Sunlight: An Underrated Vital Nutrient for Mood and Focus
Sunlight primes your brain for being alert and focused
Diet, exercise, and mindfulness, oh my.
Yes, yes, these are all essential for maintaining a proper mood and focus.
Absolutely.
But, I want to remind you of another key player in the game of ‘sustained attention and optimal cognitive performance’ — Sunlight (and her beloved counterpart, darkness).
Without going into too much detail, I will give you some highlights around the core principles of why you want to align your habits around light and dark if you wish to focus and think better.
Morning Sunlight:
- Sunlight is the strongest cue that synchronizes your body clock to the sleep-wake cycle — supporting natural mental clarity during daytime hours.
- Morning sunlight helps stimulate the cortisol awakening response, a natural spike in cortisol in the morning that allows the body to transition from sleep to wake, ushering in more alertness, clarity, and focus.
- Bright light exposure has been shown to promote neurogenesis (nerve growth) in the hippocampus (memory and learning center of the brain) of animal models.
- Sunlight is strongly correlated with increasing serotonin levels, which is the feel-good neurotransmitter. Adequate serotonin = less perceived stress = more access to the faculty of reason in the brain (aka: more mental clarity).
- Sunlight exposure consistently shows improved mental exam scores in those with cognitive issues.
Evening Darkness:
- Bright lights at night suppress natural melatonin production.
- Blue light (high intensity on phone screens and computer screens) suppresses natural melatonin production.
- Darkness = the most powerful signal for the body to start naturally producing melatonin.
- Melatonin is a potent antioxidant that helps clear oxidative damage in the neurons and helps clear out toxic waste, helping to reduce cognitive decline and support optimal brain function.
- Darkness = more melatonin = more natural brain protection at night = better functioning brain come morning.
- Excessive artificial light at night (bright lights and excessive screentime) has been linked to a delayed cortisol awakening response. This basically acts as a form of mild jet lag, making it harder for your body to wake up in the morning and reducing mental performance (commonly experienced in jet lag).
Actionable Advice:
Overall, get out first thing in the morning and expose yourself to 5–10 minutes of natural light (even if it's cloudy, you are still receiving light) and avoid screens and dim your house after sunset.
It’s just about doing the best you can to align your life with the rhythms of nature.
Another helpful solution, if you are unable to completely eliminate bright lights or screens from your evening ritual, is blue-light blocking glasses.
Blue-light blocking glasses are a modern solution for a modern problem (excess artificial light at night).
About 2 hours before your anticipated sleep time (10–11 pm), put the glasses on until right before you are about to sleep. They support natural melatonin production and start preparing your body for restorative sleep, which, in turn, prepares you for focus, alertness, and the next day mental clarity.
If you start right now (or tomorrow), adding 5–10 minutes of outdoor morning sunlight within 30 minutes of waking up AND wear bluelight blocking glasses 2 hours before anticipated sleep time, you should notice deeper sleeps and better daytime energy pretty quickly.
Warm wishes (and lots of sunlight) — Megan
