 |
Frederick Marks, AIA, Visiting Scholar, Salk Institute for Biological Studies |
Light, whether it originates from natural or electrical sources, is a formable stimulus for regulating circadian, hormonal, and behavioral systems. Over illumination may cause headaches, fatigue, medically defined stress, anxiety and decreases in sexual function. Under illumination may lead to chronic diseases such as breast & prostate cancers, obesity and early-onset diabetes. When considering standards for building design, it is therefore important to balance the desirable and undesirable impacts of light or darkness. Achieving this balance begins with an understanding of how photoreceptors in the eye function and why different visual and non-visual wavelengths of light cause different responses.