Covering yourself in sunscreen and avoiding sunlight. Truth is that they’re hardly spending the same amount of time advising you off social media and blue light.

Sunlight is needed FOR BOTH MALE AND FEMALE FERTILITY, in order to turn on certain hormones within your body and gracefully balance your endocrine system and its processes.

Vitamin D which the skin synthesised from direct sunlight is of outmost importance when comes to production of both oestrogen and progesterone (in women) hence regulating their cycle. Testosterone production in men is also affected by sunlight. While nowadays considered a grandmother’s tale ‘’get some sun to regulate your periods’’ it is actually based on the fact that healthy levels of Vitamin D are directly associated with higher pregnancy rates and improvement in embryo quality. Reason why both women and men actually benefit from a proper Vitamin D conversion in terms of improved fertility!

Sunlight is also extremely important for your eyesight and what comes between – the light we expose our eyes to has a direct impact on the hypothalamus and pineal gland (glands that help our body produce melatonin). Later on the day, melatonin is released in order to prepare us for a good night’s sleep, balancing our cortisol and blood glucose levels.

Rather than giving extreme advice to avoid sunlight, I rather recommend:

• Upon waking up, make sure to get some sunlight in, while taking your coffee (as my dear husband does and records in his Instagram often @thegoldenjarl) or walking. No glasses, no sunscreen.
• Make sure to get some sun without clothes nor sunscreen, every week, couple times a week, between 8-10 in the morning for 10-20 minutes at a time depending where you are and how strong the sun is.
• Don’t miss sunsets. If possible, observe the sunset with your bare eyes while in a relaxed mood so your body understands and processes the release of melatonin.
• Avoid blue light or white light in the evening at home. Use red light, natural wax candle light or amber light.

If you’re interested in some of the the studies behind the need of Vitamin D for better chances at fertility (natural or in-vitro): PMID: 24933120, PMID: 30612423