Night Shift and Lighting Design

Apple have introduced a feature called Night Shift to their new iOS 9.3 and it has some relevance to lighting design.

Firstly, what is Night Shift? Night shift is an iPhone/iPad setting whereby the colour temperature of the screen changes over the course of the day. The standard white screen of these devices is rich in blue light which, when detected by the eye, reduces the secretion of melatonin (the hormone which causes drowsiness). So when you are checking those emails on your iPad before bed, no longer will you be wired for an hour afterwards (well, at least not because of the blue light).

So what does this mean for lighting design? Most architectural lighting applications nowadays are based on white LED chips. We saw at Frankfurt Light + Building last week a lot of products that incorporate smart chips; mostly programmed to create warm dimming to replicate the appearance tungsten lights. It follows that there is potential to change the blue content of white architectural lighting and hence influence whether this lighting will stimulate or sedate the person underneath.

Not a common application at the moment but something very much on our radar for new designs. Watch this space…