We all know the standard benefits of outdoor lighting…aesthetic appeal, safety, security and extending your outdoor living space. But have you ever thought about what lighting does for your mental health? Soft lighting, such as low voltage LED lighting, has been shown to help keep your emotions steady, decreasing those mood swings. Light therapy is even used to treat conditions such as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Light can also decrease depression scores and increase cognitive performance. Think about it…when you are feeling down, is it going to be helpful to curl up in a ball in a dark room? Sure, we may WANT to do that, but it is not going to improve our mood the way a brighter space can.
Not only does lighting have a calming effect that improves our mental status but having outdoor lighting can increase our time spent outside. By expanding that outdoor living space with low lighting, you are more likely to head outdoors after dark. Increased time spent outdoors has also been proven to be better for our overall health. This is especially important for those of us with jobs in an office where maybe we cannot get outside all day. Having that option of eating dinner on your softly lit back porch can have more benefits than you may realize.
Light is also associated with peace. This makes perfect sense as a securely lit home can certainly bring you peace. You may not even realize it, but your stress levels may decrease with a properly lit home as you have that added sense of security when sleeping. In the crazy world we live in, who couldn’t use all the help we can get destressing?!