In another life I’d probably be a lizard, lounging contentedly on a sun-baked rock.
There’s something I find enormously soothing about feeling the kiss of the sun’s warmth on my skin.
I love it.
I also love how being outside in the sunshine, or looking out onto a sunny day outside makes me feel happy.
Looking after our mental wellbeing matters. A lot.
Knowing what matters the most for your mental wellbeing allows you then to ensure you do whatever it takes to maintain your mental health.
With a world full of chaos and uncertainty, where anxiety and depression are hustling from every street corner, staying mentally well has never been more important, so let’s look at what the science tells us can help.
1. Sunshine and serotonin.
Sunshine stimulates the release of serotonin, our feel-good neurotransmitter. It’s mostly produced in the gut, but some sun exposure provides a lovely top-up. It’s important for regulating mood and your sleep-wake cycle, which is why getting outside into some early morning daylight is so good for us. Our eyes have a small number of highly specialised cells in the retina that are sensitive to sunlight, and communicate with a number of different brain regions, which is how our brain “sees” that sunlight. That light serves not only to wake you up, but it also resets the circadian clock, so you’ll be ready for sleep in 16 hours’ time. Clever, eh!
Serotonin helps imbue a sense of calm and emotional stability– you know you can cope. It can also help reduce fatigue.
2. Sunshine for vitamin D.
Spending time outside helps you obtain your vitamin D. While it’s good to be mindful of the harmful effects of too much sun causing skin damage and increasing the risk of skin cancers including melanoma, this must be balanced up with manufacturing enough vitamin D (which, should be considered a hormone rather than a vitamin). It plays a vital role in keeping our bones and teeth and muscles strong, helping the body to absorb calcium and phosphate and is also important for healthy immune system function.
How much sun do you need? This varies where you live and your skin type but generally 5-15 minutes of sunlight on your arms, face and hands two to three times a week is enough.
3. Sunshine for lower stress.
Being outside on a beautiful sunny day in either a green or blue space is soothing. This is because being in nature changes our physiology, lowering stress levels and blood pressure. Better still, it has a positive effect on your heart health, lowering your risk of heart attack or stroke.
4. Sunshine boosts and stabilises mood.
Time spent in natural sunlight can help alleviate some of the dips in mood when dealing with depression. When we lived in London, the sky was often grey, and my mood frequently matched. A small glimpse of blue sky (enough to make a cat a pair of trousers, as my mother would say) and sunlight would lift my mood. This is why getting out into sunshine, if you’re dealing with anxiety or depression, can help. That’s also why light therapy is used – this stimulates the brain to make more serotonin and reduce excess melatonin, the hormone that drives sleep.
5. Sunshine encourages us to exercise outside.
It’s easier to exercise outside in good weather. I say this as a fair-weather exerciser, who loves to be outside walking, down the beach, paddling my kayak or hiking in the hills! But fair weather or not, being outside with a bit of wind and rain can be invigorating too – it helps to blow out all the cobwebs.
The best thing about sunlight, other than for all the reasons explained above, is that it helps us deal with the challenges of modern-day living, making it easier to get a better night’s sleep, enjoy being in a more positive mood, and have more energy.
Is that true for you too?
Getting enough sunshine into our day keeps us mentally healthier and lowers our risk of a mental mood disorder like depression, with each extra hour of daily sunshine lowering those odds, along with a reduced need for antidepressants.
We are sun-loving animals and benefit from getting sunshine into our day for our overall health.
This is important when considering workplace environments. Working underground, or night shifts or having little access to natural light can be detrimental, which is why my career choices did not include being a miner, radiologist or surgeon. Nor could I face working in a location where daylight hours are very short.
Lucky for me, I am able to live in a location with lots of sunshine and to work in places that provided lots of natural light.
What role does accessing sunshine play in keeping you mentally healthy?
Refs:
Burns AC, et al. Time spent in outdoor light is associated with mood, sleep, and circadian rhythm-related outcomes: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study in over 400,000 UK Biobank participants. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2021; 295, 347–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.08.056.
Wang J, Wei Z, Yao N, Li C, Sun L. Association Between Sunlight Exposure and Mental Health: Evidence from a Special Population Without Sunlight in Work. Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2023 Jun 14; 16:1049-1057. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S420018. PMID: 37337544; PMCID: PMC10277019.
Boubekri M, Cheung IN, Reid KJ, Wang CH, Zee PC. Impact of windows and daylight exposure on overall health and sleep quality of office workers: a case-control pilot study. J Clin Sleep Med. 2014 Jun 15;10(6):603-11. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.3780. PMID: 24932139; PMCID: PMC4031400.
