6 benefits of Sunlight

~ Eliel Wallace

Our sun is a G-Type star that emits a warm yellow light. Now if you have ever stood in sunlight on a warm spring day after the long winter you can almost feel your body absorbing …. something. It definitely feels great, you feel happier afterwards and maybe even more energised throughout the day.

What just happened?

Now if you were Supergirl or Superman from the planet Krypton, you would literally need a yellow sun to maintain your powers.

“Solar energy from the yellow sun is the source of energy for Kryptonian powers. When Superman is exposed to large amounts of sunlight, his powers can be greatly magnified.” Ref. (For all you comic fans out there…)

Amazingly, we as human beings are not too different from these out of this world characters. Now I’m not talking about lying in the Sun for hours tanning, think more 5-15 minutes of sunlight at some point during the day when it's out. Ref.

It doesn’t have to be scorching hot sun in clear cloudless skies, we simply mean daylight!

We need the Sun in our lives, and here are 6 reasons why:

• Vitamin D - When we are outside our body creates Vitamin D from sunlight hitting and absorbing into our skin. We can almost feel this happening as we “soak” up the rays. Vitamin D is important because it helps us absorb calcium and phosphate from our diet which gives us strong bones and teeth.

• Improves your sleep - Our bodies produce a hormone called melatonin which regulates our sleep patterns so that we have deeper, more restorative sleep when we are asleep. These are called circadian rhythms. Spending a little while in the sun everyday will signal the body to produce melatonin at the right times so you get a better night's sleep.

• Reduce stress and fends off depression - This can be a big one in the winter months, so when the Sun is out however briefly try get a few rays in. Sunlight boosts the body's production of Serotonin which is the hormone that improves your mood and helps you stay positive and calm. I personally have found this really works especially with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

• Lowers Blood Pressure - When sunlight hits your skin your body also produces nitric oxide which lowers blood pressure and is really good for your heart health.

• Weight loss - There are also studies that claim exposure to sunlight also aids in weight loss especially around the belly area.
  “When the sun’s blue light wavelengths — the light we can see with our eye — penetrate our skin and reach the fat cells just beneath, lipid droplets reduce in size and are released out of the cell. In other words, our cells don’t store as much fat.”

• Improves immune system - White blood cells increase in our bodies with sunlight exposure, now white blood cells are the ones that fight illnesses and viruses within us. So a bit of sunlight will turn your white blood cells into little Kryptonians!

We love a bit of sunlight and definitely feel happier afterwards. In the winter it can be difficult to get the sun we need, so keep an eye out for when it does make an appearance. Naturally in the UK, we naturally have less hours of daylight so our fundamentals in eating well and staying active is still incredibly important!

In conclusion, it makes sense if you think about it, we are creatures of the earth and natural light is a massive part of nature and its rhythms. So let's try to see the sky a little bit more in our day to day lives.