Morning light may seem like something of a cure-all for various health issues, but it has its limits, too. While sunlight exposure certainly plays an important role in human health and physiology, it is rarely something that you can benefit from in excessive amounts. However, getting proper daylight early in the day could have several important benefits. Below are some advantages of morning light:
It helps set your body clock
The body clock governs your natural daily cycle of physiological processes, and it is usually more or less aligned with the day-night cycle. Exposure to light is one of the main ways for your body to know whether it is morning or evening through influencing your circadian rhythms.Your body clock is particularly sensitive to light in the morning; exposure to bright light effectively “resets” it to an earlier time to account for the passage of time. This effect can be very beneficial in adjusting to a new time zone and to establishing a regular day-night cycle.
It helps you sleep at night
While exposure to bright light in the morning helps you “wake up,” it also has downstream effects on your ability to fall asleep at night. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, exposure to bright light soon after waking can help you stay awake and alert during the day and consequently improve your ability to fall asleep at night.This occurs because light exposure affects your body’s production of the hormone melatonin. In short, light exposure suppresses it, and darkness stimulates it, which in turn influences your body to stay awake or fall asleep, respectively. Similarly to how bright light in the morning helps you fall asleep at night, bright light exposure in the evening shifts your circadian rhythms to later times, making it harder to fall asleep.
Morning light wakes you up
Daylight is a powerful tool for waking yourself up in the morning. Basically, the rule is that bright light = awake, while darkness = asleep. By extension, getting out into the morning light in the early hours after waking serves to give your body that powerful wake-up call as a way to effectively say “it is morning”.Note that morning light is definitely not a substitute for getting enough sleep. If you feel perpetually tired and sluggish even when you get enough Zs, then there are other underlying causes for that issue.
Sunlight exposure helps you get vitamin D
Another benefit of sunlight exposure is that it facilitates the synthesis of vitamin D in the skin. UV light in the 290-320 nm spectrum activates a substance in the skin called 7-dehydrocholesterol, transforming it to vitamin D3. However, it is worth noting that there is no particular recommended amount of sunlight to get vitamin D because it largely depends on the season, the time of year, the amount of cloud coverage, the pollution levels, your skin color, age, and whether you wear sunscreen.It is also worth noting that UV light is blocked by glass, so sitting by a sunny window will not help your vitamin D levels. The bottom line is that sunlight helps you get vitamin D, but it is not a reliable source due to being largely influenced by several factors.Also read:Brain health is more than diet and exercise. Can pranic healing and meditation help manage stress?Why emotional well-being is emerging as the new fitness goal beyond exercise and dietIt is important to note that getting morning sun exposure is not a requirement for anyone to do. Basically, you get plenty of health benefits by getting natural light exposure shortly after waking. It is worth noting that this does not include prolonged sunbathing because excessive UV exposure is harmful to the skin and can cause various types of skin diseases. As such, it is important to take sensible precautions such as using sunscreen topically, wearing sunglasses, and avoiding direct sunlight when UV exposure is high.Similarly, it is not recommended to stare at the sun directly because it can damage your eyes. It is best to think of morning light exposure as something similar to a walk outside or eating breakfast in the morning: both are healthy habits, but you should not stare directly at the sun for an extended period of time.Morning light is overall extremely beneficial due to light being a potent regulator of the body clock. Getting morning sunlight exposure is beneficial in that it helps you wake up, supports your ability to fall asleep at night, and facilitates a healthy day-night cycle. In turn, this allows you to maintain a regular circadian rhythm, which in turn governs numerous key physiological processes in the body. On the other hand, sunlight exposure in the morning facilitates vitamin D production.