Bioadaptive Lighting How a bioadaptive lighting solution in the working environment Improves employees' wellbeing

摘要

Employees tend to spend many hours in the office and have limited Access to daylight. Thus, artificial lighting in the working environment does not only play an important role facilitating human vision, it is the main source of information for the organism's circadian synchronization and it influences the emotional and cognitive state of employees. The results of a study carried out by Zumtobel, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, helped to determine he main factors that influence the subjective perception of light quality in office environments. Based on the results, Zumtobel developed an optimal lighting solution to satisfy the needs of office workers. However, the psychophysiological effect of the new bioadaptive lighting solution was still unknown. Aiming to understand the implicit benefits of bioadaptive lighting, the present study was carried out in real working conditions and used a combination of different neuroscientific methods. This allowed the measurement of emotional and cognitive responses to a new human-centric lighting system specially designed to support the biorhythm of employees in their office environment. The results showed that the new bioadaptive lighting system had a soothing and balancing effect on the participants. It significantly improved their wellbeing, reduced their arousal levels and improved their organism's capacity to cope with stress during the execution of their normal tasks, as well as during the performance of a cognitive test. Although the participants' performance on an attentional task was not significantly improved, the participants were more focused on the task under the influence of the new lighting solution. In summary, the obtained insights confirm the emotional and physiological benefits of a human-centric lighting solution and emphasize the importance of lighting systems that satisfy the bioadaptive needs of the employees.