Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Éléonore Delisse designed the Day and Night light in response to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD affects millions of people around the world each year and it is the onset of depression associated with late autumn and winter. The lack of light is energy sapping and causes mercurial mood swings.
The lamp works using dichroic glass. The glass displays two different colours dependent on the lighting conditions in the area. The glass rotates around the lamp, produces a range of that the human body needs to rebalance its circadian rhythm.
It glows blue in the morning to lessen melatonin production and stimulate wakefulness, and warm orange at night to increase melatonin production and stimulate sleep. Melatonin is a hormone, which helps regulates sleep and wake cycles. While daylight is valuable, different colours of light seem to affect the body in different ways.
The lamp oscillates for 24 hours in coordinated with the day-night rhythm.
“All the existing solutions to SAD focus on the intensity of light, I was interested to look at this from another perspective. Not only by being only exposed to certain lux levels but by having a coloured rhythm that influences your brain behaviour,” says Delisse.
