Full Spectrum Lighting and Natural Sunlight to Curtail Illness

[SunshineMama]

Last year, I purchased a Verilux "happy" light, to use during the wintertime, to help boost my mood on cloudy days. (I'm one of those natural health nuts, ).

Anyway, I pulled it out today, and did some research on how they worked, and I ran across this little tidbit:

"In Russia, a full spectrum lighting system was installed in factories where colds and sore throats had become commonplace among workers. This lowered the bacterial contamination of the air by 40 to 70 percent. Workers who did not receive the full spectrum light were absent twice as many days as those who did. Recent tests in classrooms, two using standard fluorescent lighting and two using full spectrum lights, indicated conclusively that students exposed to the full spectrum lighting had a marked diminishment of hyperactivity, less absenteeism, and higher academic achievement."

Source: http://www.naturallighting.com/cart/...php?sc_page=54

Anyway, it got me thinking. I have a very open concept home with a ton of windows and natural lighting. Yes, we do have illness pass through from time to time, but not as much as I hear from friends who take their children to daycare, or even some of the posts on here. After reading the article, I wonder if it is because of all of the natural sunlight coming through the windows. I am further thinking about getting some full spectrum lightbulbs to use in areas where the light is not as present.

Just wanted to share this with some of you, in light of it being cold and flu season. Perhaps some full spectrum lighting will do the trick?

[WImom]

Interesting. We have lots of windows in my daycare space and we don't have a lot of sickness here either. Wondering if that is why.

[SunshineMama]

Interesting. We have lots of windows in my daycare space and we don't have a lot of sickness here either. Wondering if that is why.

Makes sense, according to the article

[Blackcat31]

Same here. LOTS of windows and natural light and RARELY do we have an illness.

In my own home, I MUST have natural sunlight so much that I don't have any window treatments, curtains, blinds and/or shades of any kind.....thank goodness I live in the country and have no close neighbors....

[countrymom]

Same here. LOTS of windows and natural light and RARELY do we have an illness.

In my own home, I MUST have natural sunlight so much that I don't have any window treatments, curtains, blinds and/or shades of any kind.....thank goodness I live in the country and have no close neighbors....

don't you just love country living, dh has been warned not to parade around in his undies because we don't have blinds everywhere ::

but I wonder if this is true. When I bought the house many years ago, I told dh that I loved all the windows in it (and there are alot of them) and rarely is anyone sick in this house, we even put 2 bigger windows in my kids bedrooms to have more light (and so they can escape incase of a fire) But it does make sense.

[Blackcat31]

don't you just love country living, dh has been warned not to parade around in his undies because we don't have blinds everywhere ::

but I wonder if this is true. When I bought the house many years ago, I told dh that I loved all the windows in it (and there are alot of them) and rarely is anyone sick in this house, we even put 2 bigger windows in my kids bedrooms to have more light (and so they can escape incase of a fire) But it does make sense.

YES!! I could never live in town. The whole concept of close neighbors would drive me batty.

I love my little slice of heaven even though I am still only about 6-7 miles out of town, it feels like I am hundreds of miles from anyone.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

Great to read!

I live in a small, planned community that my son refers to as the "Reach Out and Touch Your Neighbor Program." Seriously, the houses are about 6 feet apart. You could see directly in your neighbors windows if they were open!
What we did was frost every side window of the daycare (7) so that we could pull the blinds up and get the sunlight coming in without our neighbors being able to see or blinds getting in the way. ::

[Sugar Magnolia]

The house I live in has one big window in the living room, a.small one in each bedroom and a sliding glass door. (built in 1986) Not much natural light at all. The house (over 100 years old) that we have our child care center in has 28 sets of windows, windows everywhere! We have a pretty low sickness rate. Interesting. They don't build them like they used to.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

YES!! I could never live in town. The whole concept of close neighbors would drive me batty.

I love my little slice of heaven even though I am still only about 6-7 miles out of town, it feels like I am hundreds of miles from anyone.

Once our own children leave the house we will be moving to a home on land just outside of town. We look forward to it!!!
Until then, we will live in suburbia in a 2 story house and make the best of it.

[LK5kids]

Great topic....I'm on the health food nut spectrum also! Now I know why I love sitting on my deck that faces the sunset and my southern facing front porch. My child care home is in a separate house and even tho it's an older house it does have four south facing windows and two west facing windows. I just have valances on the windows....(oh, and blinds for nap time). I also get the kids outside a lot. Hooray for full spectrum light! happyface Boo for fluorescent