If you’ve ever spent time locked indoors under the glaring glow of fluorescent bulbs, you understand the devastating effects it has on your health.
Whether you live in a sunny state like Arizona or a notoriously cloudy one like Washington state, it seems like life tries to separate people from getting enough natural sunlight. Luckily, human ingenuity developed solutions like having residential skylights installed to reap the rewards.
Natural light comes with benefits that extend far past a person’s health. In addition, incorporating it in your home can positively affect the environment and help cut down on your energy bills.
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to get out from under fluorescent bulbs, keep reading to discover the top six benefits of natural light.
Natural Light and Vitamin D
Natural light plays a huge role in your physical and mental health. Sure, you can take supplements to help restore your body’s natural balance. But why take supplements when you can get the real thing from the source?
Approximately one billion people suffer from vitamin D deficiency worldwide. If you suffer from fatigue, mood swings, or joint pain, likely, you’re not getting your daily intake of vitamin D.
It plays a critical role in protecting against various diseases, including the following:
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Immune system disorders
Understandably, most people don’t have the luxury of taking 15-20 minutes to stand under the sun. But if you’re lucky enough to work from home or to get home early enough, installing skylights is an excellent option to get your vitamin D without sacrificing time out of other activities.
And if the light shines too strong when you need to get some sleep, you can always use skylight shades to darken the room. One good way to get indirect sunlight is to keep your fruits on countertops where sunrays can reach and provide effective minerals.
Get Rid of Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a severe illness that can affect a person’s daily functions to a high degree. Luckily, one way to treat SAD involves light therapy.
Exposure to natural light helps with SAD by increasing the levels of serotonin. These increased levels also help to alleviate anxiety symptoms when combined with other treatment plans.
A Good Night’s Rest
Artificial bulbs that light up the office or school are known to disrupt a person’s natural sleep pattern. Everybody’s biological clock is set by their exposure to sunlight and darkness.
This means the hypothalamus in the brain sets sleep patterns based on the times when the retina detects natural light.
This is important because the body starts to produce hormones to wake you up and feel ready to take on the day. When you have artificial light straining your retinas at all hours of the day, it disturbs the natural sleep patterns causing insomnia and other sleep issues.
Getting Rid of Mold
Large masses of mold can form quickly in homes that don’t have proper ventilation. Because mold grows in the dark, it’s natural to assume that sunlight is its worst enemy.
It probably searches for cover in the dark because UV light is a proven method to kill mold over a couple of hours. Taking advantage of windows and skylights can help to air out a bathroom or room to discourage mildew from forming in the first place. And when it does form, you can use the power of the sun to kill it.
However, it’s only effective when it comes to direct contact with natural light.
Losing Weight with the Sun
In short, natural light is a free, no-gimmick way to lose weight.
Serotonin levels play a more significant part in people’s health, affecting them in more ways than getting rid of SAD. The higher levels triggered by natural sunlight suppress the appetite, reducing overall obesity.
People lose more weight when exposed to natural light due to the blue light wavelengths. The blue light goes through the skin to reduce the fat levels stored in individual cells.
This sufficiently explains why people quickly gain weight during winter and have a difficult time keeping it off. So utilize your beautiful decks in winters and get a good dose of sunlight.
Staying Focused
If you ever had trouble completing work at home, lack of natural light is likely to blame again.
Similar to how raised serotonin levels help regulate mental health issues such as seasonal affective disorder, natural light can help you be more productive throughout the day. A significant drop in frustrating problems like headaches, blurred vision and eyestrain was shown in a study by Cornell when people had more natural light exposure.
It can be a miracle, especially when you have a deadline fast approaching.
It also helps to know that incorporating natural light in your home with plenty of windows, skylights or a sunroom lowers your carbon footprint and cuts your energy bill. When you have sunlight pouring in, there’s a reduced need to run electricity from coal-generated sources.
Back to the Roots
Natural light clearly plays a significant role in regulating our health, both physically and mentally.
These days, it seems the only time people can incorporate sunlight into their lives is when they go on vacation. But there’s no reason for it to remain that way.
It’s time to take charge of your health by reintroducing natural light in your home so you can keep reaping the benefits without taking a single step outside.
