How LIFX Smart Lights Can Improve Your Mood and Productivity

Most people have felt the aggravatingly draggy dip in energy known as the Midday Crash. When this happens, it's usually time for everyone to look at their watches, wonder why it's only 2 PM, and make a break for the last cup of coffee in the workroom.

Energy drinks and other caffeine supplements can only do so much to prevent that energy slump, and truth be told, a large part of it can only be fixed with the right ambiance. In recent years, scientists have started to take note that lighting can have a huge impact on our moods.

Light therapy has been suggested as a way to prevent depression, balance moods, and even help lose weight. After we were able to get our hands on some LIFX smart lights, we got curious about whether the claims about them were really true.

Curious how they work? We were, too, and decided to find out how these lights work to bolster productivity.

Our hormone systems and brains have very unusual traits that make us very susceptible to changes in environment.

One of the the reasons why mood lighting like LIFX smart lights tends to work well is because of the way that our bodies are wired. Assuming that you are healthy, your body will pick up subtle cues from your environment and alter its behavior based on what it senses.

With certain smells, our body tends to react by getting hungry—which is why a lot of people find walking by restaurants to be difficult to do on a diet. With others, we tend to lose appetite. It's why we can have our mood boosted by using fantastic essential oils for aromatherapy.

The same kind of reactions happen when we are exposed to certain waves of light.

Believe it or not, humanity needs light in order to function well.

Though too much light can be an issue, it'd be a bold-faced lie to say that people can be healthy without some daylight in their schedules. Though too much UV light can cause skin cancer, wrinkles and sunburns, a simple 15-minute dose of natural light a day actually helps people produce Vitamin D.

Regulated natural light actually helps peoples' natural Circadian rhythms take hold, which in turn helps us figure out when it's time to go to sleep, stay awake, or just relax. In some cases, it also can help people regulate their hunger due to the limitation of the hormone ghrelin.

Studies have also shown that all light is not created equal.

Different colors of light will have different effects on the person who is exposed to it; this is what makes products like LIFX smart lights work. For example, bright white lights are known for helping people gain a lot more energy and remain focused at work. On the other hand, dimming lights tends to help people go to sleep.

Colored lights also have different effects on people. For example, despite certain adverse side effects, Red Light Therapy has been proven to help boost collagen production and curb damage done from certain medications.

One of the most common factors that exacerbates depression and causes Seasonal Affective Disorder is a lack of light.

Have you ever felt blue in the winter, without really having a reason to feel so down? Or, have you ever noticed how having depression seems to go hand in hand with staying in the dark?

You may have seen one of the side effects of what happens when you live a low-light lifestyle. The primary cause of "winter blues," or Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a lack of regular exposure to daylight.

LIFX smart lights and other similar products offer a way to defend yourself against Seasonal Affective Disorder and help prevent depression from worsening—just by exposing you to lightwaves that mimic daylight.

Having the wrong kind of light at the wrong time of day can also mess with your sleep.

Dimmed lights, as we've mentioned before, help you sleep. However, exposure to bright lights tends to cause insomnia, sleep disturbances, and lower overall sleep quality. When you get tired, you will end up having a slew of issues.

A bad night's sleep almost always causes a foul mood at work, lower energy, and just poor productivity. Sleep deprivation also causes poor focus, bad short-term memory, and increased anxiety rates.

That's part of the reason why using LIFX smart lights is a good idea; you can command the lights to turn down and dim as night approaches—thereby avoiding light overload.

Whether we realize it or not, our mood and sleep patterns greatly affect how well we function at work.

If you've ever tried to compare the work you accomplished when you were grouchy versus when you were happy, you already know how productivity can be altered depending on how you're feeling. It doesn't even need to be mentioned how much sleep deprivation can harm productivity, right?

By dosing yourself with light, you can prevent a lot of lost productivity. Needless to say, getting LIFX smart lights might be a good investment for your work life.

There's even a nutritional aspect to light therapy.

The effects of chronic sleep deprivation are bad enough, but there's more to light therapy than just improving your night's sleep. Remember when we mentioned that light can bolster your body's ability to make Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a vitamin that helps boost energy, regulate mood, and also help your bone growth. It's a really good-for-you nutrient, and what's shocking is that most Americans have a Vitamin D deficiency. Simple exposure to certain lightwaves provided by products like smart lights could fix that.

Additionally, the right lighting can also have a more psychological effect on people who are working in an office.

Have you ever noticed how ambient lighting tends to make a place seem more elite or professional? It's not just you.

Some studies even suggest that the right lighting can make people more interested in spending money. That's why some offices are adding things like LIFX smart bulbs to help improve profitability.

Both broad daylight and colored ambient lighting have good health benefits, particularly when it comes to mental health. To make sure you get the most of your light time, it makes sense to get light therapy from a bunch of different light colors.

Since LIFX smart lights change colors according to the settings you choose on your smartphone app or smart home device, you get to choose how to make the most of your light exposure.

The bottom line is that light therapy works, and if you use LIFX smart bulbs, you're getting a full spectrum of color.

Light therapy has so many health benefits that it doesn't really make sense not to consider getting specialized smart bulbs for it. No matter which LIFX smart lights you choose, you can rest assured that your body will thank you.