Philips white bulbs enable controls for dimmed or energizing light

Philips white bulbs enable controls for dimmed or energizing light

Sunny days are easily linked to feelings of well being; gloomy days with no sun in sight are accordingly linked to feelings of sadness. That's the easy part. People who work night shifts have a more complex problem of missing out on light when it would be most beneficial and getting too much light when it would not be beneficial. In other words, their internal clocks suffer.

Do we all need to take what we can get and roll with whatever we do not get in ample lighting? The National Sleep Foundation includes in its suggestion of what one can do to compensate.

"Light is a powerful signal for your internal clock. Light therapy may help shift workers adjust to irregular schedules. Light has two primary effects on your sleep/wake pattern. It has an alerting effect, and it also has the ability to gradually shift sleeping patterns earlier or later, depending on the timing of light exposure. During light therapy, you sit near a light box for a prescribed amount of time. The time of day is very important to achieve the desired effect. Exposure to bright light early in a person's wake period (and dim light at the end of the wake period) has the effect of moving the internal clock earlier. Exposure to light late in the day delays the timing of the . The timing of exposure to light can help you establish a better sleep/wake pattern, based on your work schedule and needs."

Now Philips Lighting has another way to get the darkness or light that we need, whether you can benefit from an energizing light for exercise sessions or a dimmed nightlight for winding down to sleep.

Announced on Monday, the company has developed Philips Hue white ambiance bulbs, featuring temperature controls which mimic .

Romain Dillet in TechCrunch on Monday: "With today's new lights, you can control the color temperature between 2200K and 6500K. In other words, you can put all your lights on warm yellow mode during the evening and bright white light mode in the morning."

Gizmag similarly said that, with the blubs, you can match your to whether or not you want the lights to slowly dim or brighten. The lightbulb can gradually brighten and it can gently dim; the latter state is to help a person drift to sleep peacefully.

How to set the desired routine: An accompanying smartphone app can do it, and you can use Siri voice control. Nightlight, for example, is a new light recipe which delivers a low level of light and also minimizes exposure to blue light.

The company said the Philips Hue lights work with Nest Learning thermostat, Nest Cam, Nest Protect and devices such as Amazon Alexa. The lights can also work via the connected dimmer switch; it was made available as an accessory.

The Philips Hue white ambiance starter kit comes with two Philips Hue white ambiance bulbs (800 lumens at 4000k), a bridge supporting Apple HomeKit and the dimmer switch. The products will be available from spring 2016 across Europe and North America.

David Nield in Gizmag pointed out that the bulbs are useful for more than maintaining sleep patterns. "Color temperature controls not only enable users to mimic different types of natural , they can also create different moods in each room – helpful if you want to chill out in the lounge, but get some work done in the study."

The company announcement did not mention price.

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Citation: Philips white bulbs enable controls for dimmed or energizing light (2016, March 15) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://techxplore.com/news/2016-03-philips-white-bulbs-enable-dimmed.html
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