Broad-spectrum lighting boosts color-contrast vision under LEDs with lasting effects
A University College London study found that standard LED lighting (350–650 nm) can undermine visual performance by suppressing mitochondrial function, while supplementing with broad-spectrum incandescent light (400–1500+ nm) significantly improved color-contrast sensitivity across protan and tritan axes by about 25%. These improvements persisted for up to six weeks after incandescent lighting was removed. The findings imply LEDs may have systemic physiological effects via mitochondrial pathways and suggest public-health benefits from incorporating wider-spectrum lighting, despite trade-offs with energy efficiency.