Expsoure to Natural Light in Office Boosts Health of Employees

Exposure to natural light in office boosts sleep, physical activity and quality of life, a new study reveals.

The study led by researchers at the Northwestern Medicine and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that natural light in office boosts health of the employees as compared to quality of life of those exposed to less light in workplace. Through this finding, the researchers highlighted the importance of exposure to natural light to employee's health.

The researchers suggest that priority should also be given to the architectural designs of office environment in order to ensure natural daylight exposure to workers.

"Architects need to be aware of the importance of natural light not only in terms of their potential energy savings but also in terms of affecting occupants' health," said co-lead author Mohamed Boubekri, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The study group included 49 day-shift office workers, in which 27 worked in windowless workplace and 22 in workplace with windows. Using a self-reported form, the researchers measured the quality of life and sleep quality. Using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the quality of sleep was measured. They further measured the light exposure, activity and sleep using actigraphy in a subset of 21 participants - 10 in windowless and 11 in workplaces with windows.

The researchers showed that employees working in workplace with windows had 173 percent more white light exposure during work hours and on an average slept 46 minutes more per night than employees who did not have exposure to natural light in workplace. Those working in offices with windows were more physically active than those without windows.

On measures of quality of life, workers without windows had poorer scores as well as poorer outcomes on measures on sleep quality and sleep disturbances.

"There is increasing evidence that exposure to light, during the day, particularly in the morning, is beneficial to your health via its effects on mood, alertness and metabolism," said senior study author Phyllis Zee, M.D., a Northwestern Medicine neurologist and sleep specialist. "Workers are a group at risk because they are typically indoors often without access to natural or even artificial bright light for the entire day. The study results confirm that light during the natural daylight hours has powerful effects on health."

The study was documented in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.