Permanent morning shift workers often suffer from impaired sleep and complain about increased fatigue during the day due to an early rising time in the morning. A controlled field investigation with female permanent morning shift workers was conducted, which evaluated the acute, monthly and seasonal psycho-physiological and productivity-related impacts of a dynamic ambient lighting scenario. Dynamic lighting had an acute psycho-physiological calming effect and positively influenced sleep latency and anxiety/depression ratings. Finally, productivity (decreased mean relative handling time) was increased during the winter. This field study contributes to the growing knowledge about biological lighting impacts during shift work. Furthermore it indicates lighting effects on productivity-related and subjective measures for a sleep-deprived working population.
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