Wicker and Wilde love the summer, where the sunscreen is thick, the drinks are fruity, and it’s frying-an-egg-on-the-food-of-a-car hot. As you're cursing your A/C unit for not keeping you cool enough, remember this: Heatwaves are actually surprisingly good for us. Sunshine offers some really great benefits when you get some rays in small doses.
Improves mood. Sunlight sets off a buffet of feel-good chemicals in your body like serotonin and endorphins. These help keep your body and mind calm and are associated with less depression and happier moods. Who knew that standing in the driveway is a stress reliever?
Sleep soundly. Strap in because this next bit is going to sound like a science class. When sunlight strikes the eyes, it sends a message to the brain’s pineal gland to shut down the production of melatonin, aka the sleepytime hormone. When you’re stuck inside all day, your brain isn’t getting the signal to shut off the melatonin valve so some people overproduce it during the day, and can’t sleep at night because of lower levels of the hormone at night. So skipping sunglasses in the beginning of the day during the heatwave could result in better sleep that night.
Lowers Blood Pressure. That means you have less of a chance of stroke or heart attack.
Helps with Depression and Controls Your Appetite. Some of us get depressed and when we get depressed we eat/ Well, Sunlight boosts your levels of the feel good hormone, Seratonin. Seratonin works with your hypothalamus which controls hunger. When you get some sunlight on you you feel better and you feel fuller when you eat!
Boosts Your Immune System. Sunlight increases your body's production of white blood cells which help fight disease and at the same time can surpress an overactive immune system and can be used to treat some autoimmune diseases.
Enjoy the sun and the heatwaves that will inevitably hit us here in RVA.
