Electrical installation & energy efficiency

If you fly to Asia on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, you might find it a wee bit easier to fall asleep on the way.

Although LED light bulbs have largely been touted by advocates as a way to curb energy consumption, many manufacturers have begun to discover that the “other” attributes of these chips—long lifetimes, low maintenance requirements, precise control and communications capabilities– could actually emerge as the strongest selling points.

A properly engineered LED light bulbs, in other words, could help you sleep.“You can reset circadian rhythms and evoke behavioral responses,” said Dr. George Brainard, a professor of neurology at the Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, who added that health could be one of the common packaging and branding qualities, like output and watts, in a decade or two.

The first consumer “biological specific lights” could even start to hit the market in about two years, says Fred Maxik, one of the founders of Lighting Science Group, which specializes in LED light bulbs.

Lighting Science has made LED light bulbs for testing circadian rhythm impacts for both NASA and aircraft engineers. (See photo.) The company currently works with Google on a bulb that dims and brightens as you approach with an Android phone. Bulbs tuned to kill germs–UV light can be deadly to microbes–might appear four to five years beyond sleepy bulbs.

The potential to exploit LED light bulbs as sleeping aids derives largely from the fact that LEDs can be programmed to emit light at precise wavelengths, colors and tones. LED light bulbs, after all, are digital semiconductors. Traditional light bulbs produce light by heating exotic gases or pieces of metal inside of sealed tubes: they are the last vestige of the 132-year old vacuum tube era. Controlling them requires filters and the tribal wisdom of lighting designers.

“An LED is a light source, but it is an infinitely controllable source,” said Zach Gentry, an executive at Enlighted, which combines LED light bulbs with temperature, light and occupancy sensors for monitoring energy consumption and physical activity in office buildings.

Throughout most of human history, people began their workday when the sun crossed the horizon and went to bed after night descended.