5 Ways Your Office Is Giving You a Headache (and what you can do about it!)

Cameron Craig, Storyteller, View, Inc.

5 Ways Your Office Is Giving You a Headache (and what you can do about it!)

If you suffer from frequent headaches and/or migraines, your office may be the problem. Migraines cost Americans an estimated $36 billion annually in lost productivity and health care expenses. Here are five ways your workplace might be giving you a headache and tips on what you can do about it.

1. Toxic Air

Indoor air quality is an often forgotten aspect of our lives that can seriously impact our health. According to the EPA, our indoor environment is two to five times more toxic than our outdoor environment and on average Americans are spending about 90 percent of their lives indoors!

There are pollutants in the air conditioning, toxic particles, dangerous bacteria, and mold all floating around the atmosphere, especially in buildings that aren’t well taken care of. Cleaning products often don’t help either. They can lead to headaches, dizziness and fatigue, and even respiratory diseases, heart disease, and cancer.

Tips:
Get up at least once every hour and get some fresh air. Try to walk outside, or take a walk around the building. Get a portable air filter. Some headache sufferers even get portable oxygen tanks delivered for oxygen therapy. Buy an indoor air quality monitor to measure your indoor environment and inform you about changes and trends in particle concentration.

2. Sitting

You’ve heard it, “sitting is the new smoking.” At a minimum, excessive sitting can lead to chronic pain and tension headaches.

Photo by Carl Collins

Office jobs tend to require a lot of sitting - something our bodies weren’t really designed to do for long stretches. Sitting is a problem for many reasons, let alone sitting for long hours and in the wrong position.

The typical “goose-neck” pose we all get when staring at the screen (head jutting forward, shoulders hunched) increases the curve in the mid back, straining the upper neck. Constant slumping actually makes the head heavier, further straining the muscles in the neck. The result? Pain that crawls up into the head.

Tips:
Set the timer on your phone or computer, for every 15 minutes or 30 minutes and when the timer goes off take quick stock of where your shoulders are and if they are slumping in your chair. When the alarm goes off it is also not a bad idea to stand up and allow the muscles to reset. Muscles need blood flow in order for them to function properly and not tighten up. Just standing at your desk for even a minute will allow for increased blood flow and may save yourself a headache.

3. Uncomfortable Shoes

Leonardo Da Vinci was on point when he called the human foot “a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Can you imagine the burden that is generated when the full force of your body weight is crushing down on the base of your toes rather than being evenly distributed to all 26 bones of each foot? Wearing uncomfortable shoes may eventually lead to spinal injuries, muscle spasms, and chronic headaches.

According to this article on health.com, uncomfortable footwear such as high heels throw your body’s alignment out of whack. “When you wear heels, you change your center of balance, leading to increased curvature of your back,” says Judy F. Baumhauer, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and president of the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) . This can lead to the discs in your spine breaking down, as well as muscle spasms and pain throughout the body, and yes, maybe even chronic headaches or migraines.

Tips:
Runners, Ugg boots, and stylish sneakers are great for the office. Look for ‘comfort fashion’ shoes that just might save you a ton on future medical bills.

4. Fast Food

Office workers love fast food as a way to satisfy cravings and fill up quickly on the go. But that takeout lunch special may be causing your headaches. Many fast foods contain MSG (monosodium glutamate) a popular food additive used in a wide range of processed, packaged, and restaurant foods. Like other headache triggers, MSG launches its attack by dilating blood vessels and exciting certain nerves in the brain.

Photo by ebruli

Processed foods, including those on the menus of fast-food joints, contain ingredients like nitrate or nitrite, and artificial sweeteners that increase blood flow, leading to head pressure and pain. Food processors add it to their meat products to protect against Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes food poisoning, and because it gives the meat that fresh, pink color and “cured” taste.

Tips:
The best bet is to bring a home-cooked meal, packed with vegetables, proteins, and healthy grains to work. If that’s not an option, try to choose a lighter, healthier option on the restaurant menu at least a few times per week. Also, always ask for your food to be prepared without MSG or seasoning salt (which contains MSG) the next time you’re ordering take-out.

