The amount of light a human is exposed to outside is 116 times more than inside with artificial light. Even sitting under a tree, a human is exposed to 50 times more light than sitting inside with artificial light. And again, for most of human history, there was no “inside” or artificial light. For almost the entirety of evolution, our eyes received almost zero light when the sun was down and significantly more when the sun was up. We have photoreceptors (light-sensitive cells) in our retinas that receive, are stimulated by, and react to a particle of sunlight. When photons enter the eye, they help regulate stress, energy levels, and hunger for the day. If you put any animal in a cage with processed food and low sunlight, they will quickly go crazy. I am increasingly beginning to think this is happening to us at scale. I have always been an inside person, but I am trying to get me (and my son) outside every morning.
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Calley Means 