Quick And Easy Lighting Hacks To Feel More Energized Throughout Your Day January 5, 2017 00:00

You’re sailing through yet another productive day: meeting deadlines, scheduling appointments, getting all sorts of chores done. Well done.

Though, no matter how productive you are, when that clock hits 2 p.m. you can barely lift a finger. There’s nothing like the mid-afternoon crash to ruin the day’s momentum.

Luckily, there are a few quick and effective ways put a little more spring in your step, letting you cross more off of your to-do list and still have energy to spare!

Sleep: There’s more to it than you think

The first step in getting more out of your day is starting it off right! While many of us might believe that all it takes to feel better throughout the day is getting a hefty amount of sleep, the truth is there’s more to it than that.

For example, one recent study showed that when research subjects believed they had a good night’s sleep (even though they really didn’t) they felt much more alert and even performed better on testing!

What does this study show us? That feeling energized isn’t all about how many ZZZ's you caught the night before.

So, what else goes into it? Well, one important factor in boosting your energy levels throughout the day is changing how you wake up. While most of us willingly subject ourselves to the harsh, grating scream of the alarm clock in the wee hours of the morning, that sudden jolt of consciousness might not be the best way to bring in the day.

Part of the problem with this method is the persistence of a phenomena called “sleep inertia”. You see, waking up is actually a gradual process. While your eyes might open at 6:30 a.m. every day, it’s unlikely that you’re really all there until a bit later. This period of transferring all of your faculties to conscious mode is called sleep inertia. And the more abruptly you wake up, the longer that period of time lasts.

If waking up to a loud alarm makes you more tired throughout the day, what other options do you have?

Greet the day with a smile, gradually!

That’s right. Instead of being harshly yanked from your dream world, you can instead choose to gradually regain consciousness with a dawn simulator. These nifty devices start by shining just a little bit of light into your bedroom and then, over time, increase in brightness. The growing light helps ease your transition into the waking state, letting you start your day more refreshed and energized than if you’d awakened to the loud buzzing of a traditional alarm.

By mimicking the growing brightness of the rising sun, dawn simulators tune into the natural wiring of our bodies. You see, our body’s sleep patterns are regulated by a chemical called “melatonin” which is produced based on how much light we are exposed to. The darker it is, the more melatonin we produce and the more tired we get. More light? More energy.

Waking up to gradual light like that produced by dawn simulators has been shown to help regulate your body’s melatonin levels throughout the day, reducing the inconvenience of the midday slump and giving you the energy you need to get more out of your day.

Luckily for high-quality smart lighting owners, you already have access to this capability as it’s likely built right into your bulbs! Even better, try adjusting the color to a brighter blue for even more energy!

Get to sleep!

Another way to help you avoid feeling sluggish throughout the day is by ensuring you are getting good, quality sleep every night. For most of us, this can be an especially troublesome task, particularly because of all the smart devices most modern households are filled with.

If you’ve paid attention to the media recently, you’ve probably heard that late night exposure to blue light, such as that emitted by phones, tablets, and computers, has been shown to be exceptionally damaging to our sleep cycle.

But setting aside those smart devices isn’t the only thing you can do to get a healthier night’s sleep. Using the same principle of melatonin production discussed earlier, gradually lowering your home’s lighting brightness throughout the night will help facilitate sleep in that it’ll increase your body’s melatonin production. The readier you are for bed when you lay down, the quicker you will fall asleep and the more refreshed you’ll wake up tomorrow!

And, once again, smart lighting owners out there can already take advantage of this by setting their bulbs to gradually dim at a certain time every night. So go ahead, get some sleep!

Let us know what you think!

How has smart lighting helped you feel more energized throughout the day? Have you directly experienced boosted energy from any of these tips? Let us know in the comment section below and energize yourself with the Flux Smart product line!