In the winter, when days are shorter, you have to get all the sun you can get. It doesn’t matter where you live. Whether you’re in Miami or Tamarac, natural light is always a nice addition to any home. It can help lift spirits and the atmosphere during any dark day, but the house must be constructed to let light in. What happens when this perfect balance is met?
Brightening Your Mood
Description: Mother and child sitting in a naturally lit living room with smiles on their faces. Image via Unsplash.
You might notice your mood change when you peel away the curtain in the morning from the bay window. Natural light encourages greater serotonin production, making people feel happier almost instantly.
The sun’s warm hue gives any room a distinctly comforting feel, easing your mind and promoting relaxation. The warmth is also soothing.
2. Opening Up the Space
Description: Modern, minimalist living room and kitchen with white furniture and bright light. Image via Unsplash.
Brighter spaces feel larger because the sun plays delightful tricks on the mind. The light bounces off every corner of the room, highlighting your interior’s different colors and textures. Rooms can feel smaller if you overcrowd them with furniture and decorations, but even natural light will make them feel more spacious. You can see down long hallways without issue, making spaces feel less cramped. Consider how dim light shortens your field of view and blankets rooms in shadow.
3. Making You Healthier
Description: Person waking up as the sun enters the room. Image via Unsplash.
Natural light is like nature’s multivitamin. It improves numerous bodily functions in addition to mood-boosting for your mental health.
Vitamin D
Sunlight is a wonderful source of vitamin D, which boosts your health in countless ways. It keeps teeth and bones strong, regulates calcium and phosphate and staves pesky colds.
Sleep Quality
Have you ever wondered why waking up gradually is easier if the room is well-lit? Morning light tells your body to stop making melatonin — the hormone that helps you fall asleep at night. Your eyes detect how the room progressively gets brighter, waking up the brain. Many alarm clocks attempt to simulate this effect because your circadian rhythm benefits.
Eye Health
Your eyes strain themselves to see things in low or artificial light. They work particularly hard to take in the blue light from computer and television screens. After a while, they hurt or feel dry. Natural light is much gentler, so you'll see more clearly if you rely on it as much as possible.
Immune System
Bacteria have a hard time existing in sunlit environments. This means your exposure to health-compromising factors decreases the more time you spend in naturally lit rooms. Doctors have leveraged this knowledge to create an entire treatment type. Photoimmunology puts patients under ultraviolet light to increase resistance against illnesses.
4. Boosting Property Value
Description: Living room with blue and white furniture shines with light from glass side door. Image via Unsplash.
Sunlight has an inarguable aesthetic appeal that plays to any home seller’s advantage. Everything looks richer, including polished hardwood floors to joyful woven textiles throughout the home. Real estate agents and interior designers alike tell people to manipulate the light in their home to make it worth more on the market — even during the winter months.
5. Inspiring Productivity
Description: Person works from home on their laptop next to a window with a view of trees. Image via Unsplash.
If you work from home, test what it feels like to be in an office with closed curtains versus an open-floor-plan living room with massive windows. You’ll notice a difference because sunlight makes you feel more awake and motivated to be productive. When it’s dark outside, leisure mode kicks in, and you start feeling sleepy as your natural biology prepares you for sleep.
6. Saving Money Through Efficiency
Description: Gold and red lights hang from the ceiling. Image via Unsplash.
Daylighting is a strategy recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency as a way to reduce energy bills. The more you let natural light into your home, the less you rely on electricity. In winter, focus on south-facing windows that will allow warmth during the sun’s peak hours.
Say Goodbye to Winter Woes
Description: Two people sitting on a bed with a dog near a well-lit window. Image via Unsplash.
Allowing natural light into your home allows you to feel good no matter the season. Consider window treatments, sunrooms, skylights, or other ways you can soak up rays even in the mild, chilly winter months of southern Florida.
