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Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

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Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#21

Post by bitL »

graeme wrote: post #6

Has anyone tested bright indoor lighting and its effect on their own sleep. I have some LED studio lights for video work by my desk all the time. I'm wondering if I should just turn them on while I work each morning. From what I can tell: 1. LEDs won't cause sunburn/skin damage 2. There's no blue light risk of them if they're not rates above a certain level of light output and you don't stare directly at them. I have…

I bought a huge 10,000 lux lamp that was supposed to emit similar wavelengths to daylight because I found myself to be a bit sleepy during winters all day long. That one managed to "wake me up" and I ended up as productive as in summer. Some people also use it to alleviate their seasonal depression (never had that). I have it illuminating my workspace behind my back. I believe our eyes have some special "wake up" receptors that react to sunrise and this type of lamp seems to engage them.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#22

Post by bitL »

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #4

This study mentions blue light as from smartphones as a problem. My phone has a blue light filter which I have on all the time. Linux gnome desktop also has one for late night coding sessions.

There are special Gunnar glasses that seem to work well by reflecting blue light - they completely eliminated any eye strain I felt while coding in the night. Coupled with natural light lamp, it's a great combo for a winter coder.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#23

Post by AdrianB1 »

RugnirViking wrote: post #2

The part where they spoke about various populations sleeping for around an hour longer each night in the winter is very interesting to me.

It is quite logical, the night is much longer and we used to depend on the light cycle. Also many animals hibernate in the winter, we just sleep a bit more, it is an adaptation to environmental conditions: less light, less food, movement in lower temperatures require more energy, sleep conserves energy.

In my country we have a bit less than 9 hours of light in December and over 15 hours in June, we continuously adjust for it.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#24

Post by AdrianB1 »

bitL wrote: post #21
graeme wrote: post #6

Has anyone tested bright indoor lighting and its effect on their own sleep. I have some LED studio lights for video work by my desk all the time. I'm wondering if I should just turn them on while I work each morning. From what I can tell: 1. LEDs won't cause sunburn/skin damage 2. There's no blue light risk of them if they're not rates above a certain level of light output and you don't stare directly at them. I have…

I bought a huge 10,000 lux lamp that was supposed to emit similar wavelengths to daylight because I found myself to be a bit sleepy during winters all day long. That one managed to "wake me up" and I ended up as productive as in summer. Some people also use it to alleviate their seasonal depression (never had that). I have it illuminating my workspace behind my back. I believe our eyes have some special "wake up" rec…

Can you provide some details on that lamp, especially power consumption? It seems an interesting experiment that I would like to try.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#25

Post by AdrianB1 »

nucleardog wrote: post #15
aussieguy1234 wrote: post #4

This study mentions blue light as from smartphones as a problem. My phone has a blue light filter which I have on all the time. Linux gnome desktop also has one for late night coding sessions.

You can solve this globally by getting eye glasses that filter blue light as long as you're not doing any sort of colour-sensitive work. After a day or two you don't notice the colour difference anymore.

I had my glasses with the blue light filter lenses for a couple of years, the problem is that I wear it all the time and I got used with it very easy, but the entire world was skewed. Also the monitors were looking yellow, an ugly kind of yellow, I switched back to regular lenses and I am perfectly fine with it.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#26

Post by Doxin »

graeme wrote: post #6

Has anyone tested bright indoor lighting and its effect on their own sleep. I have some LED studio lights for video work by my desk all the time. I'm wondering if I should just turn them on while I work each morning. From what I can tell: 1. LEDs won't cause sunburn/skin damage 2. There's no blue light risk of them if they're not rates above a certain level of light output and you don't stare directly at them. I have…

Plural of anecdote doesn't make data, but I've got one for you in any case:

I used to suffer quite badly from winter dips, I've since installed a IKEA Floalt panel right next to my desk. I turn it on when I sit down and turn it off when I'm done for the day. I run it at full brightness at the medium color temperature (which is still fairly reddish in my opinion). Since then it definitely seems that my winter dips have gotten significantly less severe, though actual sunlight still seems to work better.

Now all that said I'm aware it might just be a placebo effect, but honestly if a placebo stops me getting all gloomy I'm all for it. To me at least it seems that my winter dips are heavily influenced simply by environment brightness.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#27

Post by imgabe »

The main reason why offices have gotten dimmer is that energy conservation codes limit the amount of power you can use for lighting. Most office type spaces are only allowed 0.9 - 1.1 watts per square foot compared to 3 watts per square foot in the past. Part of that reduction is also that lights are vastly more efficient, but designers are also incentivized to use as little lighting power as possible.

Lighting power is also tradeable among spaces. If you want to use some extra light for a fancy lobby space, you can make the office areas dimmer as long as you still come under the allowed total overall.

Energy codes are in general a good thing, but there are some tradeoffs and unintended consequences.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#28

Post by wrnr »

I've had insomnia for as long as I can remember and wish there was another culture about sleep. I saw this documentary about the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) wherein a physicist was staying awake for 48 hours so he can focus on his work. The IAS is famous for hiring the best scientists and letting them work on whatever they want. I am not a genius like him but I wish I could use my restlessness to my advantage and work in long stretches of time and just sleep when my mind stops spinning.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#29

Post by MaximumYComb »

wrnr wrote: post #28

I've had insomnia for as long as I can remember and wish there was another culture about sleep. I saw this documentary about the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) wherein a physicist was staying awake for 48 hours so he can focus on his work. The IAS is famous for hiring the best scientists and letting them work on whatever they want. I am not a genius like him but I wish I could use my restlessness to my advantage a…

I had medically diagnosed insomnia for a period. If your insomnia is anything like mine then you'd have a decent idea about if you're going to sleep that night or not. If it's 1am and I'm still wide awake then I'm not getting quality sleep that night. What do you have to lose by going to your PC at that time and working for 6 hours before work? You're going to be tired tomorrow anyway any attempting to sleep for another 5 hours isn't going to help.

Re: Why office workers can't sleep and why that's bad

#30

Post by [deleted] »

wrnr wrote: post #28

I've had insomnia for as long as I can remember and wish there was another culture about sleep. I saw this documentary about the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) wherein a physicist was staying awake for 48 hours so he can focus on his work. The IAS is famous for hiring the best scientists and letting them work on whatever they want. I am not a genius like him but I wish I could use my restlessness to my advantage a…

[deleted]
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