Lighting in Korean Kindergarten Shows Hope for Improving Eyesight

September 21, 2022

YBM Gaepo Appletree, an English-speaking kindergarten located in Gangnam, Seoul, Korea has selected natural SunLike lighting by Seoul Semiconductor to illuminate its classrooms.

Appletree is one of Korea’s top-level English-speaking kindergartens offering classes for a small number of selected students. It is renowned among discerning Korean parents for its strict standards for teachers and step-by-step curriculum. Since the kindergarten is well-regarded for providing the best educational environment, they have installed SunLike lighting, which reproduces natural sunlight in hopes of promoting healthier eye development in children.

“With increasing visual media, parents are getting more interested in the eye health of their children, and they are spending a lot of time and efforts on the protection of children’s eyesight,” Director Kim Eun-sook of YBM PINE Division remarked. “We are very pleased that through the installation of Seoul Semiconductor’s SunLike lighting, our children can study and also have a good time under the natural spectrum lighting.”

SunLike is based on an innovative lighting technology that re-creates the natural light spectrum. Seoul Semiconductor has carried out numerous tests with Seoul National University, University of Basel, and Harvard University since 2017 to prove the connection between SunLike and health.

Myopia is a disease that usually occurs due to the increase in the axial length of eyeballs and leads to the blurred vision of distant objects. In July 2018, the company started a collaboration with the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), a world-renowned ophthalmic research institute, to test the effect of SunLike on ocular emmetropization (i.e., the process controlling eye growth and the axial length of the eye to prevent myopia and maximize visual acuity) and myopia development.

In early 2022, SERI published findings from an independently conducted research study supported by this collaboration to show that, compared to traditional fluorescent light, SunLike LEDs can promote emmetropization and accelerate recovery from myopia in a chicken experimental model. The details of the study (Muralidharan et al. 2022) can be found here  

Asst. Prof. Raymond Najjar whose team led the study at SERI commented, “Even though our findings still need to be confirmed in a clinical trial, they support the notion that the spectral composition of indoor light could affect ocular growth and emmetropization, and open new research avenues for light-centered, passive myopia-control.”

A source at the company said, “During the growth period, children’s eyeballs are also growing. Thus, it is a significant period when either myopia can develop rapidly, or it can be prevented” and emphasized, “It is necessary to install natural spectrum lighting based on SunLike technology especially in educational institutions where children usually spend much time, such as nurseries, schools, and private academies. If, in the past, the key reason for selection of LED was energy efficiency, now you should also [consider] if it is beneficial for eye health.”