Sunlight is vital for human health and well-being.

Traditionally, sunlight has been perceived as a threat to our health because it can cause wrinkles, premature aging, and skin cancer.

But research has shown that exposure to sunlight may be beneficial in smaller doses.

Some of the health benefits of sunlight exposure include helping our bodies produce vitamin D, providing bone health support, lowering blood pressure, preventing disease, and achieving better mental health.

There’s a few other ways sunlight can positively affect your body and brain, so let’s explore it further. What are the health benefits of sunlight?

What Are the Health Benefits of Sunlight?

How Sunlight Can Benefit You:

• Strengthens your immune system.
• Reduction of depression.
• Reduction of stress.
• The sun’s light kills bacteria.
• Sunlight can reduce blood pressure.
• Sunlight improves your sleep.
• The sun strengthens your bones.

As mentioned our bodies produce vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D helps your body maintain calcium and prevents brittle bones. Also sunshine helps our bodies create the hormone melatonin, essential for sleep.

Can Sunlight Help with Depression?

Daylight and darkness trigger the release of hormones in your brain.

Exposure to sunlight is believed to increase the brain’s release of the hormone serotonin. Serotonin is known for boosting mood and helping us feel calm and focused.

At night, the darker lighting triggers the brain to release the hormone melatonin. As mentioned, this hormone is responsible for helping you sleep.

Is Sunlight Good For Your Skin?

Again, sunlight helps our skin produce vitamin D, which is needed for skin and normal bone function and health. Yet sunlight can also cause damage to your skin. Sunlight travels to Earth as a mixture of visible, and invisible sun rays, or waves.

Is Sunlight Good for Your Eyes?

Researchers found that those who had more sunlight exposure during the day had higher levels of macular pigment, which can prevent age-related vision loss.

Can the Sun Heal You?

Sunlight Can Heal Inflammation:

We often think about how the sun can damage skin, but for people with certain skin conditions, the sun can actually be like medicine.

The sun can help with inflammatory skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema, and acne. The UV light can help the healing process along.

Sunlight has also been associated with improving autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and even inflammatory bowel disease.

How much Sunlight do I Need a Day?

For many people, just 15 minutes of sun exposure per day is enough.

However, that length of time will vary due to factors like skin color, elevation, and how close you live to the equator.

Final Thoughts:

Please remember spending too much time in the sun can be harmful to your health.  

A sun burn is considered a skin injury, and adequate sunscreen should be used as a preventative measure.

There are several reasons why it’s important to wear sunscreen regardless of how much time you’ll be spending in the sun. 

Skin conditions like wrinkles and sun spots are caused by too much UV radiation. Skin cancer is often caused by harmful ultraviolet radiation exposure, usually over an extended period of time.

Be prepared when you know you’ll be exposed to the sunshine for an extended period of time, hats and sunglasses are your best friends.

With some preparation and moderation you can keep enjoying the natural health benefits of sunlight.

Read More:

What are The Health Benefits of Sunlight?