Light O'Clock

Light O'Clock is back with Season 4! In this new season, we explore how biological timing shapes health and disease, and how accounting for circadian rhythms may help improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. We will discuss topics such as immunity and vaccination, cancer care, neonatal health, metabolism, exercise, and shift work.

Join us as we take a tour through the emerging field of circadian medicine, and ask what it could mean for the future of healthcare.

In the final episode of this mini-series, Caro, Anna, and Priji explore how the built environment shapes our interactions with daylight. From balconies and windows to schools, workplaces, and public spaces, the places we move through every day influence how much natural light we receive and how we experience it.

These spaces are more than design choices. They are shaped by culture, climate, geography, and daily routines. Together with our interviewees, we discuss how architecture can either support or limit our relationship with daylight, and why paying attention to light in our environments matters for well-being, mood, and everyday life.

Key highlights from this episode:

How homes, workplaces, and schools affect daylight exposure

Why balconies and "transitional spaces" can feel so meaningful

The role of window design and orientation (we even get poetic about windows!)

How thoughtful design can help us build a healthier relationship with daylight

Links and resources:

Anna and Priji’s publication describing their framework: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00159-5

Visualisation of the framework’s “bubbles”: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00159-5/figures/3

More about the Daylight Academy (DLA) Project: https://daylight.academy/projects/daylight-interactions/

In the second episode of our Interacting with Daylight mini-series, Caro is joined by Anna and Priji again to explore how cultural traditions and individual behaviours shape our interactions with daylight.

Building on the previous discussion of location, this episode shifts the focus to how social norms, gender roles, and cultural traditions shape people’s experiences and interactions with daylight.

Links and resources:

Anna and Priji’s publication describing their framework: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00159-5

Visualisation of the framework’s “bubbles”: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00159-5/figures/3

More about the Daylight Academy (DLA) Project: https://daylight.academy/projects/daylight-interactions/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:23) What do we mean by culture and behaviours

(03:53) Snippets: solar eclipse and Norwegian winter

(08:40) Yellow dishes & the sun

(12:10) Snippets: Daylight in Spain vs Norway

(19:30) Snippets: Sun exposure, skin care, and lunch habits in Rochester

(20:20) Snippets: Clothing & sun umbrellas

(25:00) Gender roles and exposure to daylight

(32:57) Focus group snippets: Cultural differences around daylight

(43:57) Snippets: Playing as kids — outdoor and indoor behaviours

(47:50) Snippets: Schools and daylight habits in schools in different countries

(51:54) Reflections on outdoor/indoor habits in schools

(55:40) Outro: how different languages refer to (day)light

In this first episode of our new Interacting with Daylight mini-series, your host Caro is joined by Anna and Priji to discuss the Daylight Interaction Project, funded by the Daylight Academy. The project explores how people interact with daylight in everyday life and how this is shaped by factors such as location, built environments, culture and behaviours.

The episode focuses on the first part of their framework: Location. Through interview snippets recorded during the Daylight Academy Summer School in beautiful Chexbres, Switzerland, the hosts reflect on how geography, climate, temperature and landscape can influence experiences of daylight.

Interviewees come from diverse locations and latitudes: Singapore, Norway, Rochester (USA), and Costa Rica — offering perspectives on topics such as seasonal daylight changes, tropical versus northern light environments, and associations with sunlight and darkness.

Links and resources:

Anna and Priji’s publication describing their framework: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00159-5

Visualisation of the framework’s “bubbles”: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00159-5/figures/3

More about the Daylight Academy (DLA) Project: https://daylight.academy/projects/daylight-interactions/

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro: the Daylight Interaction Project

(10:20) Project summary and interviewees

(13:51) Geolocation: latitudes, climatic zones, seasons, geographical context

(19:51) Snippets: associations with daylight and darkness

(30:50) Daylight as a placemaking tool

(34:21) Daylight vs sunlight

(37:55) Snippets: Seasonal changes and colours

(53:05) Reflections on seasonality

(59:33) Episode summary

(01:02:00) Outro: darkness associations

In this special episode of Light O’Clock, we share snippets from our very first live recording, captured on stage at Buch Wien in Vienna in November 2025.

Host Caro Guidolin and her colleague Marie-Luise Schreiter answer audience questions on chronotype, light exposure, sleep, shift work, and why people feel more tired in winter.