10 of Spades - Sunlight, sleep tight!

Your brain has an ‘internal clock’ of sorts that regulates different processes in your body based on the continuous cycle of light days and dark nights. A hormone called melatonin is what your body’s internal clock uses to make you feel tired at night. When it is dark, your body increases melatonin production, making you sleepy, and when it is light your body decreases melatonin production, making you feel wakeful.

So, the first reason that soaking in sun during the day is beneficial is that it decreases your melatonin production, making you feel less sleepy during the day (Blume et al., 2019). Studies have also shown that light exposure during the day helps to shift your sleep timing to earlier hours, meaning that you may feel more tired at bedtime, allowing you to fall asleep sooner, and thus sleep longer (Blume et al., 2019). Studies also show that exposure to sunlight during the day improves sleep quality (Blume et al., 2019).

Sunlight sounds like the magic bullet for sleep! It:

• makes you feel less tired when you want to be less tired (i.e., during the day).
• makes you feel sleepy when you want to feel sleepy (i.e. at night).
• can help you sleep longer.
• can help you sleep better.

So, next time the sun peeks through, don’t let the opportunity go to waste!

Small changes CAN make a big difference – that’s what the 1% club is all about.

Blume, C., Garbazza, C., & Spitschan, M. (2019). Effects of light on human circadian rhythms, sleep and mood. Somnologie, 23(3), 147–156. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/qcfkr