April 22, 2025
Where There Is Light, We Are There | Rhythm Lighting Is Becoming the Next Generation of Health Technology
Against the backdrop of the widespread adoption of LED lighting, “circadian lighting” is being incorporated into people’s evaluation of light from a new perspective: light is not merely a tool for illumination, but also a biological signal that dynamically adjusts in response to human circadian rhythms.
In 2023, *Frontiers in Photonics* published a highly influential paper co-authored by 248 international scientists who have made pioneering contributions in the field of “light and circadian rhythms.”The article precisely articulates a view that has become a global academic consensus: light should be rhythmic, rather than purely illuminative.
In this paper, researchers analyzed as many as 2,697 scientific papers on “light and rhythms,” compiling scholars’ views on the impact of lighting on human circadian rhythms and health. Many of these perspectives have been supported by further empirical data and have become the foundation for lighting product design.
Human circadian rhythms perceive light signals through the eyes’ ipRGCs (intrinsically photosensitive retinic cells). Blue light, particularly around 480 nm, is the most sensitive to the circadian clock system.
When humans are exposed to more than 80% blue light at night, the system “resets” its internal clock, suppressing melatonin secretion, which disrupts sleep and increases the risk of cardiovascular and endocrine diseases.
According to the data in the article:
If exposed to blue light in the 460–495 nm range within 3 hours before bedtime, 87.4% of researchers believe it will cause sleep disturbances;
84.8% of researchers believe that blue light disrupts human circadian rhythms;
90.6% indicated that blue light effectively suppresses melatonin levels at night.
Therefore, circadian lighting should enhance the blue light component during the day and reduce or block blue light while maintaining moderate light intensity at night to achieve circadian lighting regulation.
To reduce the risk of circadian rhythm disruption, 248 scholars jointly propose the following:
Evening lighting should minimize blue light content as much as possible;
Product design should incorporate circadian principles: high-efficiency blue light during the day and protective warm light at night;
Warning labels stating “May be harmful to health at night” should be affixed in high-risk settings.
Circadian Lighting Marks a New Era in Healthy Lighting
Scientists agree that circadian lighting has accumulated sufficient academic evidence to support its widespread adoption. However, currently, less than 0.5% of products on the market incorporate circadian lighting.
For engineers and consultants responsible for healthy lighting, this literature serves as a factual foundation that can be directly applied to designing systems and formulating strategies.
MiJi Technology has always firmly believed that (lighting design) is not merely a matter of light itself, but rather a matter of how light affects people.
Click to download and read the “official original text of the literature”