{"id":11212,"date":"2012-01-04T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T23:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=11212"},"modified":"2013-10-23T11:31:53","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:31:53","slug":"natural-lighting-increases-productivity-0104112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/natural-lighting-increases-productivity-0104112\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Natural Lighting Make Us More Productive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a new study, people who spend more time in natural lighting than in artificial lighting have increased productivity and alertness. Light directly influences the amount of melatonin a person produces, which indirectly affects alertness. \u201cMost people spend their days within buildings under different lighting environments, which range from daylight to artificial light only,\u201d said Mirjam\u00a0M\u00fcnch of the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. \u201cAt most workplaces, there is a mixed situation between the two principal light sources.\u201d\u00a0M\u00fcnch added, \u201cFor the impact of light perception on nonvisual functions such as alertness, mood<\/a>, and performance, those lighting conditions are likely to significantly contribute to modulation of alertness and productivity via the retinohypothalamic tract and melanopsin-dependent pathways.\u201d Because few studies have examined the effects of lighting on cognitive performance,\u00a0M\u00fcnch and her colleagues conducted a study to determine how natural and artificial light affected cognitive functioning in the evening.<\/p>\n

Participants between the ages of 19 and 25 years old were exposed to daylight (DL) or artificial light (AL) for six hours a day for two days. Each evening, after the exposure, the researchers evaluated melatonin and cortisol levels<\/a>, and rated sleepiness and cognitive functioning and found significant differences in the participants. \u201cSubjects felt significantly more alert at the beginning of the evening after the DL condition, and they became sleepier at the end of the evening after the AL condition,\u201d said M\u00fcnch. \u201cOn their first evening, subjects performed with similar accuracy after both light conditions, but on their second evening, subjects performed significantly more accurately after the DL in both n-back versions and committed fewer false alarms in the 2-back task compared to the AL group.\u201d\u00a0M\u00fcnch added, \u201cIn summary, even short-term lighting conditions during the afternoon had an impact on cognitive task performance in the evening.\u201d She added, \u201cSuch a relationship could be crucial for workers<\/a> requiring high attention levels and executive functioning, such as bus drivers, industrial workers in sensitive areas, or air-traffic control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/strong>
\nM\u00fcnch, M., Linhart, F., Borisuit, A., Jaeggi, S. M., & Scartezzini, J.-L. (2011, December 26). Effects of Prior Light Exposure on Early Evening Performance, Subjective Sleepiness, and Hormonal Secretion. Behavioral Neuroscience. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037\/a0026702<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a new study, people who spend more time in natural lighting than in artificial lighting have increased productivity and alertness. Light directly influences the amount of melatonin a person produces, which indirectly affects alertness. \u201cMost people spend their days within buildings under different lighting environments, which range from daylight to artificial light only,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[423,405,25,239,424],"class_list":["post-11212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-therapy-news","tag-health-iillness-medical-issues","tag-mood-swings","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-stress","tag-workplace-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}