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Morning light dawns on scientists - 7th March 2022

A dose of morning light is the best medicine, according to scientific research highlighting the vital contribution it makes to staying in rude health. "Sunlight is powerful stuff, perhaps more powerful than most people realise," announced Professor Steve Jones, a geneticist and Principal Research Associate at University College London, adding that the "perils" of living without sunlight are "real".

Crucial for modulating patterns of waking and sleeping, being outside in the morning light is paramount. Despite being less feasible in wintertime, getting a meagre 20 minutes a day is sufficient for a health payoff. Sunlight does more than simply stimulate vitamin D production, a deficiency in which increases susceptibility to diseases like rickets and tuberculosis. "Every aspect of how we function is controlled by light," clarifies Aarti Jagannath, a University of Oxford Associate Professor of Clinical Neuroscience.

Having less morning light, such as during winter, affects mood, potentially increasing the risk of depression and metabolic disorders, which are "offshoots of a disrupted circadian clock". Circadian rhythms are the internal body clock workings underpinning the 24 hour, sleep-wake cycle that are put into daily motion with the dawn light. An over-reliance on artificial light sources can trigger incorrect time cues, leaving us too stimulated at night, for example.

There are obvious ramifications for night shift workers, whose natural regulation is thrown off balance. For the three million plus British people who are shift workers, the confusing light discrepancies between home, work and the commute mean that 97 percent fail to successfully amend their sleep patterns. Jagannath explains that bodily systems can desynchronise, leading to "a higher incidence of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease.” This accounts for why the WHO perceives shift work to be massively detrimental to health.

In Britain, increasingly fewer people venture outside for the recommended 30 minutes a day and Jones warns, "it's no good staying inside and looking at the sun and saying this is doing me good, because it isn't."

"The amount of sunlight we're getting has gone down dramatically in the last 20 years," he continues, recommending not to "retreat into your cave" but to get out once the sun's shining.

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