‘Big light has no vibe’: why you should ditch overhead lighting
Everyone hates overhead lights. Former creative director of JCrew and current Real Housewife of New York Jenna Lyons said she refuses to have them in her home. Drew Barrymore said nothing makes her angrier. On TikTok, overheads – or any light fixture that is attached to the ceiling – are often referred to as “the big light”, due in part to a 2022 video from Australian TV presenter Gemma Driscoll in which she shows off the various soft, colorful, eyelevel light sources in her home while explaining in a firm voice: “I don’t have many rules for my house, but I do have one, and that is that we never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever use the big light.”
The overhead’s crime? First and foremost: it’s unflattering. Being lit from above can give you the sunken, ghoulish appearance of the undead. Plus, more often than not, overheads are equipped with cold, harsh bulbs seemingly designed to evoke feelings of despair. (“But what of a gorgeous, 18-light candelabra chandelier bathing you in a beatific glow?” I can hear some of you scream. To which I would say, you don’t really see those around – and anyway, candles are nicer.) Perhaps most damningly though, as one popular comment on Driscoll’s original video puts it: “Big light has no vibe.”
But in forums like the subreddit r/unpopularopinion, defenders gather and talk about how they like having enough light to safely cook and not trip over things. But they remain decidedly in the minority. On TikTok, the audio of Driscoll’s condemnation has become a popular backing track for users eager to show off their own mood lighting choices: candles, fairy lights and whimsically shaped lamps.
Disliking overhead lights is not a new or controversial opinion. But in the interest of journalistic integrity, and – more importantly – winning arguments with friends who have no problem with their spaces feeling like a chain drugstore, I present a stronger, non-vibesbased critique.
To build my case, I reached out to someone who deals with lighting professionally. “The old recessed lighting would generally give terrible shadows. No one looks good,” says Young Huh, the principal of Young Huh Interior Design in New York City. Huh isn’t categorically anti-overhead, but generally favors a layered lighting approach, with some light coming from the ceiling, some from the walls, and some from table lamps. This, she says, creates “a soft glow everywhere”, and allows one to control those lighting elements based on their needs.
Bright, cool-toned light is energizing, she says. Cool light, or “blue” light – which is often found in phone, computer and TV screens, as well as fluorescent and LED lights – has been found to “boost attention, reaction times and mood”, according to a Harvard Medical School article. This makes it a popular choice for offices.But unlike outside light, which changes with time, a glaring fluorescent overhead will be just as bright at 6pm as it is at 9am, a relentless monotony which Huh says can feel exhausting.
Huh recommends dimming lights as the day progresses. In her own office, Huh has installed a lighting system that is brightest in the morning, and then gradually dims and warms. Anecdotally, she notes that people in her office seem to enjoy it better.“They’ve been like, ‘I don’t feel like I’m exhausted and want to leave at 3pm,’” she says.
The big light doesn’t necessarily have to be harsh, Huh adds. She suggests testing out a variety of different bulbs to find a light that is warmer and more to your liking. “If you find that consistently you really hate your downlights, change those bulbs.”
But since the US Department of Energy’s incandescent lightbulb ban went into effect in August, it has been difficult for some to get the warm light they want. Even Huh admitted that it can involve trial and error. “LED bulbs have come a long, long way. And they’re great because they’re energy efficient,” she says. “But they still have some ways to go.”
This was not the unequivocal denunciation of overheads I would have liked. To strengthen my case, I turned to a medical professional. Dr Mariana Figueiro, director of the Mount Sinai Center for Light and Health Research, and professor of population health science and Policy at Icahn Mount Sinai, agrees that “you probably should” ditch the overheads.
Figueiro says the amount of light that enters your eyes triggers and regulates the circadian cycle, the body’s internal master clock that helps regulate sleep patterns, hormones, digestion and mood. So it’s best to have light at eye level, because the closer a light source is to you, the more light actually reaches your eyes.Exposure to sunlight tells our body it’s time to be awake, and helps keep us energized throughout the day, while darkness tells our body it’s time for sleep. When this cycle is disrupted,our sleeping and eating schedules are thrown off, and we can experience lower energy, mood and performance.
Though it may not feel that way when we are shriveling beneath their unforgiving blaze, Figueiro says the real problem with overheads is actually that they’re not bright enough. Outside on a sunny day, the light may reach 100,000 lux (the unit of illuminance, which measures how much light falls on a surface). But inside, electric lights provide closer to 200 or 300 lux. So while overheads may seem painfully bright, in reality, our body is experiencing them as what Figueiro calls a “continuous twilight”, disrupting our natural sleepwake cycle.
For the benefit of our circadian cycle and the mental, physical and behavioral processes it controls, “there is no need to use those cooler light sources”, she says. “If you’re using warmer lights, you might have to increase the amount of light by about 20% – either by adding more lamps or bringing the light source closer to your face – and then “people find the environment a little bit more acceptable”.
While it might be pleasant for light levels to change gradually throughout the day, Figueiro said there was not much research to support the idea. “The circadian system is really looking at bright days, dark nights. You want that contrast between light and dark. You don’t need to have the spectrum or anything like that,” she says.
That being said, she added that “there could be some psychological effect” to light that gets moodier as the day goes on. I readied myself for the argument that would put the question of overheads to rest once and for all. What was the psychological effect of more ambient lighting?
“Some people may like it.”
Hm. None of my findings were the outright condemnations I had been hoping for; no academic groups or public health departments had strongly denounced the scourge of ceiling lights. The strongest arguments against overheads were: they’re unflattering and unpleasant, and we don’t need them.
But there is one point I find myself returning to again and again – an unassailable position that knocks around in my skull whenever someone moves to flick a wall switch: “Big light has no vibe.”