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

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. Ahead, Stillman explains how your lighting environment can affect your mood, plus the best way to hack your bulbs for a calm state of mind. 

Stillman continues: "We frequently find that people who are struggling with [anxiousness] linked to neurotransmitter and hormone levels have a very dim environment during the day." He references a 2016 animal study from the journal Molecular Vision4, which found that rats exposed to dim lighting during the day showed increased anxious behaviors and several indicators of HPA axis imbalance (reminder: The HPA axis is responsible for releasing our stress hormones). 

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. 

Then, of course, feel free to pull out all the stops for a relaxing workstation—clean-burning candles, desktop diffusers, and high-quality supplements designed to ease everyday stress and foster a positive mood.* (For what it's worth: Reviewers call our calm+ formula a yoga class in a gelcap.)* 

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. You can always open the blinds and let that glorious natural light come through—or you can pick bright color temperature bulbs to enhance the lighting. Call it grounds for that new swanky lamp.