Why You Should Find Excuses to Get Outside
Jan 05, 2022Where I live, the weather can change on a dime, going from a beautiful sunny day to foggy and humid, to rainy, cool, and dreary.
Even when the weather isn't ideal and the sun is behind the clouds, we are way better off being outside than being under artificial light.
When you're outside, you get a boost of brain-energizing chemicals (especially when you go outside in morning light) and you avoid the mitochondrial damage from artificial light and flicker.
Morning UVA sunlight into the eyes turns tryptophan into serotonin and turns tyrosine and phenylalanine into dopamine.
You feel happy and focused as you start your day.
This morning light also cleaves a chemical in your brain (POMC) that regulates your appetite, immune system, lipolysis (fat burning), and more.
While you're outside, minute by minute, the blend of the light frequencies changes.
Even though you don't perceive these subtle shifts, the light receptors in your eyes and on your skin do.
Based on the blend of "colors" these receptors capture, this signals the exact time of day to your suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN-the master clock in your brain) and reinforces a strong circadian rhythm.
The SCN then organizes and coordinates which cellular tasks must be performed based on the light signals it receives.
Indoor lighting not only has a very unnatural spectrum compared to natural light, but it also never changes.
The body relies on knowing the time of day based on the continuously changing light frequencies coming from the sun.
When it does not get this signal, it is like a busy airport without an air traffic control tower directing all the arrivals and departures and instead leaving things up to each plane to determine where to taxi, which direction to take off, etc.
That airport would be utter chaos.
Without the changing frequencies of full spectrum light, regardless of whether it is sunny or cloudy, your body starts to become more chaotic as well.
At the quantum scale:
- chaos = inflammation
- inflammation = lost electrons
- lost electrons = cellular dysfunction
Find excuses to get outside whenever possible.