Lighting is one of the most overlooked aspects of home office setup, yet it has a direct effect on how long you can work comfortably and how well you concentrate. Poor lighting — whether too dim, too harsh, or poorly positioned — causes eye strain, headaches, and fatigue that accumulates over a working day. Getting it right is not complicated, but it does require some thought about your specific space.
Why Natural Light Matters
Natural daylight is the gold standard for workspace lighting. It provides a full spectrum of light that artificial sources struggle to replicate, and exposure to it during the day helps regulate the circadian rhythm — the internal clock that governs sleep and alertness. Studies cited by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work consistently link access to natural light with better sleep quality and higher reported wellbeing among remote workers.
If you have a choice of rooms, position your desk in the one with the most natural light. In Czech apartments, which often have smaller windows than houses, this typically means a room facing south or west. South-facing rooms receive the most light in winter, which matters in a country where daylight hours drop to around eight in December.
Positioning Your Desk Relative to Windows
Where you place your desk in relation to a window matters as much as how much light the window lets in. The two most common mistakes are sitting with a window directly behind you and sitting facing directly into a window.
A window behind you creates a bright background that makes your screen look dim by comparison. Your eyes constantly adjust between the bright background and the darker screen, which is tiring. A window in front of you causes direct glare on the screen and forces you to squint.
The best position is to have the window to your side — ideally to the left if you are right-handed, so that your writing hand does not cast a shadow across your work. This gives you the benefit of natural light without glare or excessive contrast.
If your room layout makes side-lighting impossible, a window behind you is generally preferable to one in front, provided you use a matte screen or position the monitor to minimise reflections.
Artificial Lighting: Colour Temperature and Brightness
When natural light is insufficient — which in Czech winters means most of the afternoon — artificial lighting needs to fill the gap. The two key variables are colour temperature and brightness.
Colour temperature is measured in Kelvin (K). Lower values (2700–3000K) produce warm, yellowish light similar to incandescent bulbs. Higher values (5000–6500K) produce cool, bluish light similar to daylight. For a home office, a colour temperature in the range of 4000–5000K is generally recommended: cool enough to promote alertness and reduce eye strain when reading a screen, but not so blue that it feels clinical or disrupts sleep if you work in the evening.
Brightness matters too. A room that is too dim forces your eyes to work harder to distinguish detail; a room that is too bright creates glare. The general recommendation for office work is around 300–500 lux at desk level. Most standard ceiling lights in Czech apartments fall short of this, which is why a dedicated desk lamp is almost always a worthwhile addition.
Choosing a Desk Lamp
A good desk lamp should be adjustable in both height and angle, so you can direct light exactly where you need it without it shining into your eyes or onto your screen. LED lamps are the practical choice: they are energy-efficient, produce little heat, and are available with adjustable colour temperature and brightness.
Look for a lamp with a colour rendering index (CRI) of 90 or above. CRI measures how accurately a light source renders colours compared to natural daylight. A high CRI lamp makes it easier to read text, distinguish details, and work for extended periods without fatigue.
In the Czech Republic, desk lamps with these specifications are available at Alza, Datart, and IKEA. Expect to pay between 800 and 2,500 CZK for a quality adjustable LED lamp. The IKEA Forsa and Hektar ranges offer reasonable value; for more adjustability, brands such as Baseus and BenQ produce lamps specifically designed for screen-based work.
Reducing Screen Glare
Even with good ambient lighting, screen glare can be a problem. A matte screen protector reduces reflections significantly and is available for most monitor sizes. Adjusting your monitor's brightness to match the ambient light level also helps: a screen that is much brighter or much dimmer than the surrounding room forces constant eye adjustment.
Many monitors and operating systems now include a blue light filter or night mode that reduces the blue component of the screen's light in the evening. This is worth enabling if you work after dark, as blue light suppresses melatonin production and can delay sleep. The WHO notes that sleep quality has a direct bearing on cognitive performance the following day.
