Light Intensity Impacts Cognitive Performance

Does the amount of light hitting your eyes impact your alertness and cognitive performance? If so, do we perform better in bright, normal or dim lighting?

According to research just reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, the answer is yes, the intensity of light does impact our feeling of sleepiness and how well we objectively perform on a memory test.

What they found was that we are more alert and have improved memory in a room with natural/normal levels of lightening as compared to a room with dim lighting. They did not test for the effects of brighter than normal light.

Although a seemingly minor effect, room lighting is a variable we can control. I’m an interested to hear from readers about studies that measure the impact of lighting effects on brain function and cognitive performance.

Source:  Image of Light Intensity in Room