Another trick is to keep healthy snacks on your desk – nuts, fruit, a small yogurt, or even some dark chocolate. That way you won’t starve before lunch or have the urge to run to the communal fast food drawer or the Girl Scout cookies.

5. Lighting

Do your eyes hurt, burn or itch after a day at work? Poor lighting may be to blame for your symptoms. Many companies use inexpensive fluorescent lighting to light large areas because it’s a fairly inexpensive option. Unfortunately, your eyes pay the price.

Photo by tripu

There are three ways office lighting can trigger headaches -
- The glare on computer screens from any overhead lighting
- The glare from overhead incandescent lighting
- The flicker from fluorescent lighting

This forces your visual cortex to compensate for the large changes in illumination which stresses your brain out. Basically you overload your system to receive large amounts of light and visual information without allowing your brain to relax and process the information. As a result, in some people, the brain can handle this amount of input which creates migraines, headaches, and discomfort when dealing with office lighting.

Working in a dimly lit environment can be just as uncomfortable as working under bright lights. Dim light can cause eyestrain and make your eyes feel tired quicker. Not surprisingly, productivity can suffer when there’s not enough light.

If you can’t stand the lights in your office, you’re not alone. A study conducted by the American Society of Interior Designers showed that 68 percent of employees were dissatisfied with the lighting quality in their offices. Lighting is considered one of the most important factors in ergonomics, but too often this part of an office’s design is overlooked, rushed, or sacrificed for style.

Windows are the number one determinant of an employee’s satisfaction with a building. Natural lighting not only affects how well we are able to see, but it can also boost our mood, energy level, and hormonal balance. It can reduce absenteeism, owing to fewer illnesses as well as less overwork fatigue, which means more time off for employees to recharge batteries.

However, natural light comes with the unwanted side effects of heat and glare. Have you ever seen your colleagues cover up a window with paper or a trade show prop to reduce glare? You’re not alone.

Luckily, there is a better alternative. The next generation of auto-tinting “smart” windows from companies like View Dynamic Glass adapt to and control the sun’s energy to optimize natural light and reduce glare - no blinds required.

According to a new study conducted by Alan Hedge, a professor in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell, optimizing the amount of natural light in an office significantly improves health and wellness among workers. Specifically, it found workers in offices with View Dynamic Glass reported a 63 percent drop in the incidence of headaches.

As companies increasingly look to empower their employees to work better and be healthier, the study found it clear that placing them in office spaces with the optimal amount of natural light should be one of their first considerations.

Tips:
1. Use the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away.
2. Ask your co-workers to join you in requesting healthier lighting choices such as “smart windows” from companies like View Dynamic Glass.

Learn more about View | Blog

Eyestrain: An Age-Old Problem With A Smart Solution

Cameron Craig

Eyestrain: An Age-Old Problem With A Smart Solution

Myth – Eyestrain is a new problem.

You could be forgiven for thinking that eyestrain is a modern problem exasperated by our dependency on smartphones, computers and tablets. While it’s true that technology has created additional eyestrain problems with each new wave of advances, eyestrain is in fact an age-old problem.

In 1943, the US Government ran a program requesting newspaper and periodical publishers reduce their consumption of paper by 10%. These restrictions were required because large amounts of paper were needed to pack food, ammunition and supplies for troops overseas.

Guess what the publishers did to minimize the problem? They responded by using smaller fonts leading to an increase of reported cases of eyestrain!

Reality – What causes eyestrain?

So what causes eyestrain? Ask a doctor and you’ll most likely get an answer about what’s happening physiologically whether you are staring at a smart phone all day or reading a newspaper with small fonts.

It’s about viewing things up close.

When you focus your eyes on something within a foot or two away, what’s happening is that your eye muscles and cornea are being flexed as hard as they can to focus light precisely to that distance. When you look far away, your eye is relaxed. So imagine flexing your bicep for 9 hours per day, every day, for decades. With that much stress placed on one muscle for that long, the muscles will get tired and not work as well as they could.

