Plant dormancy periods

It's understandable that outside plants, shrubs and trees etc have their active growing period during the warmer months, and then are dormant during the colder months. I get that.

But why do houseplants also go through this cycle, especially bearing in mind that you may have ideal constant temperatures and growing conditions throughout the whole year within your home?

It seems odd that you may have ideal growing conditions for 12 months growth, but they "switch off" for half of those!

These past 3 weeks or so my houseplants have just started taking off, after next to no growth since last October/November.

Do they have some kind of a built in light receptor trigger which just flicks their growth on and off? If you had an indoor grow light system could you keep your houseplants growing all year?

 

Light levels are probably one thing, day length being another. Compared to daylight, even on a dull day, houselights are on the puny side.

Works with cannabis plants, but one can you afford to run the lighting (your house plants bring no income in) and two do you really want to live with really bright lights on a lot of the time?
More seriously some plants need a dormant period to grow and flower properly, just as you need a few hours kip every so often.

 

I remember once taking a light meter reading from a 100w incandescent bulb, close up, and it was not as bright as a human face in sunlight.