Causes of Fatigue

Fatigue isn’t just a health and wellness issue for employees—it’s a business risk for organizations. In today’s knowledge economy, we reward long hours and hustle culture. But behind closed eyelids and half-attentive Zoom calls is a quieter crisis: workplace fatigue. What does fatigue look like in practice?

• Cognitive fog: Slower thinking, poor focus, and reduced ability to make decisions or solve problems.
• Miscommunication: More mistakes, forgotten details, and breakdowns in teamwork.
• Absenteeism: Employees missing work entirely due to fatigue-related health issues or burnout.
• Presenteeism: Employees are physically present but mentally checked out—too tired or unfocused to perform at their usual level.
  

These issues quietly drain productivity and morale, yet they often go unnoticed until the costs become significant.

The Billions Behind Burnout

In North America, the financial impact is staggering. Fatigue costs U.S. employers over $136 billion annually in lost productivity, primarily from presenteeism (CDC). Employees are “at work” but underperforming for hours or even days at a time. In Canada, absenteeism costs employers over $16.6 billion per year, largely due to physical and mental health issues (Conference Board of Canada). Fatigue isn’t just a wellness issue—it’s a performance and retention issue that directly affects an organization’s bottom line.

The Missing Piece? Daylight

Humans evolved under the sun, yet modern workforces spend over 90% of their time indoors, cut off from natural light (EPA). Lack of daylight exposure disrupts the circadian rhythm—the internal clock that regulates sleep, alertness, and metabolism. This ripple effect impacts nearly every system in the body.

Reduced sunlight can blunt serotonin production, leaving employees less motivated and more prone to low mood or irritability. Slower cognitive processing increases mistakes and safety risks, which is critical in high-stakes fields like healthcare, transportation, or manufacturing. Poor circadian alignment alters cortisol and melatonin cycles, affecting stress, metabolism, and immune function. And fragmented or insufficient sleep compounds fatigue, creating a vicious cycle of poor recovery and daytime exhaustion.

Shift Workers Pay the Highest Price

Certain workers are disproportionately affected. Healthcare workers on rotating shifts often experience sleep deprivation and higher rates of depression due to frequent circadian disruption. Transportation and logistics teams with irregular schedules are prone to slower reaction times and higher accident rates. Industrial workers on graveyard shifts face chronic sleep debt, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Airport and airline staff crossing time zones live in near-constant circadian misalignment, impacting both physical and mental health. Even remote or hybrid employees, glued to screens in dark apartments, may get less natural light than shift workers, leading to fatigue, eye strain, and low energy.

Research shows shift workers are at increased risk for diabetes, depression, obesity, and cardiovascular disease due to circadian misalignment (NIH).

What Employers Can Do Today

Organizations can take practical steps to combat fatigue:

• Encourage walking meetings or outdoor breaks – even just 20-30 minutes outside can boost alertness and mood.‍
• Invest in circadian-aligned lighting or wearable light devices – one of the simplest, highest-ROI wellness interventions, especially for teams who can’t get enough daylight during their regular workday.‍
• Adjust work schedules to align with employee chronotypes – let early birds start earlier and night owls slightly later to improve performance and job satisfaction.‍
• Educate teams about circadian health – teach when to seek light and when to block it (especially blue light at night) to reduce fatigue.‍
• Integrate wellness tools into your benefits stack – focus on solutions that address root causes, not just symptoms to prevent burnout and maximize performance.

Light: The Most Under-Utilized Wellness Tool

Exposure to the right type of light—at the right time—can drastically improve performance and health. According to Harvard researchers, even 20–30 minutes of bright light exposure in the morning can improve alertness, reduce sleep inertia, reset the circadian rhythm, and enhance mood and cognitive function (Harvard Health).

At Lumos Glasses, we've built a Class I medical device which has built in sunlight directly in the arms of the glasses to bring daylight safely to the eyes and in a beautiful, wearable form factor. No desk lamps. No blinding office lights. Just wearable daylight.

Our early findings support this as well. In an 8-week clinical trial, just 30 minutes of daily use of Lumos Glasses early in the day resulted in:

• 33% improvement in reported sleep quality
• 14% improvement in mood
• 22% faster reaction time

While still early, these results highlight how even small, consistent doses of targeted light exposure can meaningfully improve daytime performance and overall well-being—outcomes that directly impact workplace productivity.

Wellness Is ROI

When we ignore fatigue, we don’t just burn out employees—we burn through budgets. Investing in solutions that support circadian health isn’t just good for your team—it’s smart business.

Lumos partners with organizations that put employee health first, providing light therapy glasses that improve energy, performance, and retention. If you’re curious to explore how light therapy can plug into your workplace wellness strategy, go to Lumos Glasses for Businesses or find time to chat with the Lumos Team here.

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