There is nothing better than sun beams shining through your windows in the morning or evening. Natural light can reduce stress levels, improve moods and is essential to maintaining mental health and alleviating symptoms of depression and stress.

Improving the sunlight exposure in your living place is much simpler than you think; here is a list of proven strategies to increase home natural lighting.

Increased Energy Efficiency

Sunlit rooms cut home energy use: using light bulbs as your primary lighting source during the day is rarely necessary in a house with carefully considered daylighting. Day lighting cuts energy use necessitated by electric lighting to just the brief hours of dusk and dawn each day.

Vitamin D, a natural antiseptic that enables calcium uptake to support bone structure, is another important transmitter of sunlight. Sunlight induces the production of serotonin, which stabilises mood, contributes to alertness, improves focus and memory, while contributing to an overall sense of well-being.

Increasing your natural light in an apartment could be as easy as opening blinds over a window, or rearranging some furniture so sunlight can reach every foot in the room. Tall bulky furniture and curtains in a window may block sunlight from reaching a portion of the room; be careful of where you position furniture or remove unnecessary objects that may be in close proximity to the windows; the installation of mirrors can increase the amount of sunlight around a room and back into a house if they are carefully positioned; and look in to adding some mirrors if you do not have any; they can increase brightness and when you’re trying to sell a house mirrors increase the resale value because they reflect back more of it in to the outdoors! Another benefit of a metric ready house is that homes with natural lighting often sell for higher price than homes without natural lighting.

Better Sleep

Underexposure to sunlight affects the circadian rhythm, disrupting sleep and generating daytime fatigue – hence, good daytime lighting that is as natural as possible, and as little artificial light as possible at night, is one of the easiest ways to look after both your sleep and your general wellbeing.

Researchers have shown that this natural light helps to realign our other internal clocks, which help regulate our sleep-wake cycle. Daylight exposure reduces the production of melatonin – an oestrogenic hormone associated with sleep – while increasing the production of serotonin (a key neurotransmitter, linked to wakefulness and mood).

What we do know is that not getting enough indirect sunlight has negative consequences, including strained productivity. One of the top workplace perks cited by employees in a recent study by Future Workplace was natural light and views of the outdoors; bright white sunlight gives us the most ideal illumination desirable, which could lessen eye and head strains caused by a prolonged exposure to fluorescent lighting.

Reduced Stress

Sunlight isn’t just an aesthetic addition to your home, but it can also be a help for your stress levels. Since natural light is known to release serotonin, it can boost your good mood and sense of wellbeing. Being exposed to daylight at the end of a day can also help curb the eye strain caused by staring at screens or other light sources.

Plan the way that light naturally infuses your new abode in order to take advantage of daylight throughout the day: positioning the kitchen to catch the early morning sun helps me start each day in the right spirit with family breakfast, while low evening sunlight through small windows helps me end my days in a similarly soothing fashion.

Lab experiments show that exposure to sunlight can provide numerous benefits provided that it is incorporated into day-to-day life.

Improved Mental Health

Many of us already know natural light sets the mood, maximises productivity and promotes better sleep quality – let alone reduces stress – but there may be other benefits, as well, especially with one’s mental wellbeing.

Sunlight provokes a physiological response in the brain where we produce more serotonin to calm and soothe us, and thus keep our mood stable but also to reduce anxiety and stress levels. That’s why we all feel calmer when we walk into rooms with sunshine.

So, to those of you who want to fix up your ‘work out of home’ space, open up curtains and sit near windows if possible; you will likely experience profound improvements in your productive capacity and happiness overall. While many employers have been pursuing this line of thinking by providing employees with standing desks, in-office gyms and Pilates classes, simple changes such as opening curtains more often can have similarly profound effects.