Sunshine Is Medicine. We Just Need to Respect It.
I want to start by saying something that might surprise you coming from someone who works in skin health. I never thought the sun was bad. Even before I started studying light and circadian biology properly, something about the blanket & avoid the sun, wear SPF every day, stay out of the midday sun narrative never quite sat right with me. We evolved under the sun. Our bodies are designed to be in it.
How could something so fundamental to life on earth be the enemy? Then I started going deeper into my training, learning about light, circadian rhythms, the biology of UV, and everything just clicked. The sun was never the problem. Our relationship with it is.
Your Body Runs on Light
Every cell in your body has a clock. Not metaphorically literally. Your body is a circadian species and every organ, tissue and cell runs on a light and dark cycle. Bright days. Dark nights. That is the design. When you get natural light into your eyes in the first 30 to 60 minutes after waking,
your cortisol pulse fires at the right time, serotonin production kicks in, your metabolism wakes up and your body knows exactly what time it is. Better energy through the day. Better sleep at night. Skin that behaves. Hormones that feel more balanced. I have only recently started building this habit myself and I will be honest, in the middle of a British winter it is not always easy. On the darker mornings I have been using my red light panel and PEMF mat first thing instead, and the difference in how I feel has been noticeable. Sleep is better. Energy is more consistent. My skin has improved. My mood has genuinely lifted. And my hormones feel more like mine again. I am not saying this to sell you anything. I am saying it because I felt the difference and I think more women need to hear that the answer is sometimes simpler than we think.
The Sun Does So Much More Than Make Vitamin D
Most people know sunlight helps the body produce vitamin D. But there are actually over 20 metabolites of vitamin D, fat soluble and water soluble, each with different functions. A supplement gives you one of them. Real sunlight gives you all of them. This is why so many women are taking vitamin D tablets and still testing low or still feeling exhausted. UVA light, which hits the atmosphere about an hour after sunrise, triggers the release of nitric oxide in the skin. Nitric oxide dilates blood vessels, improves circulation and lowers blood pressure. It also sets off a hormone cascade that directly supports your thyroid. If you struggle with thyroid issues, that morning window of gentle sun exposure is not a nice to have. It is genuinely important. And then there is the POMC system. UV light enters through your eyes, travels to the hypothalamus and pituitary gland and triggers your body to produce melanin, your skin’s own built in protection. This is why wearing sunglasses every time you step outside can actually increase your burn risk. You are blocking the very signal that tells your skin to protect itself.
Your Body Runs on Light
Melanin is one of the most extraordinary substances your body produces. It is anti- inflammatory, anti-microbial and photoprotective all at once. And your body makes more of it in response to gradual sun exposure over time. Burning is not a sun problem. It is a tolerance problem. People who burn easily have often spent years avoiding the sun completely, so their skin never got the chance to build that protection. Start slowly. Morning light before 10am when UV is low. Let your skin adapt. Build your melanin. That is what the body is designed to do. Personally I only now apply SPF on my face if I know I am going to be in direct sun for a long period. I do not slather it on every morning as a matter of routine anymore. That feels like the right balance for me and it is a decision I made with my own biology in mind, not out of fear.
What About SPF?
I am not anti SPF. I want to be really clear about that. There is absolutely a time and a place for it, long days in strong sun, holidays, extended outdoor time. But here is something worth knowing. SPF 15 blocks at least 90% of UVB. SPF 50 blocks 98 to 99%. UVB is the only wavelength that triggers vitamin D production. Use high SPF every single day and you have effectively cut off one of your body’s most critical biological signals. Most sunscreens also block UVB while leaving UVA and blue light untouched, which is actually an unbalanced spectrum that the body was never designed to receive. Use it wisely. Do not let it replace your understanding of the sun.
Our Ancestors Already Knew This
In the early 1900s, Niels Ryberg Finsen won a Nobel Prize for using light to treat disease. Hospitals had sundecks. Patients healed under full spectrum daylight as standard practice. That knowledge did not disappear. We just stopped using it. Imagine how different our collective health would look if we had never traded sunlight for blue light screens and indoor living.
And the Dark Matters Just as Much
Bright days and dark nights. Both sides of the equation matter. Every layer of your skin is designed to repair and regenerate at night. DNA repair happens fundamentally in darkness. When you are exposed to artificial blue light from screens and overhead lighting after sunset, you suppress melatonin, disrupt that repair cycle and tell every cell in your body it is still daytime. Dimming your lights after 8pm, switching to warm amber tones in the evening and putting your phone down before bed are not just sleep tips. They are skin health habits.
Where Our Treatments Come In
At Luminate Barn we use red light therapy, near infrared light and Dermalux LED as tools to support what your body is already trying to do. Red and infrared light in particular work at a cellular level, supporting mitochondrial function, collagen production, circulation and repair. On the days when getting outside is not possible, especially through a British winter, these technologies help fill the gap. But they are not a replacement for the real thing. They work best when your foundations are already in place. Morning light. Reduced screen time at night. A body that knows what time it is. Think of the treatments as seeds and your circadian rhythm as the soil. Get the soil right and everything grows better.
The Takeaway
The sun is not your enemy. It never was. We just forgot how to work with it. Go outside in the morning. Leave the sunglasses off for the first part of the day. Build your exposure gradually. Dim your lights at night. And if you want support along the way, you know where we are. Luminate Barn. Bringing light back to the body.