Color Temperature

What sets our natural clock? It is not the passage of time, but rather the color temperature of light. We have specific receptors in our eyes that are particularly responsive to the bluish light we experience in the early morning. Exposure to even low levels of this light resets the clock, which stops the secretion of the hormone melatonin—the hormone that prepares our body for sleep. Conversely, this high color temperature light also causes our brains to release hormones like cortisol, which acts to increase alertness, stress response, and control our impulses. Throughout the day, the light gets brighter, but blue light levels decrease steadily to a warmer higher color temperature light, before sunset. This warmer light (Visible light + Infrared light) causes the brain to release melatonin to relax us and prepare our body for sleep. After sunset, the color temperature continues to rise.

We can see here the residual color temperature for different times of the day as well as man-made light sources. This is measured in Kelvin. This is not the same as nanometers which we talked about Light #1 that measures wavelength in light.

The color temperature throughout the day is always changing. When you spend too much time inside and in front of devices emitting unnatural light, you are damaging your mitochondria through many mechanisms, namely melatonin and cortisol creation and secretion.

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Again, here we are seeing how the color temperature throughout the day is changing as well as the spectrums of light. Nature does not lie nor give sympathy. Everything that exists in Nature, exists for a reason. Not only is natural lighting impossible to recreate indoors, but the artificial light man has created doubly damages human health.

Alexander Wunsch

Melatonin: the integral hormone produced in the brain that regulates our sleep-wake cycle.

Melatonin switches our body into night mode, the repair and digest mode. Mainly produced in the pineal gland as well as the eyes. Blue light at night destroys melatonin and disrupts the repair of rods and cones in our eyes.

Melatonin is our main antioxidant and antagonist for cortisol. Good melatonin levels at night support your immune system which are constantly counteracting cancerous developments. It helps lower estrogen levels.

Better melatonin levels allow your mitochondria to save ATP for the following day as body heat lowers for sleep.

Indoor Living

Being inside all day is not where the human was meant to be. Whether it be an apartment, basement, or bedroom, if there is not a serious influx of natural lighting and fresh air, you are inside a box.

What does being inside all day usually mean?

• More likely to be around technology like wifi, computers, home smart devices, printers, etc
• Obviously you are not in the sun nor exposed to natural climate
• Behind glass which creates a toxic blue light environment

Our modern world offers such comfort. The easy access to year-round air-conditioning that keeps the temperature (talking about normal temperature here) consistently at 70° F is considered a technological advancement.

It is another crutch that the average person has become so used to that thier body no longer can handle the ups and downs of the seasons. Health-wise this harms our circadian rhythm. The body needs colder temperatures to sleep at night while warmer temperatures during the day to facilitate day-time biological functions.

When you run from your natural **environment, you only make your body weaker in the long run.

Glass Windows

Glass windows turn sunlight to junk light. Glass takes out NIR and UVB light. Glass windows will increase skin cancer. It isolates UVA. - Alexander Wunsch

"Glass filters out effectively 100% UV light. Any day you spend inside a building behind glass is a day you aren't getting any UV light" - Dr. Leland Stillman

Windows are another aspect of indoor living that our modern world increasingly has normalized. Apartments, hotel rooms, business spaces, grocery stores, schools, and gyms are now giant glass boxes: no natural lighting, no fresh air, plus large artificial light fixtures.

What people don't understant is that the light coming through the glass is not the same as straight from the sun. The glass filters out several key spectrums light critical for optimal health.

This imbalance combined with the large spike of blue light in artificial indoor lighting is what really is behind so many skin issues and cancers.

Dr. Jack Kruse Insights

Light sculpts our proteins to give us the life we get. The sensor and receiver mechanism is called resonant energy transfer between light & proteins. Light is the greatest mystery of the universe. Modern medicine is almost completely blind to the power of light on biology.

So in the AM sunrise, the color temperature of light is only 1800 Kelvin, at 10 AM it is 4000 K, at solar noon it is 5500 K, at high noon (12-1:30PM) it rises to 12,000 K, and at dusk it is 16,000K. It builds as the day goes on.

Color temperature of blue light in artificial light is 4x times more than blue light in sunlight.

The photons come in all colors or frequencies because the sun’s light varies by location altitude and time of day. For example, the AM sunrise color temperature is 1800K while the sunset is 16,000K. Both contain visible and infrared sunlight. But the color temperature of solar light varies tremendously from sunrise to sunset. This is tied to the blue light present within the light. For example, at my 28 latitude in winter time we have only 13% blue light in our light but in the summertime, it rises to 26%. This has huge implications on the types of foods that can and cannot grow at times of the year. That light signal must be coherent via the skin in the eye to register properly in the gut and mitochondria. Color temperatures over 5000 K are called “cool colors” by indoor lighting convention and are bluish white, while lower color temperatures (2700–3000 K) are called warm colors which are yellowish white through red.

The benefits of being outside in Nature under sunlight can not be understated. It is paramount for our mitochondria to perform the necessary functions of life most optimally. This fuels the building blocks for elite athleticism.

The Inner Furnace and the Performance Matrix operate in tandem. When your hormones are misfiring, your connective tissue performance will degrade leading to injury and suffering.

Learning Points

• As we can now see how the color temperature of light is fluctuating all day. We now understand why modern indoor living is so alien compared to being outside all day.

• Try to get as much time as possible outside as you can. Open as many windows as possible if you are stuck inside. Of course, always turn off artificial lighting. Take off the sunglasses.

• Use natural light sources at night like fire and candle light. You can also try red lights with low flicker. Check the resources page

• Humans were designed to be outside. That is our stage, not the couch.

Sources

The human circadian system in normal and disordered sleep - PubMed

The Circadian Rhythm and Color Temperature