Sunlight
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Sunlight exposure is believed to increase the release of serotonin (a hormone that helps a person feel good, calm and focused), and without enough exposure to sunlight, your serotonin levels can dip which could lower your mood.
In addition to this, exposure to the sun’s rays causes a person to create vitamin D. The amount vitamin D produced can be restricted by clothing, excess body fat, sunscreen and the skin pigment melanin. According to a 2008 study, a 30 minute period while wearing minimal clothing in the sun will make the following vitamin D levels:
- Most white individuals: 50,000 IU (1.25mg)
- Tanned individuals: 20,000 – 30,000 IU
- Dark-skinned individuals: 8,000 – 10,000 IU
To put that into perspective, the average 19-50 year old requires 600 IU per day.
The vitamin D produced helps keep your bones healthy. Low levels of Vitamin D have been linked to diseases like rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.
With this in mind, it’s also a great idea to draw back your curtains and invite the sunshine into your home when possible.
“Perfect cleanliness, plenty of sunlight, careful attention to sanitation in every detail of the home life, are essential to freedom from disease and to the cheerfulness and vigor of the inmates of the home.” {The Ministry of Healing, Page 276}
The bedroom “should have air and sunshine, and should be provided with some means of heating, to dry out the dampness that always accumulates in a room not in constant use. Whoever sleeps in a sunless room, or occupies a bed that has not been thoroughly dried and aired, does so at the risk of health, and often of life.”