This paper examines the psychological and psychophysiological effects of blue light exposure — as compared to red light exposure — on older adults during the day. The blue lighting was found to be significantly more activating and more unpleasant than the red lighting. The mid-frequency high-frequency ratio of the heart period variability slightly decreased under blue lighting indicating an increase of parasympathetic modulation in this lighting condition compared to red lighting.

The objective of these studies was to provide sound empirical data for an intelligent, adaptive home lighting system to be created for the elderly. To meet these objectives involved measuring the psychophysiological reactions/states of the elderly during selected every-day situations and testing the psychophysiological effects of different lighting conditions. The results are that (1) the best psychophysiological measures for the intelligent learning loop are the skin conductance response and the heart period, (2) significant performance differences were found under different lighting conditions and (3) the subjective opinions generally were in accordance with the ideas of the designer of the lighting system.

This is the second of the three papers providing fundamental information for the development of an adaptive lighting system for older adults. This paper examines the effects of two different forms of dynamic lighting -having the same average illuminance over time -on the performance of the numerical verification task (NVT) by older adults. As a group, the older adults showed no difference between the two forms of dynamic lighting. However, by involving the individual's sensation seeking needs it was shown that the kind of dynamism (quickly increasing or quickly decreasing) influences both the subjective preferences and the objective visual performance. As individuals, all of the participants' performances were determined mainly by the time, and illuminance variables proving the effect of dynamic lighting.

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