Light: Nature's Natural Mood Transformer

If you have any doubt about the emotional effects of light, just ask Dr. Judy. The radio call-in therapist, less famously (and more formally) known as Dr. Judy Kuriansky, stresses that light can increase your energy, elevate your mood and, when properly controlled, facilitate more healthful sleep patterns.

"Light has a tremendous effect on mental health," says Kuriansky, who is also an adjunct professor at the Clinical Psychology Program at Columbia University Teachers College and at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia Medical Center.

Kuriansky encourages people to think carefully about their circadian rhythms (the 24-hour psychological rhythms associated with the 24-hour cycle of the earth's rotation). "It is important for people to feel that they have control over their environment," she says, "and some window coverings enable you to do that."

Kuriansky favors Hunter Douglas products for the variety and flexibility they offer in controlling light, privacy, and views of the outside world. Controlling light—or rather ensuring the absence of it—goes a long way toward promoting a good night's sleep, and you can select from a wide range of Hunter Douglas products specifically designed to block out unwanted light.

Conversely, during the daylight hours, Hunter Douglas products allow a healthy measure of sunlight to enter your home. As Kuriansky notes, a segment of the population is affected by light deprivation during the short days of winter. In fact, an estimated half million people suffer serious bouts of depression during the winter, an illness known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). It is caused by a biochemical imbalance in the hypothalamus due to the shortening of daylight hours and the lack of sunlight in winter.

Hunter Douglas window coverings can help alleviate this disorder because many products beautifully soften and diffuse through two fabric layers or gently filter incoming natural light, rather than simply blocking it, so that its positive effects can be felt without its harsh glare and heat.

Like Kuriansky, Christine Baumbach, an interior designer in Oak Park, Illinois, favors Hunter Douglas products. Her clients are often concerned about privacy, and Hunter Douglas products help them to access sunlight while blocking unwanted views. The homes of her clients are frequently only 20 feet from their neighbors, so Baumbach generally specifies top-down/bottom-up window coverings for all first-floor rooms as well as second-floor bedrooms, providing the sleeping spaces with privacy while affording them access to natural light and open-sky views.

Baumbach also notes a generational difference among her clients, saying "my older clients like the sense of privacy and concealment provided by layered windows while my younger ones want to be open to the outdoors but still have privacy at night. Hunter Douglas gives me both the reliability and variety I need for all of my clients."



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