Zuma & Wellness: Unlocking a healthier life and home
How often do you feel disconnected from yourself or the world around you? When was the last time you felt overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of everyday life?
If these questions feel uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone. According to the mental health charity, Mind, the number of people reporting common mental health problems has increased by a fifth in the last two decades. Based on their recent findings, one in four adults in the UK can expect to deal with some form of mental health issue in the next twelve months.
There is no doubt that we are living in the midst of a very real mental health crisis. For many reasons, technology is often seen as one of the primary contributing factors to increasing anxiety levels and deteriorating mental health – and with much justification. But utilised in the right way, modern technology can equally be an invaluable tool to help us find some measure of space and stillness in an otherwise chaotic world. That’s where products like Zuma can help.
Generally, when we think of ‘tech’, we think of the increasing number of screens in our lives. The connections, the instant information. But there’s another face to modern tech – and that’s technology designed to create better living environments, otherwise known as ‘smart tech’. This is the space that Zuma exists in, and what it’s designed to achieve – to make our home lives easier, more relaxing, and more streamlined. In short, smart technology works for us, rather than against us.
Zuma speaker lights are so much more than just a light and a loudspeaker combined in a downlight array. In addition to multi-room audio and illumination, they bring a vast suite of intelligent wellbeing management right into the heart of the modern home: a transformative set of features that make Zuma a genuinely unique sensory product, unlike anything else on the market today.
In this piece, we’ll look at Zuma’s wellness features in detail, and find out how this leading-edge piece of technology can potentially help us find some of the organic, healing moments our minds so deeply crave – right from the comfort of our own home.
A WORLD OF NOISE
Our lives are more infused with information and instantaneous connection than at any point history. Almost all of us carry a near supercomputer in our pockets, gifting us unfettered access to the entire output of human existence in mere milliseconds. The power of the smartphone is almost too great to contemplate (soon to be further eclipsed by the unrelenting progress of AI), and whilst this utterly transcendent technology fills our lives with abundant opportunities, it also presents very real and tangible challenges to all of us.
For many, the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 marked a real tipping point in our infusion into the artificial world. Our lives suddenly lurched entirely into an online setting, with travel and human interaction drastically curtailed. Unfettered internet access became an absolute necessity in order to keep the wheels of society turning. Working culture changed, potentially forever, with more workforces moving remote and online – and staying there long after lockdowns were lifted.
Now we find ourselves in a new kind of normal, where much of our days are spent plugged into the internet and tied to a computer screen. Numerous scientific studies have found that our brains now process as much as 74GB of data every day – a genuinely staggering amount of information that’s believed to increase by roughly 5% every year. When our daily lives are so vastly overloaded with distraction and noise, it’s no small wonder that mental health issues and anxiety are on the rise. Finding moments to decouple from the unstoppable speed of modern life is more important than it’s ever been in the entire history of human existence. But when so much of our everyday lives is locked inside this instantaneous, impossibly convenient world we’ve built for ourselves, how and where do we find the time to switch off, and slow down?
THE SECRETS OF “SENSE-HACKING”
One new and popular technique for achieving moments of self-care is known as ‘sense-hacking’. In his 2021 book, Oxford professor Charles Spence offers up a toolkit of sorts to help people optimise, or rather intervene with, our sensory input; be it through curated soundscapes, scents or other various sensory stimuli. It promises to make us feel happier, relaxed, more focused and productive, and improve sleep and perception.
In his book, Spence argues that, “Many of us complain of sensory overload; tired of being bombarded by too much noise, too much information, too many distractions – as technology advances, it’s only going to get worse”.
The antidote, according to Professor Spence, is to harness the power of our senses to help us feel happier, calmer, and more productive.
This is a view that is shared by leading interior designer Pippa Jameson, founder of The Sensory Home. In our interview with Pippa from earlier this year, she explained, “…we now know our mental health is intrinsically linked to our home environment. Everything you touch, smell, support your body with…is ultimately going to decide whether your home is working for you or against you.”
