Rosetta Stone

August 24, 2020

Daylight + Stress

Talking Points • Research Brief • Collection Database


Daylight – Stress Talking Points

Summary

Daylight has the ability to impact the stress level of building occupants in both positive and negative ways. In general, positive benefits from decreasing stress arise from increasing access to daylight while mitigating extreme conditions; conversely, negative benefits arise from lack of daylight access as well as uncontrolled, extreme conditions of high glare.

Keywords

Daylight, stress, health, employee burnout, employee turnover, academic performance

Decreased Stress

  • Access to daylight can decrease both mental and physical stress for patients and hospital staff (Edwards 2002).
  • Access to at least 3 hours of daily sunlight resulted in less stress and higher satisfaction at work (Ulrich 2008).
  • Daylight has been shown to reduce the stress associated with intensive care units (Edwards 2002).

Increased Stress

  • Windowless ICUs had twice as many patients suffer from postoperative delirium and depression due to stress (Edwards 2002).
  • High stress workplaces contribute to poor employee performance, employee burnout and intention to leave their job (Ulrich 2008).
  • Investments in the environment to increase staff satisfaction could potentially reduce the cost of staff turnover, which in a healthcare facility can cost more than $62,100 per nurse replaced (Ulrich 2008).
  • Insufficient daylighting in schools can increase stress for students and faculty due to students’ inability to focus, fatigue due to glare or eye strain, leading to a decrease in information processing and learning ability, and increased stress (Edwards 2002).

Key References

Review Articles
  • Edwards, L., & Torcellini, P. (2002). Literature Review of the Effects of Natural Light on Building Occupants
  • Joseph, A. (2006). The impact of light on outcomes in healthcare settings (No. Issue Paper #2). Concord, CA: The Center for Health Design.
  • Ulrich, Roger S, Craig Zimring, Xuemei Zhu, Jennifer DuBose, Hyun-Bo Seo, Young-Seon Choi, Xiaobo Quan, and Anjali Joseph. “A Review of the Research Literature on Evidence-Based Healthcare Design.” HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal 1, no. 3 (2008): 61-125.
Primary Research
  • Barrett, L., & Yates, P. (2002). Oncology/haematology nurses: A study of job satisfaction, burnout, and intention to leave the specialty. Australian Health Review: A Publication of The Australian Hospital Association, 25(3), 109–121.
  • Smith, A. M., Ortiguera, S. A., Laskowski, E. R., Hartman, A. D., Mullenbach, D. M., Gaines, K. A., et al. (2001). A preliminary analysis of psychophysiological variables and nursing performance in situations of increasing criticality. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Mayo Clinic, 76(3), 275–284.
Popular Press