Why Skylights?
I’ve been installing and repairing skylights for over 20 years now. My experience is that people love the daylight that skylights bring in their homes, and that the daylight dramatically improves the experience of living and working in their home or office.
There is now a vast amount of research that documents why this effect takes place. The research was done in two primary settings: elementary schools and retail stores. There are some very interesting statistics:
Moving children from classrooms with total artificial light to ones with full daylighting resulted in the following improvements:
20% faster learning rate in math.
26% faster learning rate in reading.
15%-23% faster rate of improvement.
2.6% less cavities.
Lower cortisol levels (stress hormone).
Higher bone density.
Higher height and weight gain.
Problem reduction in school children:
Visual: 65%
Nutritional problems: 48%
Chronic infections: 43%
Postural problems: 26%
Chronic fatigue: 56%
In the retail setting Walmart stores have compiled the most revealing data with every cash register connected directly to corporate headquarters: on average a not day lit store would experience 40% higher sales after the addition of skylights.
Why is this? Full-spectrum light energy travels throught the eye and feeds the hypothalamus, pituitary, and pineal glands, which along with the endocrine system dramatically affect our health and wellbeing. People just know that they like daylight in their homes, which is what I do.