BOSTON, June 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The summer solstice offers the
greatest opportunity to obtain the healing properties of sunlight
because it is the longest day of the year. It also has the fewest
hours of darkness illuminated by electric light before we retire to
bed. This minimizes our exposure to the circadian clock-disrupting
effects of evening blue-rich LED and fluorescent lights.
As former Harvard professor, Dr. Martin
Moore-Ede, explains in his Amazon best-selling book THE
LIGHT DOCTOR: Using Light to Boost Health, Improve Sleep, and Live
Longer, the healing power of natural daylight is
substantial. Large-scale prospective studies show that people who
are exposed to the most outdoor natural daylight are the healthiest
and live the longest. Their rates of cardiovascular disease and
diabetes are significantly less than those who spend most of their
time indoors.
Equally, the adverse impact of blue-rich electric lights in the
nocturnal hours after sunset is considerable. Those exposed to the
most blue-rich light after sunset are the sickest and have the
shortest life expectancy. The use of lights at night, after the sun
has set, that emit sky-blue wavelengths (including most LED lights
in the market today) disrupts our circadian rhythms and increases
the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and
endocrine-sensitive cancers like breast and prostate cancer.
The seasonal differences in Northern US states, and cities like
Boston, Chicago, and Seattle, can be substantial. When the sun sets
at 9 pm after 16 hours of daylight
only one hour of electric light is required if you retire to bed at
10 pm. In contrast at the winter
solstice on December 21st, when
darkness sets in at 4 pm, a full six
hours of evening electric light exposure is required, and
there are only eight hours when you can go outside and benefit from
the healing power of daylight.
It takes very little electric light at night to have an adverse
effect. A recent large-scale study of 85,000 people with 13 million
hours of light sensor data and 670,000 person-years of follow-up,
showed that even dim bedroom light (1-6 lux) increased the risk of
a diabetes diagnosis by 35% and the risk increased by 73% with
brighter bedroom lights.
Of course, on any given day there are other health factors to
consider besides day length and night length. Too much hot sunlight
can be harmful. However, obtaining the daylight benefits for
circadian clocks does not require the brightest and hottest
sunlight. One or two hours of natural outdoor daylight in the
morning, before the sun reaches its peak, is the most effective at
synchronizing and strengthening the circadian system. And you don't
need to be under full sunlight – sitting, or walking in shaded
areas outdoors delivers enough of the blue-rich daylight signal
needed to maintain healthy circadian clocks.
About Martin Moore-Ede M.D.,
Ph.D.
For over 40 years, Dr. Moore-Ede has been a leading world expert
on circadian clocks and the health problems caused by electric
light at night. As a professor at Harvard
Medical School (1975 – 1998), he led the team that located
the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the biological clock in the human
brain and showed how human circadian clocks are synchronized by
light. As Director of the Circadian Light Research Center he
identified the sky-blue wavelengths in white light that synchronize
circadian clocks, but disrupt them at night, and developed the
first healthy circadian-friendly lights to protect human
health.
*Amazon best seller interior lighting design
Contact Information:
Stephanie Hildalgo
617-823-1610
info@circadianbooks.org
View original
content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/why-june-20th-summer-solstice-is-the-healthiest-day-of-the-year-according-to-circadian-light-research-center-302177045.html
SOURCE Circadian Light Research Center