Few things are more impactful at setting yourself up for success than exposure to daylight early in the morning. However, this can be difficult for many in the northern hemisphere during winter, especially if also combined with a 9-5 job that means you're at work before the sun comes up. Luckily, covid has had some positive collaterals here, for me at least.
I could write a whole other post exclusively about how exposure to daylight as early as possible in the day helps set us up for a better night's sleep in the evening. While most have heard about and understand the benefit of winding down and relaxing in the evening in preparations to go to bed, few understand that preparation for good sleep begins in the morning. Long story short: Our body builds up a chemical called adenosine throughout the day that makes us sleepy (caffeine actually works by blocking adenosine from connecting to its receptors in our brain, thus it is preventing us from becoming sleepy rather than making us more awake).
When we wake up, adenosine is at its lowest, and seeing daylight as soon as possible is the fastest way to tell the brain that it's daytime and thus get adenosine production going again. So if you're somebody who struggles with not feeling sufficiently tired to go to bed when you want to go to bed, then the problem is likely that you've got the common but awful habit of staying indoors for hours after waking up, thus not giving your brain the signal that the day has begun and started your internal clock properly.
Additionally, moving your body as well as seeing daylight early helps give yourself energy and mental clarity for the day ahead. Thus, I've made the strict habit of always going out for a 20-30 minute walk as soon as I wake up (summer) or as soon as there's daylight available (winter). This morning was a perfect day for it, as it was quite sunny clear. Below is a couple of shots I took this morning during my walk through St. Hanshaugen park in Oslo, Norway. Conveniently right next to where I now live:
The square where my newly bought apartment lies has the type of older architecture that I've come to love in Scandinavian cities. Here taken from the entrance to the nearby park as I look back towards by apartment.
Upon entering the park is a quite nice little pond where some kids come to skate during winter. As you can see behind it is a hill leading up and towards the peak of the park which looks over the city. I really loved the colors of this picture!
At the top of the "St. Hanshaugen park" is this cute little chapel.
From the top, you have a pretty nice view down over Oslo. Sure, some larger buildings and trees do block the city center, but you can look far out into the fjords. With all these benches I've found it to be the perfect place to come for a short meditation session during midday.
Seeing the sunrise for a few minutes while just taking in the daylight and enjoying the view. It feels extra nice when you know how beneficial it is.
Getting into the habit
Seeing as I now live in Oslo, Norway, and have had 2 months now where the sun is up around 9 am, and down around 3 pm, it's been the time of the year where normally, people would go to work and come home all while it's dark outside. However, the pandemic has, thankfully, given some positive collaterals here thanks to the requirement and then normalization of working from home. Having recently moved places with my new apartment 2 minutes from one of the finest parks in town, and also having a job with a lot of flexibility in terms of how I organize my day, I make sure to be able to go outside and get daylight exposure as early as possible.
During the darkest days in December, this meant taking an earlier lunch break than usual to head outside at 10 pm. This morning, I could instead take an earlier break to head outside in order to catch the sunrise just before 9 am. Since I can organize my day the way I like assuming there is nothing so urgent that I have to be available for a meeting, I would rather prioritize getting this little walk in and then either work from a bit earlier or a bit later than usual. In the end, I want to structure my day around maximum wellbeing and productivity and seeing as this significantly boosts both, it's a no-brainer to fit it in.
How about you? Do you make sure to get daylight each day early on? Or do you have the habit of waking up and then staying inside for a while? Let me know in the comments!