Only it’s not a big muscle. It’s a thin, fragile piece of one of the most important sensory inputs your brain uses to navigate the world.

Myth – You need turtle bile and yoga to avoid eyestrain symptoms!

According to the Optical Heritage Museum, people have been seeking relief from eyestrain since ancient times.

Indian yogis taught followers how to relax the eyes by palming — cupping both hands over the eyes for periods of meditation. The technique aimed to improve the “inner gaze” of the religious adept, as well as add to the comfort of everyday vision.

The ancient Greeks mixed cabbage juice and honey to create a soothing balm for the eyes. An Egyptian papyrus from 1550 BC tells people to put the bile from a turtle in both eyes. The ancient Daoist tradition, Chuang-tzu went so far as to promise followers that they could learn to gaze all day without eyestrain.

Reality – Be smart with light and you can avoid or reduce eyestrain!

Light is a very common precipitant of eyestrain, such as in the case of staring at a computer monitor for long hours in a very dimly lit room. Given the fact that many people tend to blink less when doing computer tasks, the problem of eyestrain is often compounded by eye dryness and the symptoms of dry eyes.

What really helps?
The Optimal Amount of Light.
According to a new study conducted by Alan Hedge, a professor in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell, workers in daylit office environments reported a 51 percent drop in the incidence of eyestrain.

“The study found that optimizing the amount of natural light in an office significantly improves health and wellness among workers, leading to gains in productivity,” said Hedge.

“As companies increasingly look to empower their employees to work better and be healthier, it is clear that placing them in office spaces with the optimal amount of natural light should be one of their first considerations.”

To conduct the study, Hedge compared the experiences of workers in offices with traditional windows to workers in offices with auto-tinting “smart” windows that adapt to and control the sun’s energy to optimize natural light and reduce glare. The smart windows were manufactured by View Dynamic Glass.

“Lack of daylight and access to views decreases the ability for the eye to relax and recover from fatigue. Despite their best intentions, companies are unwittingly detracting from their employees’ health and performance by limiting their access to natural light,” said Dr. Brandon Tinianov, chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Advisory Council and vice president of industry strategy at View. “These findings are a wake-up call to every executive who wants to maximize the wellness and productivity of their workforce.”

Read the full Daylight & The Workplace Study.

Learn more about View | Blog

Opening the Door on Research: Dynamic Glass & The Workplace

Brandon Tinianov - VP, Industry Strategy

Opening the Door on Research: Dynamic Glass & The Workplace

At View, we frequently contribute to studies that reinforce the truism that access to outdoor views and daylight play a pivotal role in supporting occupant well-being. These studies from highly credible sources such as the University of Washington and the U.S. Department of Defense have shown how View Dynamic Glass makes good on sustainability goals while improving the occupant experience.

Today, we’re taking those studies one step further with the launch of an ambitious human factors research initiative to help us better quantify the productivity, health and wellness benefits of dynamic glass. To ensure the most credible and accurate results, we’re partnering with some of the brightest minds in the fields of human factors and workplace ergonomics research.

This first study represents the largest third-party study to date on smart glass and productivity and validates the effectiveness of dynamic glass in the workplace. We turned to Cornell University Professor and renowned workplace design expert Dr. Alan Hedge to contrast the experiences of workers in offices with traditional windows to workers in offices with dynamic glass. What his research found has major implications for companies.

Key findings of the study include:

• Controlled daylight unlocks significant health and wellness benefits for office workers. Workers in office environments with optimized natural light reported a 51 percent drop in the incidence of eyestrain and a 63 percent drop in the incidence of headaches, both of which can detract from productivity.
• More natural light translates to more alert employees. Workers in offices with smart windows reported a 56 percent decrease in drowsiness.
• Enhanced individual performance is tied to access to natural light. Workers sitting close to smart windows with optimized daylight exposure reported a 2 percent increase in productivity - the equivalent of an additional $100,000/year of value for every 100 workers or around $2 million over the window’s lifetime.
• The optimal amount of natural light creates a better indoor experience. Workers in offices with smart windows reported an 82 percent improvement in daylight quality.

By providing uninterrupted views, rejecting glare and heat and optimizing natural light, dynamic glass is proven to contribute to a healthier, more energetic workforce.

Learn more about View | Blog

Building a Complete Product

Rao Mulpuri - CEO

Building a Complete Product

View CEO Rao Mulpuri recently shared how View has taken inspiration from innovation leaders like Apple and Tesla to transform traditional, static windows into intelligent dynamic windows that create more comfortable, inspiring and healthy environments, and lead to improved productivity.

Technologists and marketers alike talk about the ‘first mover’ advantage; however, in reality, the first product to market rarely wins. As we witnessed with both the Apple iPhone and the Tesla Model S, it was the first Complete Product that created the tipping point, and created irreversible change in major industry.

What is a Complete Product?

The first step to building a Complete Product is to gain a deep understanding of the customer needs and how your product will solve their challenges. At View, we didn’t get fixated on the glass, the coatings, the digital technology, or the software. Instead, we focused on the environments that people work, live, play and learn in every day, and on designing a product that dramatically improves their experience while also being easy to use. This required building a product that hides all the complexity of the hardware, software and controls from the building occupants – and just works. People then experience a more comfortable, light-filled, delightful environment and do not have to think at all about the technology. And, if they want to personalize their environment, the product enables them to do so with a simple, intuitive app on their smartphone.

The second step was to make our product easy to install. “We wanted to make it so easy to install, that it was just like Lego blocks”, said Rao Mulpuri, View CEO. We realized that we had to design and build our products so they required no new trades at the job sites. And because our products have to be connected, we designed a very simple, pre-terminated, connector based wiring network that ships with the system, making it easy to install and allowing us to leverage the low voltage electricians already in construction. This approach lowered resistance from the real estate trades, and has enabled View to scale rapidly.

Finally, we knew that our products had to be built to last longer than 30 years, similar to the lifetime of traditional static glass windows. This required a truly innovative approach to solve the difficult materials science challenges of developing nano-coatings that are highly durable. Previous (and even some current) approaches used organic materials that are easier to develop, but degrade under repeated exposure to heat and UV that are a result of the harsh sunlight to which windows are exposed. We took the more difficult but ultimately successful path of developing our coatings using only inorganic materials, with proven coating lifetimes well in excess of 50 years under the most stringent conditions.

To summarize - we learned to design and build a Complete Product that is:
• Easy to use and provides a delightful experience,
• Easy to install, and
• Built to last

You can watch a summary of Rao’s presentation at Verge in a video here.

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Net-Zero Office Building at 380 Pastoria with View Dynamic Glass Recognized with Silicon Valley Business Journal Structures Award

Jeff Platón

Net-Zero Office Building at 380 Pastoria with View Dynamic Glass Recognized with Silicon Valley Business Journal Structures Award

The annual awards program recognizes the best and brightest real estate projects in Silicon Valley. The Pastoria project (named for its location at 380 Pastoria) received the “Reuse/Rehab” award for best use of an existing building. A few of the standout features of the project include:

• 42,000 square-foot renovation to a zero net energy, zero carbon emission building • Innovative Power-over-Ethernet infrastructure for lights, fans, skylights
• View Dynamic Glass windows
• Automated Kelvin tunable LED lighting throughout for enhanced human wellness
• 5,000 square-foot patio amenity space covered by semi-transparent solar panels

It’s exciting to be involved in projects that take a holistic approach to building design, as the end result balances environmental sustainability with health and wellness for occupants. It points to a future in which design and construction professionals incorporate innovative technology like View Dynamic Glass into their buildings to deliver a new class of delightful environments.

“The three most important features of developing a great commercial office space are natural light, fresh air and good acoustic,” said Gary Dillabough, the developer of 380 Pastoria. “Our strategy is to be forward looking to include the latest technology innovation in our projects that helps to differentiate our buildings, improves occupant well-being and is energy efficient; it’s incredible how well View Dynamic Glass delivers on all of these goals simultaneously.”

Learn more about View | Blog