Office workers’ daily exposure to light and its influence on sleep quality and mood

Abstract

To study the amount of light entering the eye and its effects on office workers, measurements were taken from 23 office workers over a period of seven consecutive days. Two parameters of visible light were recorded: (i) illuminance and (ii) irradiance of the blue spectral component. Every evening before going to bed, a questionnaire had to be filled out, containing scales relating to the mood dimensions of pleasure and arousal, questions about the previous night’s sleep and a rough time table with information about the person’s whereabouts during the day. The exposure to light on workdays is regular but it varies strongly on days off. No evidence could be provided for the influence of age, sex or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) scores on the daily exposure to light of office workers. The amount of light entering the eye during the day appears to have a positive impact on sleep quality the following night. Pleasure and arousal were not significantly associated with daily light exposure.