Fun in the Sun

Here in the sunny state of Colorado, the weather is brightening up with some warmer spring days. It’s the time of year when the natural world seems to be embracing new beginnings and new life. With all this newness and freshness around us, some of us may start to feel an impulse to get outside and enjoy the beauty of nature a bit more. And if we choose to follow this impulse out into the great outdoors, we can reap the mental health benefits of sunshine, vitamin D, and good old fresh air.

A recent narrative review of the research literature in this area noted that: “Patients hospitalized for severe depression recover more quickly in sunny versus poorly lit rooms,” and that subjects’ circadian rhythms (i.e., sleep patterns) are adversely affected by insufficient exposure to daylight from windows (Bertani, et. al, 2021). These same researchers reported on a study in which it was found that direct sunlight exposure “was correlated with lower levels of anxiety,” while indirect sunlight exposure, (e.g., through windows) “was correlated with lower levels of depressed mood” (Bertani, et. al, 2021).

Another recent narrative review found a correlation between vitamin D levels (produced by the body’s exposure to sunlight) and depression (Menon, et. al., 2020). And a study published in 2021 found that adolescents participating in outdoor activities “reported smaller declines in subjective well-being” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, it may be that some of us didn’t really need a team of researchers to tell us that getting outside can be good for our mental health; after all, experience teaches that sometimes the best medicine on a hard day can be taking a 10 minute stroll around the block. But even so, it never hurts to have a little science backing up our common sense intuitions about these things.

References

Bertani, D. E., De Novellis, A. M. P., Farina, R., Latella, E., Meloni, M., Scala, C., ... & Ferrari, S. (2021). “Shedding Light on Light”: A Review on the Effects on Mental Health of Exposure to Optical Radiation. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1670.

Jackson, S. B., Stevenson, K. T., Larson, L. R., Peterson, M. N., & Seekamp, E. (2021). Outdoor activity participation improves adolescents’ mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2506.

Menon, V., Kar, S. K., Suthar, N., & Nebhinani, N. (2020). Vitamin D and depression: a critical appraisal of the evidence and future directions. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 42(1), 11-21.

Stacy Sheridan