Could optimized daylight and views help office workers sleep longer and make decisions?

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Awareness of the health benefits of daylight exposure and views has been growing. Daylight exposure is linked to circadian rhythm regulation, which can significantly affect sleep quality and cognitive function. Views of nature have also been shown to affect emotional state and performance.

The study explored how optimized daylight and views affect office workers’ sleep and cognitive performance. Thirty knowledge workers spent one week in each of two office environments with identical layouts, furnishings and orientations. One had electrochromic glass and the other traditional blinds, producing lighting conditions of 40.6 and 316 equivalent melanopic lux, respectively.

In the optimized daylight and views condition, participants slept 37 minutes longer, as measured by wrist-worn actigraphs, and scored 42% higher on cognitive simulations testing higher-order decision-making performance. Sleep and cognitive function were affected after one day in the space, with the impacts becoming more significant over the course of the week. The positive cognitive effect was comparable for almost all participants, while sleep duration increased significantly more among those with the lowest baseline sleep duration.

The authors stress the importance of designing with daylight to optimize office workers’ sleep quality and performance.