Would you plan your day without consulting your phone?
Of course not! And you shouldn’t plan your day without consulting the sun schedule, either. Not saying you should go full-blown Mayan calendar but understanding when and where the sun is in the sky should always factor into your daily plan.
But here’s the rub: We aren’t living our lives considering the sun in our schedule. Our indoor life is keeping our cells in the dark, and as a result, they’re suffering. So is our sleep. From your hormones to your neurotransmitters, your body is begging you to give it some sunlight, some sign of life.
If you’re unsure on how to course-correct to give your body the necessary light, just keep reading.
Let’s take a Squint.
Get your light right.
A healthy body is only as good as the frequencies of the sun it is able to harness. Our cells are designed to capture, collect and store all the frequencies of light. When you center your day around the sun, you are giving your body what it desperately craves. And the best part? It’s so simple. Learning to pay attention to the sun, and making a few tweaks to your daily light routine, can have huge impacts on your health.
Step 1: Start every day with natural light—not the light from your phone.
The best way to wake your body up and begin building cortisol is by viewing the sunrise, outside with no glasses or contacts. Even if the sunrise is hiding behind clouds, make sure you show up for it. Sunrise is a combination of blue, green and red light. The blue is the “wake up” color of the rainbow. It tells our body to put away our melatonin, increase our cortisol (to seize the day) and upregulate our hormone production.
And, just in case you need a reminder: when you wake up, get out of bed! The phone notifications you received overnight have to wait.
Remember, always make natural light the first light of your day. Do not make your phone, other blue-lit screens, or artificial light, the first light that your eyes see.
Step 2: Collect your natural light early, in bare feet, on the ground, facing east.
Start with the earliest light available to you. Go immediately outside in your bare feet and start gathering your electrons from the earth. This is the Squintessential beginning of any proper circadian day. Your eyes and skin are connected to the photoelectric power of the sun and your feet connect you to the earth’s unlimited source of electrons.
Step 3: Stay in the morning light as long as possible.
By gathering morning light, consistently, you can collect a broad spectrum of healthy wavelengths that improve health. The blue, red, green, infrared and UV light of the morning sun is the best way to kick off your day if health is important to you. Morning light will provide you a get-up-and-go spike in cortisol, to positively influence your immune system, metabolism, and kickstart your dopamine production (good mood, here we come!). UVA sunlight in your eyes and on your skin releases nitric oxide which lowers blood pressure (that prevents heart attacks). Did we mention, morning sun also gets your hormones going as well? By all accounts, morning light is the most critical start to your day.
Make changes in your daily routine to find AM sun. Start your day outside, take a morning walk, walk the dog, eat outside, get out of the car at school drop-off, park far from your destination, wait for your Starbucks order outside, take your meeting outside, crack a window, open a sunroof – all small daily practices that add up to big health benefits.
Step 4: Don’t forget about the midday sun.
We all know that Vitamin D is vital to our immune system and disease prevention. The most available time for UVB absorption (that’s the wavelength that makes Vitamin D), depends on the time of year and your latitude. Generally, it can be found in late morning/midday sun when the sun gets to thirty degrees in the sky. Get outside and soak up the UVB light. This is the light that has been demonized by sunscreen makers. However, we need UVB light to sulfate our cholesterol to make Vitamin D. If you are not interested in getting cancer, get this wavelength of light on your calendar.
Step 5: Get outside in the late afternoon/evening.
Later in the day, get outside. Your body will likely let you know when you need a sun break as you lose focus, feel a bit tired and reach for your phone for the third doom-scrolling session of the last hour. The particular wavelengths of the sun when it’s low in the sky gives you another boost of melatonin and communicates to your brain that it is evening. That means it’s time to begin the process of transitioning to sleep. The golden hour before sunset is not only great for pictures, it’s great for your skin and your circadian health (skip the make-up and sunglasses though!).
Step 6: Darkness at night.
Block artificial light after the sun goes down. Yes, that includes your phone. As the night progresses, the blue light in your life – overhead lights, TVs, computers, game consoles, phones – all need to be minimized. While any light can suppress the secretion of melatonin, high-intensity blue screen light destroys melatonin, interferes with metabolism, increases gut dysbiosis, and disrupts sleep. Bright lights, big city? That means there are even more artificial lights to darken at night. Make your sleep sanctuary as dark as possible.
Consistency Over Perfection
Here’s to making small changes to your daily light routine that will provide big rewards to your health!
Thank you for taking a Squint with us! Don’t forget to print out our Morning Light Routine Checklist to stay on top of your light routine.