The Role of Daylight in maintaining Health and Wellbeing during a Pandemic
Light has been found to have an effect on human beings’ physiological and psychological processes. Daylight has been associated with the entrainment of circadian rhythms, thus affecting sleep-patterns; and its direct component, sunlight, with Vitamin D production, which in turn has been suggested to...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis de maestría |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2020 |
| País: | Chile |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.anid.cl:10533/42540 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10533/42540 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Humanidades Arte (Artes, Historia del Arte, Artes Escénicas, Música) |
| Sumario: | Light has been found to have an effect on human beings’ physiological and psychological processes. Daylight has been associated with the entrainment of circadian rhythms, thus affecting sleep-patterns; and its direct component, sunlight, with Vitamin D production, which in turn has been suggested to influence mood. Bearing in mind that regular access to daylight through outdoor spaces would allow these two mechanisms to operate healthily, then, within the context of the measures established during the Covid-19 Pandemic in London, which severely limited access to the outdoors, the question arises if, within the restrictions, daylight exposure could help mitigate the impact lockdown has on people’s wellbeing. Based on prior research that presents evidence on daylight’s benefits on human health and wellbeing, this research project aimed to assess, firstly, if access to daylight through outdoor spaces has a positive impact on wellbeing indicators during a Pandemic; and secondly, it sought to assess other factors that are associated to have beneficial outcomes, but that are rarely assessed together with daylight, such as nature presence and physical activity. The study, conducted through online surveys over a two-week period, gathered the daily outdoor exposure patterns of 45 participants, defining their amount of time spent outdoors, daylight received, time spent engaging in physical activity, and time spent in nature-related environments. At the end of the study, their wellbeing was assessed through mental wellbeing and sleep quality indicators. Results showed a non-statistically significant, yet positive observed trend, suggesting a relationship between mental wellbeing and a) physical activity, b) natural scenery, c) time spent outside and d) daylight exposure. Then, more importantly, statistically significant findings showed weak to moderate correlations between sleep quality and a) natural scenery, b) time spent outside, c) daylight exposure, and d) mental wellbeing. |
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