How Lighting In Your Home Can Help Relieve Or Lead To Anxiousness

Your home is your sanctuary—and for those working from home or spending a large slice of the day indoors, it's especially important to ensure your living-slash-office space makes you feel calm yet energized, relaxed yet productive. Sounds a bit oxymoronic, doesn't it? But according to functional medicine doctor Leland Stillman, M.D., on the mindbodygreen podcast, one home decor mistake can sabotage your WFH mindset: dim lighting. 

Sure, a candlelit room may sound incredibly soothing, if not spa-like, but it's not the best choice for powering through the day—in fact, it can even lead to feelings of anxiousness.

Blue light gets a bad rap, but the thing is, you actually want that blue and green light exposure during the day to help regulate your natural sleep and wake cycle1. Not to mention that blue light helps boost alertness2 and can even elevate your mood3. It's perhaps why people tend to experience more depressive feelings during the winter months when there is less light exposure. 

That said, Stillman notes, "I want you to get a certain amount of light in your eye, just to make sure you're having adequate energy coming into the body to time those rhythms and to set off that cascade of neurotransmitter and hormone release." But if you're sitting in a dimly lit room all day long? You might not be getting enough of those blue and green frequencies.

First order of business: Turn on the lights! "Let's be very strategic about the lighting in your office," says Stillman, be it your home office or shared company workspace. "Let's measure it, and then let's add certain lights in order to get you the frequencies that you need." You can use specific apps to measure the amount of light in your environment, like Lux Light Meter, and you can pick out full-spectrum lighting bulbs to help mimic the sun, if needed. 

Or if you live in a space with lots of natural light, that's great! Perhaps open the blinds to get that light exposure, or venture outdoors in the morning for a well-lit stroll. "Coffee on the terrace, a walk around the block, something that gets [you] into the brightest intensity of light in [your] environment," Stillman says. 

TL;DR? Apparently, dim lighting can create a sense of anxiousness, especially if you're already prone to feelings of stress in your work environment.