Little Step No. 15
What to do:
Spend 10 minutes outdoors in daylight, as early as possible each day.
Why this step works:
This little step is inspired by the brightening days, and the power of small changes to support your body’s natural circadian rhythms.
Your body can’t get all of its daily jobs done at once. And just like you might schedule your day's tasks, every different biological function works best at its own specific time too. This timing is controlled by internal circadian rhythms and just like an orchestra, health is optimised when these are all in tune. When even just one rhythm is knocked off balance, health can start to suffer.
To help keep these rhythms aligned, every cell contains a circadian clock and collectively, these are controlled by a ‘master clock’. We now know that the ‘master clock’ takes cues from light and dark to turn certain biological processes on or off.
Light exposure early in the morning tells our bodies it is time to be awake. Whereas darkness in the evening signals sleep time. It takes a lot of light however for our master clock to receive the signal, so bright outdoor light is much better than artificial indoor lighting for properly activating a daytime state of energised wakefulness. And circadian rhythms love consistent daily routines so this little step works even better if you stick to the same time each day. Little Step No 15 has the power to impact your energy levels, sleep quality and overall health.
Just 10 minutes of outdoor light as early as possible each day. A very simple, yet incredible little step x
“I’ll tell you how the sun rose. A ribbon at a time.”
Emily Dickinson