The Ario Lamp Changes Brightness Based On Time, Weather, And More For Your Maximum Health
Humans spend nearly 90 percent of each day indoors, Ario co-founder and CEO Brian Hoskins told Medical Daily. In New York City, we commute to work underground, in the subway, he said. Others drive inside their cars, or sit inside a train or bus. Our offices, meanwhile, are lit by fluorescent light bulbs and oftentimes don’t have enough windows to let sunlight in. When we leave it’s already dark, so we light up our homes and offices. At bedtime, we lay down and stare at our phones’ bright screens in the dark. All this artificial light is ruining our health, Hoskins said, which is why he developed a solution: the Ario Lamp.
The Ario Lamp looks like any old lamp: It stands about 5 feet high, has a 13-inch round top, and a glossy, silver finish. Inside the lamp, however, is where it’s different. Instead of a regular incandescent, fluorescent, or LED bulb, the Ario Lamp features an environmentally friendly, 150-watt equivalent, LED lighting system. This system includes a feature called “directional lighting,” which casts the light of the lamp up and out during the day to produce a brighter, light-filled room, and downward at night so you can slowly prepare yourself for sleep. For this reason, it’s being called the world’s first healthy lamp.
The lamp’s directional lighting, however, wouldn’t be anything special if it wasn’t for its smart capabilities. It connects to any Wi-Fi source and boots up in about three minutes, during which time it locates exactly where you are on the planet. This allows it to run automatically and produce optimal lighting based on the time of day, the weather, and even the season. For example, the light will start out dim as you awake and go about your morning, then become increasingly brighter as the day progresses. At night, it winds down back down to a dimmer setting. The Ario Lamp can even be personalized to your own circadian rhythm; if you like getting up before dawn, you can set it to wake you up at a certain time. If you want slightly brighter lighting later at night, it can do that, too.
The health benefits of the Ario Lamp are backed by 15 years of research from Harvard Medical School, NASA, and the National Institutes of Health. Hoskins told Medical Daily that the benefits of the lamp include better sleep, more energy during the day, stress and body weight management, and a stronger immune system. Too much artificial light has been attributed to higher rates of obesity and higher overall cholesterol levels, however, the Ario Lamp keeps this in check using its optimal lighting system, which keeps your body clock in sync. The lamp can even help you recover from jet lag more naturally than trying to readjust your sleep patterns, Hoskins said.
The Ario Lamp is currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign that hopes to raise $50,000 — this would help bring the lamp to homes, offices, and schools in the near future. Hoskins also said that Ario plans to build a shorter lamp for desktops and dressers, as well as implement its LED lighting technology in hospitals and eventually in the permanent light fixtures you find in your home or office.