Burnout is not a personal failure. It is the result of an economic system that steals time, daylight and energy from our lives.
In this fifth video in my Christmas series on light, I explore the relationship between light, healing and health — and why modern work patterns deny people access to the very conditions they need to recover and thrive.
Light regulates sleep, hormones, mood and immunity. Yet long hours, commuting, shift work and poor housing mean many people barely see daylight at all. Artificial light cannot replace what we lose.
This is not accidental. It is structural. Productivity is prioritised over health, time over care, and people are blamed when they break.
Light is a public good. Time should not be a privilege.
A society that denies people light cannot be surprised when they struggle to heal.
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
This is the fifth in our series on light that we've been putting out over the Christmas season in 2025. It's not the last. We will have one more video to do to draw this season to a close, and that will be coming out tomorrow and draws all the threads together. But there is one last thread that I want to talk about today, and that is light, healing, and the theft of time.
Many people feel exhausted and unwell in the world right now. We are told that this is personal failure, but I'm going to suggest to you that it is not. It is actually about a structural failure, and light is part of the explanation for that.
What we know is that light regulates our sleep. It affects our hormones and mood, and it supports our immune function. This isn't some form of make-believe mumbo jumbo; this is, of course, established medical science.
But there is a corollary to it. Darkness and artificial light are now known to damage our health, and I do mean both of them. And there are consequences of that.
We know that seasonal affective disorder, sometimes called SAD, is real.
We know that vitamin D deficiency is widespread and is tackled by sunlight.
We know that circadian disruption is commonplace, and these are environmental conditions; they're not moral failings.
These are facts of life created by light.
Older knowledge knew and understood this. In pre-industrial societies, these rhythms were known. Daylight shaped work. Rest followed seasons. Holidays were there for a reason to allow for recovery. Healing included exposure to the light and time, and just have a look at how old hospitals were built to understand this. If you haven't got one near you, have a look at the old Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, near where I live. It's now the Judge Institute, a part of Cambridge University. But if you look at the building, you will see that there were balconies where patients could be taken out and left in the light, and that was one of the cures available at a time when, frankly, drugs were limited in supply; but it worked. And all of that basis of medicine at that time was not based upon ignorance. Modern research now shows that it was wisdom reflecting real need and the requirements for recuperation.
Modern work patterns don't reflect any of this, nor do they respect them.
Long hours ignore daylight. Now, this time of the year, many people never see daylight. They've left home before the sun is up. They arrive back home after work, after the sun has gone down, and that's in southern England. By the time we get to southern Scotland, and then go even further north and arrive in the Shetlands or somewhere, you are seeing very little daylight at all, and, of course, in the Nordic countries, it's even worse. You are not seeing much daylight , and it has an impact. And artificial light that replaces that which is natural is not an alternative. It doesn't work in the same way.
We suffer from a lack of sunlight if that is something that isn't available to us, and shift work also creates this suffering, and commuting steals our time outdoors. The way that we work, the way that neoliberalism demands that we work, has consequences. In fact, you can say that capitalism steals light from us. Time is extracted, rest is minimised, daylight becomes scarce to us. Productivity is prioritised whilst health is secondary, and yet the very condition for good health on which these other factors are dependent is light, and we are denied it.
The consequence is clear: burnouts happen. Burnout is not the result of weakness. It is the result of energy depletion, and of course, the energy that is depleted ultimately comes from light.
Our economic systems are consuming people, and then it blames them for their collapse. This is unjust. What we need is healing, but healing does depend upon access to light, and, in turn, that depends upon housing quality, urban design, the design of working hours, and our transport systems.
Health and health policy is then a part of social policy. We cannot now separate these because we know that light is critical to our well-being. Access to light should be included in the working patterns of everyone if we are to achieve the best outcomes, not just for people, but for us as communities and as societies with economic concerns.
So, light is a public good. It shouldn't be a privilege, although right now it is.
And nor should time be a privilege either.
