
Stuffy offices can halve cognitive scores - edoloughlin
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/stuffy-offices-can-halve-cognitive-scores/
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derefr
An interesting factoid: I used to be fine with stuffy environments. Then I
started taking a stimulant medication for ADHD. Now I get headaches whenever
I'm in a room with no air circulation (cars with the windows and vents shut
are especially bad.) It seems turning my brain on fully requires more oxygen!

It's surprising, though—almost nobody I've ever asked to open a window or
somesuch can _tell_ , even when it's pointed out to them, how stuffy the room
they're in is. (I don't even know if I myself used to be able to tell; it's a
hard thing to remember.) Air quality might be a thing like odor, where you can
become inured after spending hours in a room but then it's obvious if you
spend some time outdoors and then come back. And yet, bad air seems to "hit
me" when I enter a room, in a way it doesn't to most.

Some people, interestingly, get very defensive about the (bad) air quality of
a room—even if the weather is perfect outside, and even if they have no
allergies or anything similar, they just hate the idea of having a window
open. (But, even more interestingly, this seems to be a habitual tic, rather
than a physiological desire. One of my friends—who previously kept a horribly
stuffy room, and would always ask that I close my own windows because of how
"drafty" my apartment is—now keeps his own windows permanently open, after
spending just a few weeks at my place.)

~~~
Terr_
> An interesting factoid:

A factoid is, formally speaking, not a small fact, but instead something that
_appears_ to be a fact but may be false. Similar to how an android is not
really a man, and a spheroid is not really a sphere.

That said, I love the self-referential truth of:

"Saying 'a factoid is a small fact' is a factoid."

It works whichever definition you believe in :)

~~~
achow
Factoid is both - Truth & Not-a-truth. But in todays world it usually
(actually overwhelmingly) means an interesting piece of trivia.

From Wikipedia: [Factoid] The term was coined originally in 1973 to mean a
"piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it’s not
actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in
print." Since then, the term has evolved from its original meaning, in common
usage, and has assumed other meanings, particularly being used to describe a
brief or trivial item of news or information.

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ggreer
I was curious how indoor CO2 levels change from people breathing, so I did a
quick calculation. A small room is 4m x 4m x 2.5m. That would contain 40m^3 of
air or 40000 liters, 8000 of which is oxygen. From what I can gather, a normal
person working will use 30 liters of oxygen per hour.[1] If the room contained
one person and was completely sealed for 8 hours, it would end with 7760L of
oxygen, 192L of CO2, and some water vapor. Around 0.5% of the atmosphere in
the room would be CO2. While at the occupational limit, that's still enough to
cause drowsiness and mental fatigue.[2]

It's surprising how little CO2 is required to disrupt cognition. Still, even
getting to those levels would take an extremely stuffy office. I'm not
convinced this is a issue in most workplaces.

1\. [http://www.molecularproducts.com/pdf/technical-
library/A%20G...](http://www.molecularproducts.com/pdf/technical-
library/A%20Guide%20to%20Breathing%20Rates%20in%20Confined%20Environments%20Technical%20Article.pdf)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide#Toxicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide#Toxicity)

~~~
andor
From the Wikipedia article:

 _" Another study of humans exposed in 2.5 hour sessions demonstrated
significant effects on cognitive abilities at concentrations as low as 0.1%
(1000ppm) CO2 likely due to CO2 induced increases in cerebral blood flow."_

You can easily reach .1% in a normal office. Therefore, office-environmentally
conscious people install CO2 sensors ;-) Here's an example:

[https://metrics.librato.com/share/dashboards/l7pd2aia?durati...](https://metrics.librato.com/share/dashboards/l7pd2aia?duration=608400)

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TeMPOraL
I know for sure, after _years_ of struggling in several companies, that I just
_can 't_ work in a room with no fresh air. Just can't. I can be well rested, I
can drink 10 coffees, and I _still_ will be insanely tired and sleeping on the
keyboard while everyone else next to me is working full power.

The other thing that gets me is temperature. Most of my cow-orkers feel cold
at the level that is comfortable to me, and conversely they feel a-ok at the
level I can't focus anymore. Which leads to conflicts, because I simply can't
tolerate their optimal levels and they can't understand that you can dress up
when it's too cold for you, but you can't really dress down from t-shirt and
pants when it's too hot.

EDIT: I have those problems while _not_ on any medication. I've been having
them since high school or earlier (I don't remember), they're a serious
problem at work (thank god that my current employeer has AC in the offices and
people don't mind me cooling down the room). Few times I actually used
cognitive enhancers to force myself to stay awake, with little effect.

