Natural light isn’t just good for maintaining your circadian rhythms. The right amount of light at the right time of day can do amazing things for your body!
- Light helps you wake up. Head for the brightest light you can find when your alarm clock goes off and you’ll shake off sleep faster. Want to be even more alert? Don’t wear sunglasses during your ride to work.
- If you have to wake up before the sun is up, try putting a compact fluorescent bulb in your bedside lamp. (Look for bulbs marked daylight or 6500K.) The color range of this light is closer to natural morning light.
- Light can boost concentration! Sunlight activates the parts of the brain that maintain alertness. Work by a window and you can see your productivity go up by as much as twenty percent! Just watch out for glare — that can make it hard to see what you’re working on and leave you with a headache.
- Light can help balance your daily energy levels. A walk first thing in the morning can actually help prevent an afternoon energy slump. Early morning light helps steady your circadian rhythm — which will help your body regulate energy throughout the day.
- Light can be a mood booster. Under natural sunlight and bluish-white bulbs, your brain produces more serotonin (the mood regulating chemical in your brain). Winter months are especially hard on the mood for some people — light can make a big difference.
- Light can curb your appetite. Our bodies are trained to be hungry right around sunrise — that’s because our agricultural ancestors needed the energy boost for a hard day’s work in the fields. Dark was for resting, light was for working. Eating a good breakfast shortly after you wake up might help curb nibbling through the day because it satisfies that instinctive need for fuel.
Best of all — light can help fight disease. Your skin produces vitamin D in response to sunshine. Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones; it also can help protect against heart disease, bone disease, diabetes, arthritis, and many forms of cancer. Get between fifteen and thirty minutes of sunshine three times per week to get the same amount of vitamin D you’d get drinking FORTY glasses of milk.
Just don’t forget the sunscreen!