Whilst developing The Sensory Home – a typical terraced house dedicated to the forward-thinking philosophy of designing interiors that work with, rather than against, our senses – Pippa utilised Zuma speaker-lights to help provide a calming sensory space through unique wellbeing technology. “For us,” Pippa explained, “it was really clear that this [Zuma] was a state of the art sound and lighting solution that was perfect for calming environments.”
So how can Zuma help homeowners potentially introduce these ‘sensory hacks’ seamlessly into their day? How can a piece of smart home technology cut through the noise of our everyday lives, and usher in moments of stillness and reflection?
ZUMA AND WELLNESS
To explain Zuma’s value to home wellbeing, it’s helpful to understand how Zuma works at its most basic level. Zuma is a high-grade loudspeaker and an LED light, paired inside a single downlight unit that’s hidden away in your ceiling cavity. Installed in an array, it bathes each room in audiophile-grade sound and light with a CRI of 90+. This powerful sound and lighting is wirelessly controlled by a proprietary app, or via on-wall keypads through compatible hardware from popular brands like Rithum.
By literally elevating your audio source into the ceiling space, playback is made deeply immersive – akin to wearing headphones whilst listening. This effect is known as ‘spatial audio’ wrapping the listener in sound, wherever they happen to be sitting, standing, or lying in the room.
Both Zuma’s sound and light source have been designed and built to offer an elevated experience. The lighting components have been especially chosen for their ability to mimic sunlight quality natural light which, when combined with Zuma’s circadian feature (which we’ll address in detail later) is hugely powerful. Zuma’s audio engine, designed by world-leading acoustic engineer Laurence Dickie, is built to be less tiring on your ears, and your brain. Zuma’s spatial audio means your brain doesn’t have to decode the sound from reflections as the audio reaches your ears more directly. It makes for an easier listening experience.
Spatial audio effects certainly aren’t unique to Zuma speaker-lights. But Zuma goes on to utilise its combined audio and lighting engines to elicit a genuinely original set of wellbeing features, not seen in any other comparable product line.
INTRODUCING ZUMA WELLBEING PRESETS
From the home screen of Zuma’s app, users can instantly click through to a screen labelled ‘wellbeing’. From here, the user is presented with a selection of various themed soundscapes. These themes each combine immersive sound and high grade lighting in wholly original ways – all designed to instantly stimulate or soothe the senses. Each theme offers something different to the user, depending on where they are both physically and mentally. Each is designed to create a genuine moment of stillness and rejuvenation, making it as easy as the press of a button to truly reset and recalibrate your sense of self, right from the comfort of your own home.
The effect of these wellbeing presets really does have to be experienced to fully understand their transformative effect. In a recent case study, PK – Commercial Director of Sanya Spa – summed up the wellbeing presets’ experiential qualities perfectly. Having chosen Zuma speaker lights as a wellbeing addition to his treatment rooms, PK found the wellbeing features added something genuinely original to his spa setting, as he explained;
“Even our therapists said that when the wellbeing presets are playing, you don’t feel like you’re in a treatment room.” PK revealed. “The rainforest setting for example, with the sound of the water on leaves and the birds singing, the sound of a breeze in the trees…you’re transporting clients out of that space and into a whole new level of relaxation and luxury”.
So what do these wellbeing features look like? Let’s examine each in turn, and find out what they bring to the home.
MORNING RITUAL
Gentle light and the sound of gongs and chanting that flows with melodies sung in unison with a beautiful texture that is tuned to the natural rhythm of speech. Perfect to set a relaxed tone to tackle each day.
FOREST RAIN
Transport your body and mind with the peaceful and soothing sound of rain falling onto a forest canopy above, accompanied by relaxing light settings.
ENERGIZE
Relax to the rhythmic sound of waves known for their positive impact on our parasympathetic nervous system.
CONCENTRATE
Designed to help you train your mind on the task at hand, this setting combines cool light with the sound of altering beat sessions – improving focus, concentration, and creativity.
INNER PEACE
Immerse yourself in nature with birdsong from a Brazillian rainforest that brings security and calm and a light setting that feels like you are sitting beneath a leafy canopy.
