Statistics reveal that around 87 percent of office workers suffer from a ‘social jetlag’ because of the lack of natural light during the day in their offices and an evening filled with artificial light.
To combat the misaligned body clocks of many, founder of lighting company OSIN Ralph Booth and Head of Science at the company, Dr Nina Li have embarked on a mission to fix this through the lamp called The Loop.
An innovative lamp that reflects the outside light that sits on the corner of desks provides people with the correct spectrum of light needed aims to fix worker’s body clock and sleep patterns.
Having worked in lighting for over 25 years, Ralph Booth decided to take it upon himself to find a solution to the problem that is making Kiwi’s tired.
“I became aware probably over 15 years ago about the effect on the artificial light we have in our buildings and how it’s not delivering what we need for the alignment of our circadian rhythms or that alignment of our body clocks,” says Booth.
“I wanted to bring a small slice of the blue sky to everyone’s life.”
In production for two years, Booth says the building and development of The Loop has been one of the hardest things he’s ever done.
With many Kiwis being exposed to artificial light, many are facing misaligned body clocks and are lacking sleep which results in “social jetlag”.
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He says that the severity of social jetlag is shown by the difference in time that Kiwis wake up on Saturday and Sunday morning compared to the rest of the week.
“These are human constructs, but they are compounded by our relationship with light,” adds Booth.
The Loop’s Head of Science Dr Nina Li says that this is especially important in a time when “burnout culture” is very prominent.
“The Loop is working alongside our biological processes to restore our circadian health. It is a game-changer for the health and wellbeing sector,” says Li.
In terms of health and wellbeing, misaligned body clocks can be linked to diabetes, obesity, metabolism and diseases that are linked to cardiovascular, dementia and more.
The way that The Loop works to combat this is by recreating how natural light works indoors.
At the start of the day, The Loop provides blue light to improve productivity and then gradually transitions to an amber colour light during the evening.
“This warmer light helps signal to the body that it’s time to wind down and prepare for restful sleep,” adds Booth.
An app supports The Loop as Booth says Kiwis can travel with the lamp and set it according to time zones.
“The Loop gives people access to the light their body needs in order to perform optimally, improving their overall wellbeing while also elevating their productivity during the day, which is usually spent for hours inside,” says Booth.
The Loop is available as of March 30 and can be purchased from osinlight.com.