Nothing else like it.
This is our best advice for getting the most out of Sunday. It’s an entirely new category of indoor light - following these tips will unlock the health benefits of bright light.
These six tips are based on research and our own experience living with Sunday. You can read our more in-depth look at light and health here ⇗
Prioritize bright blue light when you first wake up.
The body has a daily internal cycle called the circadian rhythm that dictates when we are naturally inclined to sleeping or waking. Keeping your actual schedule in sync with your circadian rhythm can have a huge impact on your body and mind. (Impacts on mental health due to light exposure typically relate to Seasonal Affective Disorder, which we discuss here ⇗.)
Research shows that the most effective time to use light to improve your health and mood is when you first wake up. ⇗ This is when your body is most sensitive to bright blue light. Imagine the feeling of stepping out into morning sunshine - your body is also responding subconsciously to this input.
Unlike the other points here, this might feel unintuitive to you at first. If you’re not a morning person, you might find that Sunday’s brightest settings are adding to the challenge of getting out of bed! In the long run, it will help. Ease into Sunday, but push yourself to get the most out of the light by using the highest levels you can.
Keep using the light throughout the day.
Light has less of an impact on your circadian rhythm during the day. However, being exposed to bright, high quality light can also have immediate positive effects on your body and cognition. ⇗ These are quite intuitive: you should feel more awake, alert, and focused if sitting in bright, high quality light.
Brighter and bluer light will have more of an impact on your body and your perception of wakefulness. This two-part influence of light - power and spectrum - is captured by the concept of ‘circadian stimulus’. ⇗
Use low, warm light in the evening, but don’t be afraid of bright light in the afternoon.
Somewhat counterintuitively, research has also shown that getting a “dose” of bright light in the afternoon will also help maintain your circadian rhythm and prevent against the distrusting effects of light exposure later in the evening. ⇗ In practice, this might mean sitting directly under the light for another 30 - 60 minutes right around sunset.
Bright light will activate your body’s natural signals to wake up regardless of the time of day. ⇗ For this reason, it’s important not to use Sunday’s higher power output and cooler light settings in the evening, and especially within three or four hours of your bedtime. Consider setting the light to its warmest, lowest output during the evening.
Use Sunday to adjust your rhythm when travelling.
Jet lag is a familiar and uncomfortable feeling for anyone who travels across timezones. By anticipating timezone differences before you travel and when you return, you can prepare your body clock for these changes, and alleviate some of the tiredness and asynchronicity that results. ⇗
For example, if travelling west from London to New York City (where the local time is 5 hours earlier):
Over three days leading up to your departure, wake up and stay up an hour later each day. If you normally wake at 7 am, move to 8 am and get some bright light; leave the light on its higher power, cooler settings an hour later into the afternoon and early evening. Go to bed at 1 am, rather than 11pm; then wake at 9 am the next day, and continue this schedule shift.
You can do the opposite when travelling to the East.
Create an
endless summer.
In winter, the days can be many hours shorter, which naturally affects our circadian rhythm. (In London, for example, at 51 degrees above the equator, this effect is significant: the longest day of the year is nearly nine hours longer than the shortest.)
Despite the shorter days and earlier sunsets in winter, you can explore keeping your light on as late as you would during the summer, giving your body signals that the days are longer than they are. In practice, it’s advisable to experiment with this cautiously, as maintaining a consistent light rhythm is crucial to avoiding regular ‘artificial jet lag.’
Trust your
intuition.
Using Sunday will naturally feel good. Trust the signals you receive from your body.
You can also reach out to us with any questions or further thoughts - we’d love to hear from you.