Light is good for our brains

Scientists have proven that light intensity influences our cognitive performance and how alert we feel, and that these positive effects last until early evening. Tests conducted at EPFL have confirmed the hypothesis that light influences our subjective feeling of sleepiness. The research team, led by Mirjam Münch, also showed that the effects of light exposure last until the early evening, and that light intensity has an impact on cognitive mechanisms. Light synchronizes our biological clocks. It is collected in the eye by photoreceptors that use photopigments (pigments that change when exposed to light), known as melanopsin. These cells, which differ from rods and cones, are considered a third class of photoreceptors in the retina and were discovered just ten years ago. They're not there to form an image, but to perceive and absorb photons in the visible light spectrum.