Living a healthy, balanced life may be a lot more difficult than we think. Although we get in our exercise in a few times per week, eat balanced meals, and get the proper sleep we need to perform the next day, there’s one large factor still missing. Sunlight! The lack of natural light in one’s life can seriously affect many people without them even realizing the cause of their suffering. Over 17 million Americans suffer from depression due to a number of different reasons such as a death in the family, excess stress, or a major lifestyle change, among others. Sometimes depression and other mental disorders can be the result of excessive wear and tear on the body such as falling into a boring, daily routine or feeling dissatisfied with one’s work performance or potential.

Seasonal affective disorder, a major type of depression, is very common among adults that live in an environment where weather patterns change from warm and sunny to cold and dreary. The natural light from the sun is required for every living thing on the planet. Sunlight nourishes our bodies by synthesizing the Vitamin D we need to strengthen and support our immune system. While we are able to get only a fraction of the necessary level of Vitamin D in our bodies through food, it isn’t as easy as giving our skin a short amount of sun exposure each day.

Of course during the fall and winter months in some areas throughout the United States, the sun may not show for weeks at a time. A great way to receive the Vitamin D levels we need to stay healthy is by using full spectrum lighting, a source of indoor lighting that is designed to mimic natural sunlight. Light therapy mainly uses LED and fluorescent lights, a bright light source that has been shown to help ease sufferers of seasonal affective disorder and depression. Natural sunlight is crucial to our everyday health and it’s important to take the proper measures during those dark, chilly months of winter so that we can keep our body’s mental and physical strength up to par.