They say that if you don’t know where you are going, you are not likely to get there. For a glare and light sensitive person an important objective is to reduce glare. So, in order to know how to reduce glare in your home or office, it is important to consider what would be the ideal lighting. Conceptually, what conditions should one try to create to minimize glare?
Ideal lighting, according to many ergonomics reports, is a quest to reduce glare. Even if you are not extremely light sensitive, to reduce glare is to prevent work fatigue, headaches, etc. But, how to reduce glare? How to arrive at ideal lighting? Ever since my light sensitivity has become acute, I don’t remember walking into a single building or room and think: Wow, this feels comfortable! There is no glare in here!
Unfortunately the reality of indoor lighting is that the question how to reduce glare in a home or office is far from being answered. I am tempted to go into the reasons why that would be, but I prefer sticking to the topic. Still, I would venture a suggestion that a light sensitive person might contribute greatly to the design of ideal lighting solutions. And ideal lighting would help everyone’s wellbeing, morale and productivity. I am guessing that most Glarmins would love to help out, wouldn’t we?
What is ideal lighting: how to reduce glare to the minimum
Conceptually ideal lighting should try to approach the light conditions of a cloudy day. I deduce this from personal experience. I used to dread driving (blue blocking, polarized sunglasses and a dashmat changed that). In my case, driving is one of those activities, where symptoms of photophobia – headache, general weariness, tension around the eyes) hit the fastest and the hardest. The only exception was when I would drive on a cloudy day.
My light sensitive eyes tell me that the lighting of an overcast day is ideal lighting. It would be difficult to reduce glare any further. On a cloudy day visibility is good. You never have the Sun shining into your eyes or from the side, which is sometimes even more irritating. There are no reflections of the sun from other cars or the road itself. Also, there is no glare of oncoming traffic headlights nor from those in the rearview mirrors, which is what happens at night. So, how could one wish to reduce glare any further than that?
I leave the question how to reproduce a light of similar quality as that of a cloudy day indoors for future posts.
Updates:
- How to reduce glare: The ideal lighting for home or office – encore
- Increase brightness to reduce glare in your home or office
- Reduce brightness to reduce glare in your home or office
Would you suggest a different concept for ideal lighting?
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GLARminY 