The Guardian, 24 January 2015
Dragonskolan school in Sweden’s far north attempts to raise children’s performance through use of intense electric lights
The glass door of classroom C151 at Dragonskolan, an upper-secondary school in Umeå in Sweden’s far north, emits an eerie metallic glow. "When you look inside it seems weird, there’s a strange sterile light – as if it’s some sort of an experiment," says Sara Culligan, 18.
Culligan and her classmates are willing guinea pigs in an attempt to see whether intense, "full spectrum" electric light can ease the pain of a long, dark Nordic winter.
The students are also part of a bigger debate about the value of light in schools and offices to relieve the jet lag-like symptoms that can arise when hormones are disturbed by long nights and short, dismal days. Some also believe bright light can help treat depression, such as the seasonal affective disorder that some suffer from when daylight disappears.