Does your office have lighting that glares off or your screen or makes you look weird in video calls? Not to worry. This guide will help you create the best lighting for your office to have you feeling and working your best.
Natural Light
Natural light is the best source of light. It can help keep your sleep cycles regulated and improve your mood. When you feel better, you work better.
However, this lighting will vary throughout the day (and by time of year, where you live, etc). And you have to be able to position your monitors to take best advantage of it. If it is directly behind you, it can cause a glare. If it is directly in front of you, it may be too bright to see your screens well.
If your office allows for it, attempt to position your desk so that when your face your monitors the natural lighting comes in from the side. Even from the side, you might still get a glare early in the morning or late in the evening when the sun is low in the sky. Some curtains should help with any glare you get during these times.
Overhead Lighting
If you don’t have a good window or on those cloudy days and late evenings, overhead light is your next best option.
There is a huge variety of light bulbs available. Since the sun is the best option, finding bulbs that mimic the sun as close as possible is the best way to start. Light bulbs have a number of stats, but the ones you should be looking at are the Color Rendering Index (CRI) and the Color Temperature (CT).
Color Rendering Index is how well the light source reflects colors compared to sunlight. Sunlight has a CRI of 100, on a scale of 0 to 100. You will probably want to find bulbs for your office with a CRI of 70 or higher.
Color Temperature is a scale of what hue and tone a light appears to the eye. It is measured in Kelvins. The Sun comes in the mid 5000Ks on the scale. For this reason, your best lighting will most likely come from “daylight” bulbs. These are designed to mimic the Sun’s Color Temperature.
You should have your bulbs covered by shades or diffusers to spread the light evenly over the room.
Whatever you do, do NOT use fluorescent lights. They have been associated with higher eye strain, increased stress, and headaches. The opposite of feeling your best.
Desk Lamps
Some apartments or rooms are not wired up for overhead lighting, so lamps are your next best option. Tall lamps that spread light over the whole room are ideal, but they can still fall short on properly lighting a room.
Having a desk lamp give some backlight to your monitors can help reduce eye strain on dark early mornings or late evenings.