April 2024
Apollo rides his fiery chariot across the sky each day, bringing life-giving light to the earth. In ancient Greek mythology, Apollo was god of medicine and healing as well as of sun and light. Just as he could bring sickness, so he brought cure.
We can have too much sunlight and suffer the deleterious effects of that, but we also need sunlight for our fundamental health and well being.
Last year I was diagnosed with low vitamin D, all because I wasn’t getting sufficient sunlight. This is surprisingly common in Australia, statistics stating that 1 in 3 people are deficient to some degree. Vitamin D is mostly delivered not through food or supplements, but via the sun.
Sunlight is essential for life, whether plant or animal. We humans often forget that we are no different but instead try to live as though daylight doesn’t happen, relying instead on artificial light.
Sunlight has many benefits. Yes, we can have too much of sun’s UV radiation causing skin cancer, cataracts, and so I’ve recently discovered, ultra violet radiation induced immunosuppression of some latent viruses, but some daily exposure to sun helps us. Sunlight triggers the skin to release stores of nitrogen oxides which causes arteries to dilate, lowering blood pressure. Sunlight helps us maintain optimal levels of vitamin D. Vitamin D is necessary for fundamental body processes, such as healthy bones, managing calcium levels, reducing inflammation, and supporting the immune system and glucose metabolism and thus protecting us from type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and various kinds of cancer.
Sunlight also supports better sleep and mood and sets people’s circadian rhythms by regulating the levels of serotonin and melatonin. Seratonin is the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter that modulates our moods, cognition, memory, and learning, apart from other functions. Slow serotonin is associated with depression. Melatonin helps in the regulation of energy and glucose balance. It is also responsible for inducing feelings of sleepiness and a drop in body temperature. When those are out of kilter we suffer.
We are governed by circadian rhythms, which are 24 hour cycles, part of our body’s internal clock. During sleep, the cells in our body undergo healing and replication and our mind works through the experiences and memories of our lives in dreams. Our psyche needs the stimulation of being awake, and being asleep. We need, integrally, a consistent routine for our good health. Our circadian rhythm plus melatonin causes us to sleep and, in the morning, as exposure to light increases, melatonin production stops and body temperature rises, promoting wakefulness. Rhythm is the key. Light and dark, wakefulness and sleep, in harmony and balance giving rise to good bodily and psychological health.
Sleep is most likely to be refreshing and restorative when circadian rhythms, the natural cycle of daylight and darkness, and sleep patterns align.
Regularity of meal times, exercise, social interactions, and sleep times as well as exposure to sunlight and darkness help maintain our natural circadian rhythms. Sometimes, though, our circadian rhythms are thrown out of kilter: shift work, travel across time zones, social or study habits that lead to irregular bedtimes, illness, stress, bright lights, all contribute to this.
Problems with sleep can give rise to insomnia, performance issues (memory problems, difficulty focusing and difficulty performing high precision tasks, emotional and social difficulties, accidents and errors, health problems (obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, and cancer), and symptoms of low energy and grogginess.
A regular schedule for sleep, meals, exercise, exposure to a moderate amount of sunlight and not too much screen time, etc, helps good sleep. If you are having problems getting to sleep, clinical hypnotherapy (which I do) combined with light therapy (controlled exposure to light, eg going outside in the morning after dawn for an hour or so and then at least 10 to 30 minutes in the afternoon of sunlight is beneficial) and, maybe, melatonin supplements and, if your doctor recommends it, medication. The latter can pose risks and have undesirable side effects.
Sunlight, in the right amount, can heal us – but we do need to receive it wisely. Not too much, not too little, just right.
