Morning Sun: What Huberman gets Wrong
I spend 6-8 hours outside every day. Here's why.
Hi, I’m Aastha and thanks for joining Live Longer World as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. On my health stack, you can see my exact collection of non-toxic health products I use (12 categories including sleep, fitness, clean water, lighting, air quality, non-toxic kitchen).
“View morning sunlight to set your circadian rhythm” has become common health advice, popularized by influencers like Andrew Huberman and Bryan Johnson. They’re wrong. It misses how our circadian clocks actually work.
Circadian rhythm is not just about viewing morning sunlight. Our body clock doesn’t start in the morning and keep running smoothly on its own. It needs cues and signals throughout the day.
I spend 6 to 8 hours outside every day. Morning sun is 2 hours of that. The rest of the day matters just as much.
Why does circadian rhythm alignment matter?
Circadian rhythm is not just your body’s internal clock to keep time. It’s what powers the timing of your hormones, metabolism, immune system, gut cells, and every cell in your body. If there is disruption to your circadian alignment, the coordination between cells and hormones breaks down. It results in different cells working per their own timing without coordinating with each other. Your body begins to function like a discordant orchestra - cells don’t work in harmony with each other and create a noisy machine. Brain fog, trouble falling asleep, poor digestion could all result from circadian misalignment. It’s not just about giving your body the right signals, it’s about the right signals at the right time.
There’s a reason night shift workers have higher rates of breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. It’s because their circadian timings are out of tune with how we evolved.
Circadian rhythm beyond morning sunlight
Viewing morning sunlight is sub-optimal advice on its own. Circadian rhythm alignment is about viewing the sunrise, getting ample afternoon sunlight, not using the wrong artificial lights at night, not eating out of sync with daylight, exposing your skin and eyes to sunlight, hydrating well, having good melatonin production, and going to bed by the right time.
Here is the full protocol I follow, sunrise to sleep. Skipping any of it disrupts your circadian rhythm.
Sunlight activates your master clock. We have a master circadian clock in the brain called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN). Its activation is the most potent signal that the day has started. And it is activated by light, more specifically by full-spectrum sunlight. If your SCN does not get its sunlight cue, your body doesn’t fully know the day has begun. It will function sluggishly the rest of the day. Missing the morning sun is like driving a car with a broken engine. It’ll chug along but very sub optimally.
