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6 lighting hacks for healthier,more productive workplaces
It’s summer and there is light all around us — we take it for granted until those dark winter months come along. The sheer lack of sun can be depressing. Every year we encounter this longing for summer,craving those long,bright days once we feel energetic and in a good mood. The sad news is,we’ve again passed the longest day of 2015,but the great news is that the right artificial lighting in your office can help you through. Good lighting creates pleasant working conditions in a functional and atmospheric way. Satisfaction and efficiency will improve if you make sure you have enough daylight ingestion and a well-lit office space. Plus,your productivity will be positively affected by well-designed lighting. Artificial lighting that does not just help you see,but also meets your biological lighting needs,is the future of office lighting. Here are six lighting hacks to keep you healthy and awake through these dark winter days.
1 Create atmospheres where your ideas can develop
We’re all attracted to light,and there isn’t any other medium that’s as big an influence on our bodies and minds as mild. Both daylight and artificial light play an integral role in our health and wellbeing. Increasingly,companies face the question of how they can improve staff wellbeing and generate a dynamic,creative and motivating environment. The design of the office space plays a very important role,as evidenced by a study from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering. The research indicates that in companies with a high standard of interior design,productivity can increase by up to 36 per cent. Who would not like to see their efficiency skyrocket? Additionally,in depth research from the Light Right Consortium,came to the conclusion that light raises productivity. Only around 70 per cent of the interviewees said that working at workstations with only downward lighting was comfy. In contrast,91 per cent saw a lighting setting with direct/indirect lighting and a high quantity of vertical lit surfaces pleasing. Furthermore,if the desk lighting is independently controllable,people feel motivated and work with greater accuracy. TIP: Create a lighting atmosphere with direct and indirect lighting. Avoid having just downwards-directed illumination.
2 Light for individuals,not just tasks
Lighting is often just regarded as a necessity to enable us to see,but actually it has many more qualities than the obvious ones. We should move away from just thinking of lighting for tasks and concentrate on producing light settings for individuals. Today,most men and women work inside,and spends almost the entire day indoors,in an unnaturally dark setting. Our light intake is liable for feeling and sleeping well,and affects our productivity. When there’s a lack of natural light to help us tell the time of day,then our circadian rhythm (body clock) loses its speed,with tiredness and listlessness because of this. It is a lot more than just lighting. It inspires,attracts,enables communication,sets a mood,and has emotional qualities. If this knowledge transcends into our built environment,pleasant atmospheres are made. Think of a trip to a theatre,a restaurant,or nightclub. These experiences are formed by light. Good lighting enhances the mood and desirability of spaces,consequently leading to people’s sense of wellbeing. Every construction and space expresses and communicates an identity,and sometimes also a corporate value. Superior lighting should be a part of this,because what other component can enhance a feeling as much as lighting can? TIP: Create a mixture of different lighting. Use illumination that affirms a space’s individuality
3 From homo sapiens to homo officunus
In today’s world,we spend many hours working in biotopes — surroundings made by humans. Instead of trying to adapt ourselves to our creations,we should adapt these biotopes to our needs. Adequate light is one of these needs. Here are a few tips: Take the biological quality of lighting into account. It affects our sleep-wake cycle and this has a big influence on the health and productivity. Adapt the lighting to the daytime and season,as well as to the individual needs of the user. Vertical surface lighting,rather on large wall surfaces,is crucial to create a feeling of depth and space. It also gives a visual resting stage for the eyes and adds a nice atmosphere to the working environment. Too frequently,office surroundings are insufficiently lit,not just from the perspective of biological lighting demands but also from an architectural one,where the space feels smaller due to insufficient lighting. The chart below demonstrates how office workers assessed their working environments — showing which aspects are important to them and how satisfied they are with every facet. As you can see,lighting is rated the most important of all of the aspects mentioned,but there is loads of space for it to improve. TIP: Have a light for general lighting,a standing luminaire which uplights the ceiling and a desk light
4 Get the best place in the house
Are you based at a co-working space? And is there a flexible desk policy? Choosing the right place in the house can go a long way. Select a place with a great deal of daylight. It is recommended that around three per cent daylight reaches a individual’s working area. However,in the majority of offices this is not the case. Daylight gives an emotional quality to some space and the possibility to look outside is an additional bonus. If you can,select a spot near the window. But make sure thatthere is sun shading to stop harsh reflections on your computer screen. TIP: Take the window seat,north,west or east facing About 80 per cent of information is taken in through our eyes. Until recently it was believed that our eyes used two types of photoreceptors — rods and cones — to obtain light,but a decade ago,a third type,called ganglion cells,was detected. Unlike rods and cones,these cells do not contribute directly to our sight; they are nevertheless light dependent and help to modulate our circadian rhythm. So light is not simply a requirement for viewing,but is also an important zeitgeber (timer) and a regulator for our bodies. Unfortunately,we often don’t get the light intake we really need,especially during the darker time of the year,leading to the winter blues or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — a type of depression linked to a lack of light. It leaves people feeling moody and lacking energy. In a workplace setting,light therapy makes people feel more alert and energized. It is found that an illumination which goes up to 2000 lux in the working area in the morning and the day,reduces the physiological reaction of stress and gives an energising effect to the body. In contrast,most working areas are lit to a standard 500 lux. If you want to check the amount of lux at your desk, download a lux meter app. It is not very precise,but it gives you an idea on how little light we really have inside. Not only is a higher quantity of lighting needed,but also the color temperature of the lighting plays a role. At noon the sky’s colour is a very trendy 10000K but at sunset it’s a much warmer 2000K. Additionally lighting should reflect indirectly into the eyes from large surfaces,such as walls and ceilings. TIP: Try to grab enough daylight at any time of the year. You should have at least half an hour of daylight a day
6 Light,java,action!
A deadline and a great deal of work beforehand,no time to sleep! As lighting can disrupt your sleeping routine,it may also boost your own activity. If you’ve followed the above-mentioned advice for mutually successful lighting than you are already on the right path. If you will need to pull an all-nighter,increase the light intensity and the quantity of bluish white light in the room. Almost done with your job? You might also have experienced that when you work late on a computer or tablet it’s difficult to sleep afterwards. The cause of this is the high blue content of the backlit screens. So use this lighting hack consciously. There are some applications you can install that correlate the screen’s brightness and color,to the daylight of your location. F.lux,by way of example,works on many systems,or the Twilight app reduces the amount of blue lighting on your Android phone. TIP: Have different lamp types and color temperatures in your working area. Warm light sources in your desk can be combined with indirect and general lighting with different color temperatures,for example 3500K and 5000K.