MORE BRIGHT IDEAS

Lighting can be one of the easiest ways to give our home an update. From form to function, it also just makes sense from a quality-of-life perspective. With age, the muscles that control our pupils weaken and pupil response – that is, to widen in dim or dark settings – is impaired. With a few simple strategies, shedding more light on whatever the subject can help.

Outdoors, that can be as easy as outfitting existing fixtures with a Sengled Smartsense bulb ( sengled.

ca). The floodlight has motion sensing built right in, turning on as you get within five feet.

Indoors, try Philips Hue bulbs that glow like cool daylight – better for fine tasks or an energy boost while you workout – to soft warm white. The bulbs connect wirelessly to an app that includes a setting by which you can turn your bedside lamp into an alarm of sorts, with gradual brightening to wake you up more naturally and dimming at night to help ready you for sleep.

Speaking of turning down the lights, swap out switches with Lutron dimmers ( lutron.com) and control the lighting via smartphone from the couch, the bed or wherever. Choose the Smart Away setting to have lights turned on and off each evening – making it seem as though someone’s home. Or working by GPS locating your phone, switches can be set to turn the lights on as you get home.

And although the flicker is flattering, now there’s an alternative to candlelight when the power goes out. Everbright bulbs (above), also from Sengled, are designed to keep going during an electricity outage. The bulbs switch to battery backup and can operate at 60 per cent brightness for more than three hours. —TL