10,000 Lux Light Panel

“Since I wake up before sunrise, I use a 10,000 lux light for 6 min to simulate natural morning light. This helps to support my circadian rhythm (body clock).”

“The first thing I do in the morning, I wake up around 5:00 or 5:30 naturally every day, is I turn on 10,000 lux, and I do that for a few minutes. It tells my body, ‘You're awake. The day is beginning.’ It helps with mood, it helps with energy, and again, it tells the body, ‘We get up at this time, and now we're up.’”

“Now, if you need to get more light in your eyes because indeed there's just not enough sunlight or you don't have the opportunity to get outside and view sunlight in the morning for whatever reason, you might invest in getting a bright light source that you can plug in. You probably want one that's as bright as 10,000 lux, so that's pretty bright. Those fall under the category of so-called SAD lamps, S-A-D, seasonal affective disorder lamps.”

“And you can put that on your desk or where you have your morning coffee and try and enhance the total amount of light that you're getting in the morning. But frankly, nothing is as good as sunlight. So if you can't get sunlight, you might think about investing in one of those SAD lamps. And indeed, those SAD lamps aren't as good as sunlight, but they are the next best thing if you really can't get sunlight on a consistent basis.”

“But certainly, morning sunlight viewing and lamps of the sort I just described have been shown to increase the amplitude of the morning cortisol spike by as much as 50%, five zero. So people hear cortisol and they freak out. They think, ‘That's not good. I want my cortisol low.’ But you actually want your cortisol highest in the morning and lower in the afternoon and evening.”

“One of the most powerful steps here, I've talked about for many years, is getting early-morning bright-light exposure. You want to get that bright-light exposure within at least 30 minutes after you wake up. This is very important because it resets your circadian rhythm. This is the internal clock that helps you fall asleep naturally at night.”