Did you know that the average person spends around 22 hours per day indoors? We may not get enough natural light, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need it. One of the best ways to ensure you get plenty of access to the sun’s rays is by bringing them indoors by building a sunroom.
Why is embracing natural sunlight in-home living spaces so important? Here are a few things that inviting sunlight into your home can accomplish:
Improve your mental health
Exposure to natural sunlight plays a key role in our mental health. Sun exposure can help increase our energy, enhance feelings of contentment and even alleviate pain. It’s all about serotonin production — serotonin, which doctors sometimes call the “happy hormone,” is produced by your brain when sunlight enters your eyes and cues a specific part of your retina that then cues your brain to produce serotonin. It’s crucial for mood, sleep, brain function, and even digestion.
Human beings need light to feel like our best selves — it’s also a reason that so many of us feel down in the wintertime when the days are shorter. Adding a solarium or a sunroom gives you the opportunity to enjoy the sun’s full benefits year-round from indoors, regardless of the weather outside.
Improve your physical health
Sunlight impacts more than just your brain. Exposure to natural light is instrumental in your body’s production of Vitamin D. Your skin makes Vitamin D when it’s exposed to the sun, which influences more than 200 genes in your body including those in your bones, intestines, and cardiovascular systems. Vitamin D also plays a crucial role in your immune system — sunlight helps activate your T-cells, which your immune system relies on to attack foreign pathogens.
Research additionally shows that natural light can help reduce your blood pressure, which in turn reduces your risk of heart attack and stroke.
And even if that’s not enough, having plenty of natural light in your home can even improve your eyesight. By relying on natural light to read and function, instead of harsh fluorescents, you can promote healthy eye development in kids and reduce their odds of nearsightedness,
Stabilize your sleep schedule
Feeling groggy after the time change? Exposure to natural light can help establish and cement your circadian rhythm by sending clear signals to your body and brain about when it’s time to wake up and when it’s time to sleep. Your inner clock relies on external stimuli to instruct your brain on how to feel. Out of the many benefits of sunlight in home spaces, one of the most immediate and enjoyable effects will likely be its impact on your sleep cycle.
Give your plants an environment to thrive
Your plants are just like you — in order to feel their best, they need plenty of sunlight. In order to trigger photosynthesis, aka the process by which they convert water and sunlight into food, there has to be enough natural light. Cultivating indoor plants can get tricky, especially in the colder months when shorter daylight hours cut down on the amount of light they get. The shadows get longer, too, sometimes slicing across traditional windows to eliminate sun access altogether.
Are your plants looking a little worse for the wear coming out of the winter? A sunroom is the best place to grow a plant in your home because three of its sides are constructed almost entirely of glass, offering your plant unfettered access to sunlight regardless of the time of year.
Save you money on your energy bill
Boosting the amount of natural light in your home has a happy financial side effect, too — you’ll spend less on heating and cooling.
A study published last year found that installations of skylights and sunrooms can help harness natural solar power, cutting energy use for residential heating down by around a third. Natural solar power can help make a huge dent in your monthly utility bills, as most households spend around half of their home’s energy budget on climate control. Researchers also found that windows set at a diagonal angle — unlike a traditional window set into a vertical surface — were much more effective at capturing passive solar energy.
A sunroom is an investment, but your wallet will thank you in the long run.
Increase the value of your home
Unsurprisingly, incorporating more natural light into your home makes it more attractive to prospective buyers, in no small part because of the benefits listed above. Many buyers list plenty of natural light among their top priorities when looking for a house to make their own.
The benefits of natural light in home living spaces have so many benefits, and you can get more natural light by building a sunroom. To find out more, call our team at Global Solariums at (800) 810-7666, (360) 810-7666 or email us at info@globalsolariums.com.
Global Solarium has earned its reputation as a top-quality provider of patio awnings, skylights, sunroom installs, prefab solariums, solarium kits, solarium repair services, aluminum sunroom parts, and sunroom materials. We provide dealer service for solariums near me in Portland OR, Los Angeles CA, Sacramento CA, San Jose CA, San Francisco CA, Salt Lake City UT, Seattle WA, and Spokane WA.