degarb
Flashlight Enthusiast
My suspicion is that we have been doing our wake up and motivational lighting all wrong. Lighting is essential for reducing caffeine dependency and keeping a circadian rhythm. Now, I have my suspicion on the optimal beam shape (more peripheral) and optimal color (cool). I don't think this optimal wake-up beam pattern has been specifically studied by professional grant recipients, but I found evidence that our melatonin suppressing eye cells are solely in the eye periphery, based on the below science findings.
ipRGCs: Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), also called photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGC), or melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs). Only about two percent of all retinal ganglion cells are ipRGC.
White light induces activation of ganglion cells containing PACAP, Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide. These signals are then carried through the optic nerve, which projects to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), anterior hypothalamic area. The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei (SCN) is a tiny region of the brain in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms. These photosensitive Ganglion Cell are also responsible for acute photic suppression of the hormone melatonin.
Melanopsin is particularly sensitive to the absorption of short-wavelength (blue) visible light, absorption peaks at ~480 nanometers. Melanopsin is exclusively found in the peripheral regions of the retina, also found in the cone cells. However, only 0.11% to 0.55% of human cones express Melanopsin.
Compared to the rods and cones, the ipRGCs respond more sluggishly and signal the presence of light over the long term. They represent a very small subset (~1%) of the retinal ganglion cells.
The photoreceptors were identified in 2002 by Samer Hattar, David Berson and colleagues.
So, light also can regulate circadian rhythm in the blind!
So, ipRGCs cells are new 3rd cell type in the eye. The back of the eye retina contains rods and cone cells, as we were taught in grade school. Cones see color, sharp vision, congregation in 15 degrees of center. The rods in peripheral vision are thought to not see color, but extremely good at seeing movement. How color blind rods are, would be of great interest to me. But it is written, " Rods have little role in color vision, which is one of the main reasons why colors are much less apparent in darkness." Your fovea is your super sharp vision in eye, about 2 degrees on center.... This is why you must make eye jumps on lines of texts over lines, not even 3 inches wide, when reading. Also, reason you can play peekaboo all year long on walls finding minor imperfections, as the minor imperfections will seem to jump out at you from nowhere, even years after staring at the same wall. You must do 4 inch eye jumps, at a maximum, as if you were reading text of a half inch font, to reasonably find most imperfections. This means, "You also cannot look at a wall to see imperfections!" I must reprove this several times annually, because thick headed people refuse to believe this. Prove by hiding an imperfection of a low contrast, then challenging the pig headed person to find it, which they will not be able to, unless the eye lands on, or mere inches, from it (under right lighting condition). Many magic tricks, even at close range, depend on this eye biological fact that people innately reject. See 'Brain Games' season 1, for more details and proof.
So, flood for navigation and looking for something ; spot for looking at something. The exception might be traveling down a mountain on a bike at 45 mph, and looking for a low contrast imperfection or something in a very cluttered area. And, finally, it may be that for a wake up light, the peripheral vision may be the only area of the eye that matters.
So, stimulating the ipRGCs with best beam pattern for wake up, may mean, either a halo (inverted spot) or just two spots at side of vision. I personally have a hard time giving up the notion that a bright central light is not needed. But certainly brighter at sides (possibly, over head?) is needed. Exact relative beam intensity for maximum electrical efficiency for waking, not sure. Outside, where 100k lux is stunning, mostly uniform with overhead spot that is not looked at. Definitely tons of peripheral light outside.
I am interested in anecdotal replies from people using light to wake up. (I wish, in addition to a timer that clicks on 15 minutes prior to the alarm clock, a gradual automatic ramp up of intensity, were possible in a wake-up light.)
https://www.chronobiology.com/the-eyes-role-in-circadian-rhythm-entrainment/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsically_photosensitive_retinal_ganglion_cells
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinohypothalamic_tract
Retirohypothalamus_tractmh
ipRGCs: Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), also called photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGC), or melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs). Only about two percent of all retinal ganglion cells are ipRGC.
White light induces activation of ganglion cells containing PACAP, Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide. These signals are then carried through the optic nerve, which projects to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), anterior hypothalamic area. The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei (SCN) is a tiny region of the brain in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms. These photosensitive Ganglion Cell are also responsible for acute photic suppression of the hormone melatonin.
Melanopsin is particularly sensitive to the absorption of short-wavelength (blue) visible light, absorption peaks at ~480 nanometers. Melanopsin is exclusively found in the peripheral regions of the retina, also found in the cone cells. However, only 0.11% to 0.55% of human cones express Melanopsin.
Compared to the rods and cones, the ipRGCs respond more sluggishly and signal the presence of light over the long term. They represent a very small subset (~1%) of the retinal ganglion cells.
The photoreceptors were identified in 2002 by Samer Hattar, David Berson and colleagues.
So, light also can regulate circadian rhythm in the blind!
So, ipRGCs cells are new 3rd cell type in the eye. The back of the eye retina contains rods and cone cells, as we were taught in grade school. Cones see color, sharp vision, congregation in 15 degrees of center. The rods in peripheral vision are thought to not see color, but extremely good at seeing movement. How color blind rods are, would be of great interest to me. But it is written, " Rods have little role in color vision, which is one of the main reasons why colors are much less apparent in darkness." Your fovea is your super sharp vision in eye, about 2 degrees on center.... This is why you must make eye jumps on lines of texts over lines, not even 3 inches wide, when reading. Also, reason you can play peekaboo all year long on walls finding minor imperfections, as the minor imperfections will seem to jump out at you from nowhere, even years after staring at the same wall. You must do 4 inch eye jumps, at a maximum, as if you were reading text of a half inch font, to reasonably find most imperfections. This means, "You also cannot look at a wall to see imperfections!" I must reprove this several times annually, because thick headed people refuse to believe this. Prove by hiding an imperfection of a low contrast, then challenging the pig headed person to find it, which they will not be able to, unless the eye lands on, or mere inches, from it (under right lighting condition). Many magic tricks, even at close range, depend on this eye biological fact that people innately reject. See 'Brain Games' season 1, for more details and proof.
So, flood for navigation and looking for something ; spot for looking at something. The exception might be traveling down a mountain on a bike at 45 mph, and looking for a low contrast imperfection or something in a very cluttered area. And, finally, it may be that for a wake up light, the peripheral vision may be the only area of the eye that matters.
So, stimulating the ipRGCs with best beam pattern for wake up, may mean, either a halo (inverted spot) or just two spots at side of vision. I personally have a hard time giving up the notion that a bright central light is not needed. But certainly brighter at sides (possibly, over head?) is needed. Exact relative beam intensity for maximum electrical efficiency for waking, not sure. Outside, where 100k lux is stunning, mostly uniform with overhead spot that is not looked at. Definitely tons of peripheral light outside.
I am interested in anecdotal replies from people using light to wake up. (I wish, in addition to a timer that clicks on 15 minutes prior to the alarm clock, a gradual automatic ramp up of intensity, were possible in a wake-up light.)
https://www.chronobiology.com/the-eyes-role-in-circadian-rhythm-entrainment/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsically_photosensitive_retinal_ganglion_cells
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinohypothalamic_tract
Retirohypothalamus_tractmh
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