Effects Of Office Lighting On Mood And Cognitive Performance

Research has explored acute effects of light level and correlated color temperature cct of indoor lighting on subjective measures of alertness and task performance during daytime.

Effects of office lighting on mood and cognitive performance.

The results showed no significant effect of the lighting on the performance of cognitive tasks. Besides workplaces lighting also affects our mood and productivity at home. Yet these investigations did not render a conclusive or consistent finding on the relative contribution of illuminance and cct on various cognitive domains. In addition a gender effect in the performance appraisal task was examined both as a between and within subject factor.

Many hours of exposure to blue light and a lack of natural daylight can upset their biorhythm which can result in long term disturbances in cognitive performance and mood. However an interaction between gender and color temperature on mood showed that 3000k more reddish and 4000k more bluish office lighting may communicate different affective loadings or meanings to each gender. This suggests in practice that the criteria for good indoor lighting may be revised taking into account females and males emotional and cognitive responses as well. The study presents an investigation of the effects of the recommended office lighting on subjects mood and cognitive performance in the physical setting of an office.

Exposure to dynamic light during office hours is essential for sustainable employability. The same applies to office workers who suffer from the same symptoms in the long term. Thus subjects mood valences and their cognitive performances varied significantly with the genders emotionally different reactions to the indoor lighting. The results showed no significant effect of the lighting on the performance of cognitive tasks.

Other studies found that lighting can affect appetite. But bad lighting is associated with a range of ill health effects both physical and mental such as eye strain headaches fatigue and also stress and anxiety in more high pressured work.