Windowless Offices Have A Serious Effect On Employees

The first thing many people want when it comes to their office is a door. The second, is a window to let in natural light.

High-ranking employees are often the only ones with that second luxury, but it turns out windows might be a good investment in employees.

Workers in windowless offices lose 46 minutes of sleep a night, according to Fast Company.

So says an interdisciplinary team of architects and medical researchers that recently conducted a small case study comparing people exposed to natural light at their jobs with those who aren't. The window workers scored better on common self-report health and sleep surveys; they also slept 46 minutes more a night, on average, as measured by a sleep monitor. The findings will be reported in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 

"We really wanted to look at some health issues related to lack of natural light in people's lives in general," Mohamed Boubekri, study leader and architectural scholar at the University of Illinois, told Co.Design. "The reason why we selected office buildings is because ... that's where most of us spend a good chunk of our lives." 

The study found that 27 workers who sat in a windowless office (or so far from a window as to get no natural light) scored worse than 22 workers who did get daylight on all eight dimensions of a health survey known as the Short Form 36. 

Workers with less light exposure showed worse overall sleep sessions, which has a large number of affects.

Those near windows were more active and had a higher quality of life rating, according to Fast Company.

The article also mentions what there is to gain from windows outside of employee health - they are a good real estate investment. Buildings with windows are cheaper to build but are worth more because windows are desirable.