The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
increased viewing of sunlight increases dopamine levels in the brain, increased dopamine levels in animals and humans increases the amount of these melanocytes and the activity of these melanin-producing cells, which give pigmentation to the skin and hair, and indirectly, increase the amount of testosterone and estrogen, and thereby, reproductive behavior, feelings of well-being, social interactions, reductions in anxiety, et cetera
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Bookmarking — the dossier-vs-overview split is the right call. Most of the time I want overview; sometimes I want receipts.
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But also to enhance your mood, to enhance your metabolism, to optimize your hormone levels, and to optimize learning and dopamine levels, this feel good neuromodulator that's essential to not getting depressed, et cetera.
the pathway whereby the light stimulates the melany stimulating hormone system and in parallel stimulates the release of dopamine
it is directly related to the pathways associated with dopamine release there's a whole story there about seasonality both in humans and other animals about dopamine synthesis when we get sunlight there's elevated dopamine and serotonin and testosterone and estrogen and feelings of well-being and libido this is all well substantiated in animal models and humans
there's a study I'll link to this in the show note captions that shows that some amount of sunlight exposure to the skin this is an Israeli study where they had people you know get several tens of minutes of sunlight exposure in the afternoon during particular times of year uh they didn't have them going naked outside okay this was sort of like context and culturally appropriate um skin exposure to the upper body and to the legs could induce increases in hormones such as testosterone and estrogen which were correlated with it wasn't causal but it was correlated with improvements in mood well-being libido Etc
we know that being out in sunshine for some period of time each day as long as we don't get burned in the sun feels good why does it feel good it leads to the production of testosterone estrogen some of the endorphins that generally make us feel good
sun exposure to the skin no doubt very powerful positive modulators of certain hormone and neuromodulator Pathways such as dopamine testosterone estrogen and so forth that make people feel good and do things generally that are good for them
getting anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes of bright light exposure in your eyes early in the day it is not sufficient to do this with sunglasses unless you have to do that for safety reasons it's fine to where prescription lenses in contacts if you can't get sunlight for whatever reason you want to use bright artificial light but that is absolutely critical for timing the cortisol release properly limiting cortisol release to the early part of the day getting increases in dopamine that are going to promote the production of testosterone and estrogen to healthy levels