Summary
This doctoral thesis demonstrates that visual comfort in workplaces extends beyond traditional metrics like luminance distribution and glare to include non-image forming (NIF) effects such as circadian entrainment, alertness, mood, and well-being. Lighting designers should consider both spectral composition and luminance distribution when specifying office lighting, as these factors jointly influence occupant physiology and behavior, with chronotype acting as a meaningful individual-difference moderator.
Key Findings
- Office lighting conditions, including different sky conditions and time-of-day variations, significantly affected both visual comfort variables and NIF functions (alertness, mood, well-being).
- Luminance distribution was found to impact not only visual comfort but also subjective alertness, mood, and well-being â extending its relevance beyond purely visual metrics.
- Inter-individual differences in chronotype (extreme chronotypes) influenced visual comfort responses to lighting, highlighting the need for personalized or flexible lighting solutions.
- A novel HDR photometric device (IcyCAM) was validated for assessing luminance distribution in circadian metrics, enabling more comprehensive NIF-aware lighting evaluation in real office environments.
Categories
Workplace Performance: Investigates how office lighting conditions affect visual task performance, alertness, and well-being in workplace settings.
Sleep & Circadian Health: Examines non-image forming effects of light including circadian rhythm regulation and chronotype differences in response to lighting.
The Science of Light: Explores melanopsin-based ipRGC photoreceptors, spectral sensitivity differences from classical photoreceptors, and circadian metrics in luminance measurement.
Author(s)
A Borisuit
Publication Year
2013
Number of Citations
14
Related Publications
Workplace Performance
- Acute alerting effects of light: A systematic literature review
- Effects of artificial dawn and morning blue light on daytime cognitive performance, well-being, cortisol and melatonin levels
- Can light make us bright? Effects of light on cognition and sleep
- Kruithof's rule revisited using LED illumination
- Shining light on memory: Effects of bright light on working memory performance
Sleep & Circadian Health
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- The twoâprocess model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice
- Strange vision: ganglion cells as circadian photoreceptors
The Science of Light
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- Color appearance models
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice