Our project is a military fire station/training center in which on-duty fire fighters have alternating schedules and individual occupant sleeping rooms are designed to be used for sleeping at irregular hours throughout the day. The owner has requested that these rooms not contain any windows or daylight so that firefighter's sleep is not disrupted by sunlight. Unlike typical dorm rooms, these spaces are designed exclusively for sleeping while on-site and not as spaces for working or relaxation.
Both the Daylight and Quality views credits require certain percentages of regularly occupied spaces to meet their criteria, which is impossible for us to meet when these sleeping rooms have to remain window-less. For all other credits dealing with regularly-occupied spaces these rooms meet the appropriate standards. But is there a way to exempt these sleeping spaces from the total regularly occupied square footage calculations for these two credits specifically due to their unique function?
Daniel Glaser
PrincipalLightStanza
LEEDuser Expert
16 thumbs up
July 4, 2020 - 1:43 am
Hi Ken! Great question. I think you have a case for not using daylight, but ideally provide lighting that can switch from warm to cool to sync with their circadian rhythms.
In short people seek out blue (cool) light during the day (the color of the daylime sky), and less blue before they sleep. The International Space Station settled on three lighting settings for astronauts:
“A high-quality daytime light to help the crew see well, a higher intensity blue-enriched light to boost alertness or shift circadian rhythms, and a lower intensity blue-depleted light before sleep.”
To simplify this, a warmer light before they need to sleep and a cooler/blue one when they get up to promote alertness can be a better solution than having a window if the firefighter is completely off a daytime schedule.
Nevertheless I think there is still utility for a window and black out shades if the sleep areas are used by firefighters who work regular or near regular schedules (e.g. even if they wake up at 2pm, the sun can provide blue light to start their body clock, but they would absolutely want the shades fully closed if they were falling asleep say at 8am).
In any case, the glossary for regularly occupied space states:
An area where one or more individuals normally spend time (more than one hour per person per day on average) seated or standing as they work, study, or perform other focused activities inside a building
Since the focused activity for this space is to promote sleep for firefighters during the day, you either may be able to make the case that its excempt, or (blue) daylight can actively inhibit the target actvitiy (sleep) but it has a potential benefit for wake if used carefully.