Modelling Office Lighting Optimization for Daylight Saving Time Transitions

Modern indoor lifestyles, where individuals spend up to 87% of their time indoors, emphasize the importance of artificial lighting in supporting circadian health. Light serves as a critical environmental cue to synchronize the body internal clock with the 24-hour solar cycle. However, limited exposure to natural light in office settings can disrupt circadian alignment, particularly during Daylight Saving Time (DST) transitions, which advance or delay clocks by one hour. These transitions often result in circadian misalignment, causing sleep disturbances, reduced productivity, and impaired well-being. This study employs mathematical modeling and optimization to develop office lighting profiles that accelerate circadian adaptation during DST transitions. Simulations with a virtual cohort of 200 individuals demonstrate significant reductions in adaptation time. For spring transitions, optimized lighting reduced adaptation times from 10.8 ± 4.7 days to 5.5 ± 3.9 days. For autumn transitions, adaptation times decreased from 9.8 ± 0.2 days to 5.2 ± 0.3 days. Our results highlight the effectiveness of tailored morning light exposure to facilitate phase shifts. The findings provide valuable insights for designing adaptive lighting systems that mitigate the adverse side effects of DST transitions. Beyond DST, the proposed optimization framework provides insights for other circadian disruptions, such as jet lag and shift work. By establishing a robust mathematical approach, this work contributes to circadian rhythm research and offers a foundation for creating human-centric lighting strategies that enhance well-being and productivity in indoor environments.