Do you like keeping lights around you dim?
If yes, it’s about time you change your habit. Spending too much time in dimly-lit rooms may affect your memory, as well as learning abilities, according to a study.
A Scientific Study Shows Dim Light Can Harm Memory
In a study in which neuroscientists studied the effect of dim light on the brains of Nile grass rats, the scientists noticed a correlation between low memory and dim light.
Nile grass rats, just like us humans, sleep at night and are awake during the day. The scientists exposed some rodents to dim light and some others to bright light for a period of four weeks. The rats kept in dim light showed a loss of 30% of their capacity in the hippocampus — a part of the brain that plays a key role in learning and memory. In comparison, rodents exposed to bright light recorded improvement in their performance.
According to the scientists, dim light leads to considerable reductions in a chemical which is important for maintaining healthy connections between brain cells. In short, this study shows there’s a clear evidence of dim light negatively affecting brain power.
Encouragingly, scientists found that all was not lost for rodents who were kept in dim lighting. When these rats were put under the bright light, their brains were able to recover to its full capacity.
Nevertheless, these are significant findings. Those who like to stay in dim lighting for long hours at stretch must strongly consider switching to bright lights.
For this study, the scientists created an environment pretty much similar to a movie theatre or cloudy weather. In case you have such type of lighting environment in your place, it’s time you brighten things up a little.
Key Takeaways
- Prolonged exposure to dim light can lead to considerable reductions in a neurotrophic factor responsible for keeping the neurons in the hippocampus region of the brain healthy and strong. This, in turn, can negatively impact learning and memory
- Thankfully, the changes were found to reversible. However, this was not a long-term study, so you might not want to stretch your luck
- Make sure you have enough lighting in your home and offices, and all other places where you need your brain to be on top of its game
Lastly, remember not all lights are created equal. While LED light bulbs last much longer and consume less energy than other bulbs, the quality of light emitted by these bulbs can greatly vary.
An easy way to ensure balanced lighting in your homes and offices is to go for CRI90+ LED bulbs. At our website, all our bulbs are CRI90+ because we never compromise on quality.