Psycho-biological effects of lighting on office workers.

What is it about?

Light not only permits vision, this paper shows its effects on psychological and biological parameters of office workers, from a holistic methodology which included measurements of subjective states of transitory mood and somnolence, perception of the quality of lighting as well as visual comfort in terms of symptoms. Measurements of the light reactive hormones melatonin and cortisol were also carried out. The light stimuli was characterized by means of new metrics related to circadian stimulation by also considering the visual aspects.

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Why is it important?

The importance of this paper is the integral methodology to approach visual and non visual effects of lighting on office workers. The metrics used to characterized the light stimuli included not only the traditional photopic methods, but also the newest findings in the field of circadian lighting such as the calculation of Circadian Stimulus and Melanopic Illuminance. The results showed that the daily exposure to light affects the human organism in several ways and that this environmental factor can be manipulated in a positive way to promote health and wellbeing while enhancing productivity.

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