Today we know that optimizing daylight as a light source in school buildings improves students’ academic performance. To enhance students’ cognitive functions, sustainability officers and architects should provide illuminance recommendations that maximize natural daylight.

• Poorly designed artificial electric lighting can disrupt the molecular clocks that regulate the temporal dynamics of cellular activities.

• Using natural daylight to illuminate schools would help students’ bodies regulate melatonin, reinforcing circadian wellness and improving performance.

• Outfitting a building with daylight and sensing controls can reduce the energy used for electric lighting by 20 to 60 percent.

• Research has found a high correlation between schools that reported improvements in student test scores and those that reported greater amounts of daylight in the classroom.