Getting Morning Sunshine Greatly Improves Sleep Quality!
Get some sunlight in the morning to improve your sleep! Researchers in Turkey working for the Tepecik Education and Research Hospital have clearly demonstrated that morning sunlight exposure greatly improves sleep quality.1 Thirty minutes of sunlight exposure is what’s needed, according to the study. Just a few days of getting morning sunlight can greatly improve your sleep. the researchers stated, “It was found that exposure to direct sunlight between 8 am and 10 am for 5 days seems to be effective in increasing the global sleep quality score.”
Regulate Your Sleep-Wake Cycle with Sunlight
The reason this works is because it helps regulate circadian rhythm, which is our sleep-wake cycle. The study explains, “Exposure to light-dark patterns is one of the main environmental cues for circadian rhythms that influence 24-hour biological, mental, and behavioral patterns such as sleep quality. The present study showed that… natural sunlight therapy could significantly improve sleep quality and its subcomponents for up to 5 days after therapy.”
An Hour of Sunshine a Day Keeps the Insomnia Away!
Another study the Turkish study referenced strongly indicates that sixty plus minutes of sunlight throughout the day can greatly improve many measures of sleep quality, a strong argument for getting out into the sunshine. The researchers pointed out, “Wirz-Justice et al. demonstrated that 1-hour daily sun exposure significantly prevents sleep problems. When subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep activity, sleep disturbance, and daytime dysfunction scores were considered, the current study revealed a positive difference between pre- and posttest measurements of sleep quality in experimental subjects compared with the control group.” In simpler words, people who got an hour of sunlight were doing better in all those ways of measuring sleep quality, compared with those who did not get sunlight. Get out into the sunshine, particularly in the morning, to sleep better! The studies clearly show that getting sunshine can help you sleep!
- Düzgün, G., & Akyol, A. D. (2017). Effect of natural sunlight on sleep problems and sleep quality of the elderly staying in the nursing home. Holistic Nursing Practice, 31(5), 295–302. https://doi.org/10.1097/hnp.0000000000000206
