The Impact of Natural Light on Wellness: How to Harness It With CBD

The great indoors. Without a doubt, it’s one of humanity’s most comfortable inventions. In fact, over time, America has steadily become an indoor society: According to one study, the average American spends 90% of their time inside.

While the comforts of indoor life are understandable, this lack of natural light, with artificial lighting taking its place a lot of the time, is actually a major issue. Why?

Exposure to natural light can spur an improved mood, and it even provides your body with important vitamins. By getting enough natural sunlight in a day, you can feel revitalized, energized and ready to take on the world. To that end, let’s look at some ways you can get a bigger dose of natural light — without disrupting your daily routine.

The Benefits of Natural Light: A Natural Health Booster

Scientists studying the relationship between the human body and the sun have found that direct sunlight is important to maintaining our physical health.

Specifically, natural light can help with:

Regulating circadian rhythms, which help support better sleep
Improving cognitive function, which keeps our minds sharp
Increasing vitamin D exposure, which promotes bone health

Interestingly, most people struggle to get enough vitamin D through food alone. So, spending time in the sun can help you hit your daily quota.

Ample natural light also supports our mental health and well-being. For instance, natural light has been shown to stimulate the release of serotonin, a feel-good chemical responsible for feelings of peace and happiness. Additionally, natural light helps our bodies regulate melatonin production (and, in turn, our circadian rhythms and sleep quality), which also promotes mental health. This is because poor sleep quality can lead to issues with:

Problem-solving
Emotional regulation
Stress and nervousness

So, how can you harness the well-being and health benefits of natural light in your everyday life?

Brighten Up Your Workplace

When we’re inside, we’re often also on the clock. For this reason, you can’t overlook your workplace when restructuring your life to introduce more natural light.

Science backs this, with studies noting that employees who enjoy open, sunny work environments often feel better and dobetter, bringing them one step closer to true work-life balance.

By letting natural light into your workplace, you may:

Increase levels of engagement in your work
Increase energy levels
Increase productivity

Think of yourself as a solar-powered battery — you need natural light to recharge. If you don’t get enough of it, you may feel like you’re running on empty.

Decorate With the Sun in Mind

In addition to brightening up your workplace, it’s also important to brighten up your home. Here are a few helpful ideas you may be able to incorporate into both your living space andyour workspace.

Ditch the Dark Drapes

Rather than choosing dark, blackout curtains for rooms where you’re notsleeping (i.e. your living room), hang curtains made of gauzy material that let natural daylight through. If you’d rather keep the curtains you already have, make sure you open them fully every day to get that beneficial natural light in.

Reflect the Sun

Mirrors are an interior designer’s favorite brightening trick. This is because with the right layout and type of mirror, you can:

Reflect light around a room to make it brighter
Make a room look and feel bigger
Achieve an improved mood for any space

What’s more, you don’t have to worry about nailing them into your walls, either. You can easily prop mirrors up against books or vases for fast redecoration.

Choose Your Colors Wisely

When painting and decorating a room, avoid colors like navy blue, plum purple, and forest green. Instead, select colors like off-white, eggshell, yellow or light tan. Why?

Dark colors absorb light and bright colors reflect it.

So, by selecting bright colors for your home, you can help light bounce around the space, brightening it up without creating the overly sanitized feeling of a pure white room.

Get Creative With Light

If you aren’t able to re-paint or redecorate your home or office, don’t worry — there are plenty of other ways to fit more direct sunlight exposure into your day.

Take a Break Outside

When you have moments in your day to rest, consider opting for some time outside. You might:

Go on a walk through your neighborhood
Explore the benefits of journaling outdoors
Take a short bike ride
Enjoy your lunch picnic-style (a.k.a., outsideof the office)

If you have a day where you really can’t get outside, sitting by a window or skylight works in a pinch, too. Any extra bit of sunlight goes a long way.

Give Light Therapy a Try

Not everyone has clear skies and hours of ample natural light every day. If you live in an overcast area or further north where the hours of daylight are shorter, consider using a light therapy lamp.

These lamps mimic natural sunlight and its positive effects. This means they can stimulate the production of vitamin D and buoy your mood just like natural light exposure, making them a perfect companion — especially during long winter months.

Become a Morning Person

There’s something to be said about the health benefits of waking with the sun. If you change your schedule to accommodate an earlier wake-up, you’ll have more time to soak up the morning light and recharge your battery.

You might even combine this with the first tactic and use the extra time to go for a walk or enjoy your morning coffee outside.

Incorporate CBD

To further harness the numerous benefits of natural light, consider incorporating CBD into your daily routine as well. CBD is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant that, when isolated, can help relax your mind and body and promote overall wellness.

In fact, incorporating CBD products into your daily routine alongside natural light exposure can promote two primary positive effects:

Stress Relief

We sometimes need help to unwind and let the tension of the day leave our bodies. Fortunately, CBD can reduce cortisol levels by binding with receptors in your endocannabinoid system to produce a tranquil mindset.

To that end, consider ending your day with one of our CBD gummies for sale and a walk around your neighborhood to clear your mind. Or, try an outdoor journaling session with a cup of CBD-infused tea for relaxation to release any leftover stress from the day.

Improved Sleep

Many people who crave better sleep use CBD to get it. This is because CBD can induce feelings of relaxation without grogginess or compromising energy levels. It can even help you stay asleep throughout the night.

Combined with the circadian rhythm regulation of natural light exposure, our collections of CBD edibles, CBD topicals or CBD hemp oils for sale can help ensure you get the quality sleep your body and mind need.

Turn to Zebra CBD for All Your CBD Needs

Generally speaking, it’s easy to make small changes to let more natural lighting into your life and enjoy the positive impact to mental and physical health that comes with it.

Adding CBD to your regimen with Zebra CBD can also take your wellness to the next level. Our CBD products use only high-quality, third-party-tested ingredients, so your body and mind can reap the numerous benefits.

Shop Zebra CBD today.

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