~~~
purplelobster
I'm one of those who are sensitive to cold, and no, we can't just dress up.
It's about the extremities, not the rest of the body, and I can't code with
gloves on. I absolutely cannot work if I feel cold, just as you can't an a
room with bad air, but don't think your situation takes precedence.

~~~
trhway
>we can't just dress up. It's about the extremities, not the rest of the body

you just don't dress up enough. Once the rest of your body is hot enough, the
blood vessels in extremities will open wider to ventilate that extra heat off.

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bkjelden
Lately I've been becoming more mindful of how much my mental state and
cognitive ability can vary depending on my mood, surroundings, etc.

I work in an individual, windowless office that can get quite warm. One thing
I've learned lately is when I start to feel overwhelmed a 10 minute walk
around my company's campus does wonders.

Fresh air, getting the blood circulating, and looking at something other than
a computer screen. It's amazing what an impact the simple things can have.

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Asbostos
It's meaningless to say cognitive scores "halve" or "double". That depends
entirely on how the test results are presented, not the person or even the
test. What's half a human intellect? Is that being as smart as a dog? As smart
as a drowsy person? Certainly not the difference between IQ 100 and IQ 50
because IQ is scaled so as to be normally distributed with 50 being almost
impossible to achieve.

Even the linked paper (great that it's linked and free access!) doesn't appear
to explain what the scores mean in its "Cognitive Function Assessment" section
but identifies the test as using "Strategic Management Simulation" software.

So perhaps the conclusion should be "stuffy offices reduce cognitive function
by an unknown amount".

~~~
bbcbasic
Very good point. Intellect is not a ratio scale.

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br_smartass
Weird, recently Ive changed jobs from a place with plenty of space to each
individual worker and windows with the view to a commercial street(which
remained open), natural light, etc, to standard cubicle corp with at least a
hundred people on the same place and I can't stop thinking there's something
wrong with this type of environment.

Indeed I feel dumber and anesthetized, the lack of natural light, outside
stimulae, seeing the day pass, I suspect makes time drag. Past experiences in
this kind of environment also gave me the same feeling.

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meowface
I dislike stuffy rooms, but I personally hate natural light and a view of the
street or even outdoors at all. The room I work in at my job has no windows at
all (either to the outside or to other parts of the building), and it's
fantastic for me.

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trhway
also weak AC ("energy efficient") in a hot climate like CA, bad lighting like
these latest fad transparent "blinds" which let direct sunlight (of midday CA
Sun) hit your screen or eyes, people packed together into a claustrophobic
stall ("team work area") in an open floor office plan, open ceiling
ventilation duct work (supposedly seeing those ducts is good for your
creativity) which radiates that low-frequency pumping/humming noise that no
earphones can protect from ... yea, there are a lot of ways to turn one into a
corporate drone who doesn't need no cognitive score.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I have a perfect defense against getting zombified - shit like this tends to
shoot my anxiety levels sky-high, which lowers my productivity down to zero,
which means I'll kill myself or die of heart attack long before I become a
drone...

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bbcbasic
I have recently changed job from a large stuffy office to a small office with
sliding doors that let in fresh air (Sydney weather = fairly comfortable a lot
of the time!). Although I can't say I am performing better based on that, I
can say I feel more humane with the combination of fresh air and natural light
that the new office is offering, and I would hesitate to take a job without
those factors.

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XorNot
This is kind of fascinating. I wonder if I could pack a mask and oxygen
cylinder for a day and see any improvement?