And green spaces matter because they are where we can absorb the best quality light.
So shorter working hours, as well as better pay, are key conditions for a better future; that's my argument. Planning for this matters because if we are really interested in a politics of care which treats a person as a whole, then we aren't just ensuring that people have the financial means to make ends meet. What we require is that they have the physical, health and light means, through energy, to achieve that goal as well.
This means we have to reframe well-being. Well-being is not optimisation, it is balance. It is rhythm. It is exposure to light. It is the things that light makes possible. The flow of energy from light through us is, after all, why we are alive, and that energy comes from the sun.
So care begins right there. If we want healthier societies, we must redesign our use of time, redesign work, redesign space, and we have to do all that so we have the energy to thrive. That would be the basis of a good economic policy.
A society that denies people light cannot be surprised when they struggle to heal, and that's where we are. We need a better world. If people are to heal, if people are to be better, if people are to fulfil their potentials, then we need access to light, and we're not getting it.
One of the things we need to plan is a future where quite literally everything is lighter.
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Thanks again to you and your team for yet another enlightening article!
Might subsidiary but significant problems include the following?
1) So many of those with power over others enjoy the flaunting of power by ostentatiously depriving others of power and status/respect.
2) Ditto use their power and increasing wealth to control and manipulate communication structures and systems to persuade regular people, and their children/future citizens, that it is natural/inevitable that they should be herded away from light, health, grounded self-confidence, socio-economic well-being etc.
Much to agree with
There is the ‘Garden pavilion’ idea for infant and junior schools in the inter war period with access to the open air and large sliding doors onto a central garden/play space
The School my youngest attends has one of those buildings if a little neglected
Plus of course the very high ceilings and large windows you got in old school buildings.
And just look at the size of the windows in some at least of those 30’s houses
By contrast I realise that modern houses have recessed lights because there isn’t enough height for a pendant lamp in the room!
Agreed
I went to a school built in the 30s around light because of the fear of TB
I am glad you are writing about this. I have long simmered about the amount of work people try to do to remain healthy in an unhealthy environment, which becomes an uphill battle when we are busy, exhausted, unable to afford relaxation time or treatments. Massage is central to many cultures, here it is seen as an indulgence. Walking and jogging are not so healthy along a busy road. Meditation is harder if you live in a flat with poor sound insulation, as is sleep. People get trapped in poor health, and as you say, are often blamed.
The town of Rjukan in Norway is in the shadow of a mountain for many months of the year. The new town was built early C20th because Norsk Hydro built a fertiliser plant near to their hydroelectric plant. In 1928 the firm built a cable car so their workers could get up the steep valley side to benefit from the sun. The founder of the company wanted to install mirrors to reflect sun down into the town, but this could not be done at the time. Mirrors were installed in 2013, on the 100th anniversary of the idea. My grandmother remembered living their as a small girl, and walking up the valley side to see the sun. They moved before the cable car was built.
Norsk Hydro like many big companies has changed a great deal over the years, but that was how it was at the start. A company that understood its workers needed sunshine.
Wow
Fascinating
Thanks for that Anne. I’ve been to Rjukan two or three times for Nordic skiing and am aware just how deep and steep sided that valley is (the road climbing up out of it is quite impressive and a little bit unnerving here and there, especially negotiating the hairpins in the winter). I appreciate how oppressively gloomy it can feel down at the bottom during the winter months, and the contrast when you reach the open fjell-sides of Telemark above the valley.
I’m also aware of the role of the Norsk Hydro plant with the German efforts to produce “heavy water” during WW2, and the raid(s) to destroy it, as (somewhat loosely) portrayed in “The Heroes of Telemark” film. But I wasn’t aware of the aspects of the town’s development you’ve described here, and I haven’t been there recently enough to see the mirror installation – fascinating.
An interesting message Richard.
