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279 points petethomas | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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Nevermark ◴[] No.45304848[source]
For winter I got a standing tanning machine. Which I use 2-4x a week for 1 minute per use. I calculated this was equivalent to 5-15 minutes outside, depending on time, but engages the entirety of the bodies largest organ.

My (anecdotal, subjective) experience is that it helps. Both vitamin D and nitric oxide are good rationales for that.

This would be economically impossible at a tanning salon.

If you like to be tan, it turns out that a minute at a time, sporadically but regularly, is enough to train the skin to be somewhat tan all the time. Presumably with far less skin damage than longer more random sun exposures, or typical duration salon sessions.

I also have bright rope LEDs surrounding a few of my room ceilings, hidden behind coving. That light reflects smoothly off the entirety of the white ceilings. A great combination of very high intensity lighting, that is also gentle, diffuse and calming. Summer days, indoors, all year round.

There is nothing subjective about the mental benefits of the lights. I am far more alert during the day, and sleep better at night, even in summer. Rationale: We were meant to live outside.

I have worked at home my whole career, so I tune things.

I also enjoy the real sun!

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1. ToDougie ◴[] No.45305193[source]
> I also have bright rope LEDs surrounding a few of my room ceilings, hidden behind coving. That light reflects smoothly off the entirety of the white ceilings. A great combination of very high intensity lighting, that is also gentle, diffuse and calming. Summer days, indoors, all year round.

I am intrigued -- please can you share any publicly available image of this solution? I'm not sure what to google search, or what it would even look like. But I am interested in feeling better while stuck indoors all day.

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2. photon_garden ◴[] No.45305590[source]
David Chapman has a great writeup on this:

https://meaningness.com/sad-light-lumens

His other writing is great too, but much more philosophical which may or may not be your cup of tea.

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3. Carrok ◴[] No.45306764[source]
> That light reflects smoothly off the entirety of the white ceilings. A great combination of very high intensity lighting, that is also gentle, diffuse and calming.

The description from GP, and the photos in the article you linked, seem like polar opposites of each other.

4. Nevermark ◴[] No.45307134[source]
Here you go!

The camera dramatically auto-reduced the brightness in all the pictures. So imagine the room summer sun bright. But not harsh, very soft shadowing.

https://imgur.com/a/0OBnR9j

Where the ceiling shows shadow in the middle of each border, it is really just a tiny bit less bright than at the edge of the borders.

And those LED strips are blinding, even though they look off!

In the evening I turn off the ceiling lights, and the room is lit warmly by the low-lumen crystal lights from below.

The sleep cycle isn't something that comes natural to me, so I work all the angles.

5. quickthrowman ◴[] No.45308079[source]
“Cove lighting” is the architectural lighting term used for this sort lighting installation. You build coves out of gypsum or wood and then install LED tape lighting into a plastic or metal channel and bounce the light off the cove to create indirect lighting. You can use cove lighting to illuminate a ceiling, or accent a wall, which is called perimeter cove lighting.

There are a number of other types of indirect light fixtures (and direct/indirect fixtures, most commonly as suspended linear fixtures with LEDs on both the top and bottom of the fixture).

The first picture in the article linked below has an architectural elevation diagram (basically a side profile) of cove lighting: https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/lighting/cove-l...