If you study all the major religions of the world, you will notice a common theme. They all place a spiritual significance on the morning. I can think of no better example of this than my trip to The Holy Mountain in Northern Greece, which is the largest monastic community on Earth, made up of Christian monks who have given up their lives and personal possessions to serve God.
There are many aspects that make The Holy Mountain unlike any other place on the planet, including the fact that they are the only state in the world that still operates in Byzantine time. This is why the monastery is also called The Land Frozen in Time. The monks believe that humans have a divine connection to sunlight, and as such they go to sleep at sunset, and wakeup at sunrise every day. They believe this is the sleep schedule humans were intended to have. When I visited this meant that we had to go to bed at around 8:00pm and wake up at 4:00am every morning for Church service. There was something very emotionally grounding of having your schedule revolve around the Sun, I mean after all our entire planet revolves around the Sun so why shouldn’t our sleep schedules?
In addition to the spiritual significance of the sun, there has been a lot of scientific research into the biological effect that sunlight has on our mood and cognitive processing.
Researchers discovered that the amount of sunlight on any given day has an impact on the serotonin turnover in the brain, independent of the season. Additionally, serotonin levels were higher on sunny days than they were on gloomy or overcast days. In actuality, the amount of time spent in strong sunlight was directly correlated with the rate of serotonin generation in the brain. Serotonin levels were unrelated to any other atmospheric factors. According to the researchers, this study clearly demonstrates how the amount of sunlight present in an area impacts serotonin levels in healthy persons. However, further study is required to determine whether environmental factors also have an impact on people who are prone to SAD.