I remember well the Tories selling off school land, primarily playing fields for development. This year Labour has introduced the Planning and infrastructure bill to Parliament which is aimed at accelerating the building of new houses and speeding up planning process. Sport England will probably not be part of of the consultation process. Sport England have protected more than 1000 playing fields between April 2022 and March 2023 and there’s a serious concern that the schools will be forced to sell land to fund renovation on their crumbling buildings.
Good point
Some hospital workers don’t have much choice about nights. Getting out in nature as much as possible is now widely recognised as a essential – and to be fair, some local authorities are doing good work making footpath and cycle networks linking green spaces, and making new ones
I didn’t think to engage on this topic Richard but then remembered centuries ago sitting in a circle with other children, all in goggles – having ‘sunray’ treatment from a central lamp. My mother had her own quirky ideas about how to make me a less sickly child – with much eye rolling from our doctor
I think it was a thing in those days – but maybe ended through fears of UV skin damage.
UV is over feared. The people with just about the worst rate of skin cancer in Australia are dermatologists because they over fear light. We need it.
Quite a few business’s built high quality homes for their workers including Cadburys – the Bourneville Estate, New Lanark & Saltaire.
What I dont understand though is that I can go to the local bookshop or library and get books on how to look after cats, dogs, chickens etc so in the same way why cant Politicians get a book on how to look after people and start putting into practice what it recommends?
Did you know I was working on the plan this morning before going out for the day?
The series is proving very….well…. illuminating.
Civil architecture really got to grips with light, ventilation and noise in the inter war and immediate post war years.
Creating superior environments to deliver education, health care and public administration.
The comment mention of ‘Garden Pavilions’ led me to a wonderful Department of Education pamphlet from 1957 accounting of the Government’s expenditure on educational buildings. Clear, concise and informative. There are lessons worth relearning from the evident economy and efficiency.
https://www.education-uk.org/documents/minofed/pamphlet-33.html
Thanks
It is not very often that I feel qualified enough to comment on a post but in this case I think I can.
In January 1972 at the age of 21 I took a break from my studies to go to Nigeria to teach in a secondary school as a VSO (voluntary service overseas). I was assigned to Olofin Anglican Grammar school.in a town called Idanre in what was then called Western Provence. The main tribe was Yoruba . The school campus was about 3 km from the town. I was housed in a two bedroom bungalow situated very close to the main entrance. It was more than adequate for my.needs and had a magnificent mango tree just feet from my front door. Unfortunately the electrical power lines didn’t go any further than the town boundary and so the school campus did not have electricity.
Imagine what difference this would make to your lives if this was the case today. My fridge was powered by kerosene as were my lamps. No phone, no tv ,no.radio etc etc. How would I survive? Far better than you could ever imagine. With no electricity i had to make use of every daylight hour. No more late nights or late mornings in bed. There wasn’t any light pollution or noise pollution or air pollution. In a town of about 20,000 there were less than a dozen cars. I lived on campus and so no commuting or getting stuck in traffic jams. No processed food of any kind.
I was paid £40 a month by the British government. It was more than enough.
I lived a very simple and very satisfying life. Physically I was in the best condition I had ever been and that was also true of my mental state. I had never slept as well as I did in Nigeria and my prime aim today is to get.a good night’s sleep as I am aware what this will mean to the quality of the life I lead.
I am not suggesting that everyone packs their bags and heads to the nearest tropical rainforest but if we can take on board what is being proposed in this blog and strive for a politics of care then the world would be a much better place.
Thank you – great comment.
Richard, this message reminds me of the first time I ‘met’ you at the event Housekeeping Scotland – Common Weal October 2017 Glasgow University. I have some scratched together notes still on file. You spoke on ‘how tax shapes the housing market and how to change it’ . Later on at the conclusion of the day Robin McAlpine of Common Weale asked the audience to keep some questions in their minds re their homes
“ask yourself
Are you warm?
Is there space?
Are you bathed in sunlight for most of the time?”
Many thanks for picking up the thread to a now much larger audience. Some day, someone will move the mountains …
Thank you, Hazel. I remember that event.
