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Hello Sunshine!
Sunlight is essential to our health and well-being. Natural sunshine has a multitude of benefits, like Vitamin D production, and artificial light can actually harm us by disrupting our sleep cycle.
Vitamin D3 (actually a hormone) can be formed when a chemical reaction occurs in the skin when exposed to natural sunlight. Vitamin D is crucial in many factors of our immune health. Research has shown that vitamin D is integral to proper function of the body’s T cells— the immune system’s first line of defense.
Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have found that sunlight, through a mechanism separate from vitamin D production, energizes T cells that play a central role in our immunity. Vitamin D plays a vital role in the production of insulin, which is the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.
There is an association between insulin resistance and vitamin D deficiency. In other words, the lower your levels of vitamin D, the more prone you may be to develop type 2 diabetes.
A “sunny disposition” is more than just an expression.
Sunshine has been shown time and again to improve mood, fight Seasonal Affective Disorder and lessen stress.
Researchers at BYU found more mental health distress in people during seasons with little sun exposure.
On the contrary, days with plenty of sunshine were associated with better mental health — in fact, the availability of sunshine has more impact on mood than rainfall, temperature, or any other environmental factor.
Monash University Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health Ph.D. student Angus Burns and associate professor Sean Cain, Ph.D., led an international research team that has had their work published in the December issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.
The cross-sectional and longitudinal study of more than 400,000 found that a lack of daytime sunlight exposure was a risk factor for depressive symptoms, poor mood, and insomnia.
Burns says that most messaging around light and health is focused on avoiding light at night, as it disrupts our body clocks, but this study highlights the importance of getting enough daylight to ensure our bodies function optimally.
In this study, we observed that the greater time spent in outdoor light during the day was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, lower odds of using antidepressant medication, better sleep, and fewer symptoms of insomnia—impressive results from the golden glow of natural light.
One of the easiest health tips to achieve is to get outside and soak up some healthy, balancing rays of sunshine!
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