Elemental Light Week
In Praise of Morning Light
Why early sunshine is a cure-all
This story is a part of Elemental Light Week, a five-day series on what light does for your body, brain, and well-being.
My toddler son had a habit of waking at 5:30 a.m. for a two-year period. In the darkness, I’d run to his crib to stop his cries, rock him back to sleep, and carefully tiptoe out of the nursery and back into my bed.
Inevitably, four hours later, my son’s cry for breakfast would tear through whatever dream I was having, and I’d bolt up, half-awake. Even though I had caught up on some much-needed late-morning sleep, it didn’t matter. For the entire day I felt like I was dreaming.
“There’s no amount of coffee that can shake me out of this stupor,” I’d text my best mom friend, who no doubt was guzzling down her third latte. “I feel like I’m watching my life happen from behind glass.”
General sleep deprivation could account for a large part of my stupor. But there was another, seemingly smaller but still significant factor: I almost never woke up with the morning light. As a new mom desperate for shut-eye…
