Supercharge Your Hormones with a Sunrise
You read that right! The power of our earth’s natural rhythms is something humans have been adapting to for 1,000s of years. In our modern world, we miss out on the very easy, yet very powerful signaling we can get from just changing our morning routine by 10 minutes. Let me explain.
The light given by a sunrise has a different wave length than light throughout the rest of the day. When we are outside to receive this wavelength of light with our eyes, it activates cells in our retina that send of a bunch of neat signals to the rest of the body. No, I’m not suggesting you stare at the sun, silly. I’ll explain how to optimize this after I geek out a little more.
This received light signal in the back of our eye alerts our body that the day is starting, a consistent practice of this over time helps regulate our cortisol levels because our body is getting consistent rhythm signals and doesn’t have to guess or use artificial light to start the cortisol rise in the morning. Cortisol (also known as our stress hormone) naturally rises (or it should) in the morning and then slowly declines during the day. Many people have cortisol management issues due to stress so this is one simple way to help your body help itself. No hormone acts alone, they conduct a symphony of other hormone signaling throughout the body so impacting one hormone can impact lots of systems. For example, cortisol impacts our insulin levels (blood sugar management), our sex hormones and impacts signaling in our digestive process.
In addition, this light signal actually starts the process of produces melatonin. Yep, you may know melatonin as our sleep hormone that gets released at night to help us go to sleep but the process of producing enough melatonin starts in the morning. I’ve had many people who supplement with melatonin to sleep actually be able to get off of the supplement because this practice helped their body produce more naturally. OUR BODIES ARE SO COOL. Also, fun fact, melatonin also acts like a mighty antioxidant in the body too so you’re getting the best bang for your buck here.
How To Start a Sunrise Practice:
Note the time of the sunrise. Try to be outside 10-15 minutes before the actually rise. You can just sit outside or even better, walk. As long as you are outside your eyes will absorb this light (again, don’t stare at the sun). If you have the opportunity to look at the horizon where the sun will actually rise, even better. You only need to be outside for a minimum of 10 minutes to receive the benefits, but up to 30 minutes is awesome. Remember to take off any glasses or sunglasses as they block a lot of the light waves you’re trying to receive.
Wake up after the sun? No problem, you’ll still get some benefits just going outside whenever you wake up.
Wake up before the sun? Try to keep the light in your house not too bright and as soon as the sun starts coming up, get outside and enjoy.
If you are a coffee or caffeinated tea drinker, delaying your first cup of coffee until after this is done will help the caffeine work better in your body. Ideally, don’t have your first cup of joe until 90-120 minutes after you wake up. I struggle with this one, but I definitely can tell the difference when I do it and I don’t need as much coffee to get through my day. Hooray naturally energy.
Try it and let me know what you think.
One small step on your path to thriving,
Dr. Sydne
