice et al. (2021) is now available in the “DLA Reprints” series.
The digital version is here.
23 July 2021
Next round of development
Over the past few weeks, we have made great progress in advancing our meta-data standard. Next week (26-30 July 2021), we are very excited to work again with the talented developers at Go Free Range to push forward the tooling for meta-data processing and further developments on the database.
10 June 2021
Defining data and metadata items
Following the survey of possible users, we have now narrowed down the list items to be included in dataset metadata. We will be working with the software developers in July to push forward the platform.
11 May 2021
News from the planned HUMAN LIGHT EXPOSURE DATABASE
Recordings of people’s light exposure using wearable sensors and light trackers show tremendous potential for adaptive daylighting design and personalised light interventions. However, at present, there is inadequate access to human light exposure profiles: There is no centralised database to access, store, analyse and share individual light exposure measurements, limiting the extent to which these data can be aggregated.
As a DLA project group (‘Impact of light on humans’), we have started to develop such a light database. From March to April 2021 we invited several scientists, stakeholders and experts in the field (including all DLA members) to participate in an anonymous online survey to help us guide further the design of the prototype HUMAN LIGHT EXPOSURE DATABASE.
We thank all respondents to the survey for their valuable feedback. The ratings are very helpful and important to us and we will consider their detailed responses in the design of the database. The detailed survey results will be presented at the next DLA Annual Meeting in November 2021. As a next step, we will create a comprehensive prototype of the database which we hope to share soon.
—Mirjam Münch, Manuel Spitschan, Debra Skene, Katharina Wulff
Publications
Hammad, G., Wulff, K., Skene, D. J., Münch, M., & Spitschan, M. (2024) Open-Source Python Module for the Analysis of Personalized Light Exposure Data from Wearable Light Loggers and Dosimeters, Reprint
Wirz-Justice, A., et al. (2021) The relevance of daylight for humans, Reprint
Wirz-Justice, A., et al. (2021) The relevance of daylight for humans, Biochemical Pharmacology, 191, 114304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2020.114304
Münch, M., et al. (2020) The Role of Daylight for Humans: Gaps in Current Knowledge. Clocks & Sleep, 2, 61-85. https://doi.org/10.3390/clockssleep2010008
Past activities
Meeting in Berlin, Germany | Seminar
2 June 2018