In middle latitudes, more than half a year, the length of the day is less than 12 hours. Add on days of cloudy weather, as well as a smoke screen from forest fires or industrial smog … What is the result? Fatigue, bad mood, sleep disturbances and emotional breakdowns.
Sunlight is known primarily as a catalyst for the production of vitamin D. Without this vitamin, the body cannot absorb calcium. In the age of pharmacy abundance, you might think that any vitamins and minerals can be obtained from a magic jar. However, the absorption of synthetic vitamins, according to many researchers, is a big question.
It turns out that the short-wave rays of the sun have a strong bactericidal effect – they kill pathogenic microbes. Since 1903, Danish physicians have been using sunlight to treat skin tuberculosis. The healing rays of the sun cause complex chemical reactions that affect skin receptors. Physiotherapist Finsen Niels Robert received the Nobel Prize for research in this area. In the list of other diseases that are treated with sunlight: rickets, jaundice, eczema, psoriasis.
The secret of the joyful mood that comes with the sun is the tone of our nervous system. Sunlight also normalizes metabolic processes, regulates hormonal levels in women, and increases the production of red blood cells.
Skin diseases (acne, rashes, boils) are afraid of the sun, and under its rays the face is cleansed, and also acquires a healthy tan. According to recent studies, vitamin D3 in the skin becomes active when exposed to sunlight. This causes the migration of immune system T-cells, which kill infected cells and boost immunity.
Sunrise and sunset determine human biorhythms. During the period of short daylight hours, when you have to get up before dawn and go to bed after sunset, the natural biorhythm is confused, daytime sleepiness or nighttime insomnia appears. And how, by the way, did the peasants live in Rus’ even before the advent of electricity? In the winter there was little work in the villages, so people just… slept. Imagine for one evening that your electricity (as well as the Internet and phone) was turned off, you have nothing left to do but go to bed, and in the morning you may find that you are much more alert and happier than after an evening spent with gadgets.
Lamps of the so-called “daylight” do not solve the problem of the absence of the sun, in addition, they are disliked by many for the “effect of the operating room.” It turns out that in winter we have to put up with constant twilight and walk in a decadent mood? We can recommend that you use every opportunity to get scant sunlight at this time of the year as well. Do you have a half hour lunch break at work? Do not neglect them, this is an opportunity to get out into the fresh air for a while. You will have time to look through the smartphone at another time. It turned out to be a sunny frosty weekend – leave all your business with your family in the park, on a hill, on skis or a skating rink.
Remember, as in the song from the “City of Masters”: “Who hides from the sun – right, he is afraid of himself.”