Working in a windowless office that adversely affects health, such as sleep quality and decline of vitality

ByPaul Mayne

A survey of behavior patterns and health of people working in the office where the location is underground or structural problems and there are no windows and people working in the office with windows from various angles The result was announced. The results of the survey are contents to understand how the windowless office is damaging the health of employees.

Impact of windows and daylight exposure on ... [J Clin Sleep Med. 2014] - PubMed - NCBI
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24932139

Workers In Windowless Offices Lose 46 Minutes Of Sleep A Night | Co.Design | business + design
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3033998/evidence/workers-in-windowless-offices-lose-46-minutes-of-sleep-a-night

Department of Architecture, University of IllinoisMohamed BoubekriThe research team led by Associate Professor has 27 windmill workers in the office where there are not enough windows or windows and 21 persons working in the office with windows, the physical function / daily role function (body) · body Pain · Overall health · Vigor · Social life function · Everyday role function (spirit) · Health of mind can be measured in question formSF-36In addition to calculating the quality of sleep 21 points perfectPittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) was used to investigate.

In SF-36, the total score of "people without a window office" was lower than "people in the windowed office", and remarkable differences were found especially in the scores of vitality. Also, as a result of PSQI, it turned out that people in the windowless office are taking lower quality sleep.

ByRichard Elzey

Apart from the above survey, the research team asked the examinee to wear a clock developed for the experiment and asked "How long have you been exposed to sunlight in a day?" And experiments to measure behavior patterns Also carried out. As a result, people in the windowless office have found that the time and action to take sunlight on weekdays is shorter than those in the windowed office, and the average sleeping time is about 46 minutes shorter.

Particularly, the researchers noticed the survey results on how much sunlight is being bathed in non-working hours (outside working hours and holidays), with people in the office without windows with windows office people It turns out that the time to be overwhelmingly shorter is shorter. As for this result, the researchers said, "It is quite difficult to explain," and said, "People working in the office with windows will be exposed to sunlight and go out for hours other than work We may be preserving our energy to do it. "

ByDebbs.

Associate Professor Boubekri said, "From the survey and experiments," The workers in the windowed office are more healthy "was obtained, Associate Professor Boubekri said," Building a building and a room with a lot of windows to incorporate much sunlight Increasing the number of windows and incorporating sunlight is not only vitality for employees but also saves power consumption.In order to increase the number of office with windows, Is not it a challenge to be addressed in recent years as a problem? "

In Japan, Article 3 of the Regulation on Office Sanitation Standards in the Occupational Safety and Health Act states "A business operator shall ensure that the area of ​​the openable portion of the window and other openings towards the outside air is at least twenty times of the floor area at all times in the room. Provided, however, that this shall not apply when equipment with sufficient performance to ventilate is provided"It is stipulated.

In addition, Article 10 of the same regulation states that "Unless the business operator conforms to the standards listed in the lower column of the table according to the classification of work listed in the upper column of the following table, the illuminance of the work surface of the room However, it is not limited to the room which performs special work such as handling of light-sensitive material ", and the followingSame tableIn the case of "ordinary work 150 lux or more" criterion is set up.


Lux is a unit expressing illuminance,Material published by Osaka Municipal Science MuseumAccording to the general guideline that the brightness of the night arcade is between 150 and 200 lux. In other words, if the windowless office is darker than the night arcade and the ventilation is not enough, the operator has an obligation to improve. However, even if you do not have a window, it is possible to meet the criteria of Office Rules of Sanitation Standards, so it seems to be quite difficult even if you think "I want you to attach a window to an office without windows".