Replying to the series in general, it is brilliant. You often refer to ecological constraints. The latter, though, need so much more than mentions.
First, The Guardian view on adapting to the climate crisis: it demands political honesty about extreme weather | Editorial | The Guardian 26/12/2025
Second, Radio 4 this week ’The Infinite Monkey Cage’ with Prof Brian Cox … expressed how fast our polar ice sheets are disintegrating – and therefore, where our ‘civilisation’ is heading … in terrifying scientific detail.
The scale and urgency of action needed to curb CO2 emissions is much greater than anything created for past warfare.
Some possibilities – assuming most people will care about our grandchildren:
Flying for pleasure could be phased out – together with all airport expansion. Business and government flying could be regulated and taxed.
Fossil fuel racing could be discontinued – planes, cars, motorbikes and boats.
Roosevelt ordered a maximum speed limit of 35 mph throughout the US for the duration of the war. The motor industry bosses had planned to offer one production line each for military vehicles. He told them ‘I am having all of your production’.
In 1941, the Jeep, ‘spartan and unstintingly functional’ was a cheap but adequate utility vehicle. Could something similar – capable of speeds not much in excess of 35 mph – be produced by the British government for journeys to shops, schools, hospitals etc.?
Outdoor Christmas lights are ‘pretty’. Materials, manufacture (largely in China, India etc), shipping and electricity costs of this years’ displays will result in massive loss of life and contribute to the inundation by the sea of valuable agricultural land etc. It is time it was all forbidden.
All outside lighting not essential for safety and visibility could be forbidden or licenced and taxed.
Strictly Come Dancing is fun and spectacular but the extravagance makes me wince. A war-time government slogan was ‘make do and mend’.
We were not allowed to take more food than we could eat. Christmas trees were almost impossible to obtain because of timber rationing.
During WW2, clothing was rationed as was food, fuel, soap and paper. Rationing improved the health of British people, because it ensured that everyone had access to a varied diet with enough vitamins.
Thanks Joe
How do we even begin this transition though, starting with the easier parts?
I know that spending at least an hour and a half outside in nature every day for the past two years has had a massive positive effect on my physical and mental health.
During lockdown we saw many people out walking daily. Those numbers appear to have fallen considerably since ‘normality’ returned.
Agreed
Well, had a bruising encounter over the lunch table today with an ex head of public services from North Yorkshire about Starmer’s Labour. She had worked at a more senior level than me.
The argument seemed to be that if people want real change, they need to get behind the Labour party and stick with them. My interlocutor felt that Labour were scared to death because they would lose the voters; backed up a recent Reith lecture about change only being possible if voters were not so capricious (she seemed to favour the idea of voter stupidity over political weakness and cowardice); also how the media and Tory party/establishment would make mincemeat of Labour if they did anything ‘radical’.
The answer was I was told ‘incremental change’ – slow – she looked at the dropping of the two child benefit limit (which does not come in until April 2026) as a major step forward (despite other caps and local housing allowances not being removed).
She did not agree with me that Labour were sitting in power on top of macro economic powers that they simply refused to use and had no excuse not to use. When she told me that she was a tax payer who had ended up owning nothing I basically retorted thrice that she did not pay taxes to pay or own services at all, so why should she be indignant about that. I also asked her then if she agreed that with Mrs Thatcher’s view that there was no such thing as government money. My impression was that safety mattered most, yet we agreed that the debate was doing nothing but going around in circles. The only way out apparently was to exit as timidly as possible policy-offer wise which I did not see as potentially helpful at all, because that too made voters lose confidence.
I ended on the view that Labour’s timidity was merely Terra-forming politics for Farage and that it was his forwardness and lack of timidity that had helped him propel himself to where he was.
It got me thinking though, about if a political change did really come about, how would we manage any real change that did indeed to turn the tables on the vested interests that torment us. I will be reflecting on this a lot.
Please share your conclusions. And thank you.