SOUND HEALING
Taking advantage of the 741 Hz Solfeggio Frequency – known for its purifying effect on the mind, body, and bloodstream – sound healing utilises the principles of ‘sound baths’ to immerse users in relaxing sound, along with a detoxifying clear light.
REJUVENATE
Bath yourself in low warm light and sounds in the 528Hz range, known as the ‘miracle tone’ for its potent impact on sleep and wellbeing
Zuma’s wellbeing presets are unmistakably powerful tools to help reset your connection with yourself. But Zuma’s wellbeing benefits don’t stop there. Let’s explore another of Zuma’s key wellbeing features – circadian lighting.
THE BENEFITS OF CIRCADIAN LIGHTING
Here’s a simple fact that many of us may not have contemplated recently. Humans aren’t designed to operate under the kind of lighting that has become commonplace in our everyday lives. Similar to the way we’ve filled our modern minds with more and more information, we’ve filled our modern homes with more and more artificial lighting – lighting that may be having a detrimental effect on our mood, sleep, and general wellbeing.
A recent American study on the effects of artificial light on humans notes how… “rhythmic variations in ambient illumination impact behaviours such as rest during sleep and activity during wakefulness as well as their underlying biological processes.” In short, the way we light our homes can have a significant impact on our wider physical and mental health.
The same National Library of Medicine study notes how rhythmic lighting that better mirrors the natural lighting conditions of nature can hold significant benefits. It notes how, ”light can also be used as an effective and noninvasive therapeutic option with little to no side effects, to improve sleep, mood and general well-being”.
So how can we bring this kind of simple but deeply effective light therapy into the modern home? One answer lies in ‘circadian lighting’, a new approach to illuminating the home in a natural, intuitive way.
Circadian lighting refers to white tuneable lighting that can support your circadian rhythm, or internal biological clock. Considerations such as colour temperature, time, duration, and angle of light are all involved in its operation.
Because light is the most important factor that helps align our internal clock with the natural cycle of the world, circadian rhythm lighting can help balance your sleep-wake cycle, which is crucial to your overall health. This is why circadian lighting is also known as human-centric lighting. It can help you achieve…
- Better, deeper sleep
- Increased productivity and focus
- Improved metabolism and other bodily functions
- Longer lasting energy
- Decreased risk of cardiovascular problems
Zuma and Circadian Lighting
Zuma features a built-in circadian light setting, operated by the simple switch of a button in-app. Once activated, Zuma will intelligently track your room’s lighting to match the changing colour temperature of daylight. As you move through the day, the colour temperature of your lighting changes automatically. This creates the sense of moving through the changing light temperature of the sun as the day progresses.
Circadian lighting allows you to regain control of your internal clock by adjusting the exposure to artificial light and making it work for you. Not only can beautiful lighting create beautiful memories, but it can improve your physical, emotional and mental well-being.
One Zuma advocate – Joshua Jones of Custom Install specialists Home Cinema Interiors, sees true value in Zuma’s wellbeing features, including circadian lighting. In a recent interview with Zuma, Joshua described Zuma’s wellbeing credentials as ‘genuinely unique in this industry…no one else is doing what Zuma is doing in the respect of wellbeing’.
Joshua is finding new and novel ways to offer homeowners a wellbeing uplift from their smart home technology. In one recent quote, Joshua specified Zuma for a bed-bound individual, to help them find some form of much-needed connection with nature and the outside world. Joshua explains; “I suggested to the client that Zuma’s circadian lighting could be a brilliant way to bring a bit of natural lighting and daylight rhythm to their bedroom space…the client was incredibly excited by the idea of this…Zuma’s ability to be that flexible is definitely unique in that respect.”
ZUMA & WELLBEING – EXPLORE IT FOR YOURSELF
This article has focused on just a few of Zuma’s deep and meaningful wellbeing benefits. The best way to really get a sense of what Zuma can bring to your life and home? Experience it for yourself.
You’ll find Zuma available for demo at lighting and home interior showrooms right across the country. Find your nearest Zuma stockist and start your journey to a happier, healthier home today.