Why View Sunlight Right After Waking Up?

Andrew Huberman says light viewing behavior has perhaps the strongest effect on levels of alertness and on the capacity to fall asleep and get a good night's sleep. Every cell in the body needs information about time of day.

The central circadian clock is a collection of neurons over the roof of the mouth, the suprachiasmatic nucleus. The clock informs every cell in the body about time of day, but the clock sits deep in the brain and has no access to light. Melanopsin ganglion cells, neurons in the back of the eye, tell the central clock when it is daytime and when it is night. The eye is part of the brain outside the skull.

Andrew Huberman believes everybody should view sunlight for two to ten minutes every morning upon waking, including many blind people.