I have worked at home my whole career. It was life changing when I discovered I could aim several LED shop lights at my ceilings (90,000 lumens total, in a vaulted living room) to create a summer day indoors, even on the dimmest cloudiest winter day.
When I remodeled my new home, I put 3 dimmable LED light strips around each ceiling, hidden above molding, so every ceiling is effectively a diffuse but high lumen light.
Then I use smart bulbs in accent lamps and other lighting, to add color for variety and mood.
This is called Cove Lighting for anyone wanting to research this.
I'm remodeling a 12'x12' bedroom to be my office and lighting is a huge part of my plan. I'll do cove lighting like this using CRI 95+ LED strips dimmable ~500lumen/ft either 4000K or 5000K. Haven't decided on the color temp. You lose a lot of CRI going to a temp adjustable strip.
The effects, with a 60000 lumen setup, were remarkable. Winter depression, which affected me on 2 out of 7 days before enrolling in the study, dropped to zero for the next two months.
The study showed that this lighting setup works as well as those light therapy boxes you sit in front of, and perhaps even better.
This is my dream when I own my own home. I want high CRI LEDs with tunable colour temperature. Automated to track roughly the colour temperature of the outside environement. It would be great for those dark British winters
If suffer from seasonal depression, I’d suggest that a couple lightbulbs (household size dependent) and some electrical work are well worth your time, even as a renter. Do it now, while you’re able to take on projects.
I love the idea of indoor summer days, but my wife thinks it's cozy when it's dim inside (never mind that I think she'd enjoy winter more if she could get more daylight than what's available far north where we live). The dimmable strips sound like an amazing compromise. Are those available at sufficient wattage?
When I remodeled my new home, I put 3 dimmable LED light strips around each ceiling, hidden above molding, so every ceiling is effectively a diffuse but high lumen light.
Then I use smart bulbs in accent lamps and other lighting, to add color for variety and mood.