For many of us during this time in quarantine a walk around the neighborhood or at a local park has become a ritual. Before quarantine, the average amount of time I spent outside a day was pitiful: around 5 minutes. This mostly came from my walk to and from the bus stop, and I generally dreaded even that short period of exerting energy.
But now being outside has become somewhat of a biological need for me.
I try to go on a walk every day, and on the days I don’t, I find myself being noticeably more irritable and anxious.
I wanted to delve into some of the short and long-term benefits of being outside; something that most of us find ourselves doing more of these days.
One of the main ways in which spending more time benefits health is in its ability to help normalize one’s sleep schedule and promote deeper sleep. Exposure to sunlight, especially early in the day, targets tiny cells in our eyes that help kickstart our body’s natural clock. This aids in setting one’s sleep schedule.
Another way in which being outside is essential to one’s health is that it aids in the uptake of Vitamin D. Vitamin D aids the body in synthesizing calcium and phosphorus, which are integral in helping our bodies develop and maintain strong bones and teeth.
In addition, Vitamin D plays a large role in regulating our moods. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to long and short-term depression. Spending around 10-15 minutes out in the sun per day should allow your body to produce an adequate amount of Vitamin D, which can only be synthesized in the presence of sunlight.
Further, spending time outside, especially in “green spaces,” is linked to decreased levels of cortisol in the body, a stress-inducing hormone. Conversely, spending time outside boosts levels of serotonin, a chemical associated with happiness and well-being, in the body.
Interestingly enough, spending time outside is also linked to improved immune function. Plants and trees emit substances called phytoncides that have antibacterial properties into the air. Phytoncides can be picked up by us through the air, and can bestow upon us some degree of bacterial-resistance.
Further, exposure to sunlight helps boost the activity of T cells, which serve to kill and help the body recognize pathogenic cells in the body’s adaptive immune response. All the more reason to add a walk in the park to your to-do-list during this pandemic. In addition, spending time outside can increase the diversity of the body’s microbiome, the host of living organisms within us whom we are engaged in a mutualistic relationship with, and can aid in fighting off pathogens.
Being outside has proven to be so beneficial to human health that it has become almost medicinal. Some doctors and therapists are so convinced of the health benefits of the practice that they have begun writing “nature prescriptions,” where they instruct patients to spend a certain chunk of time in nature.
Further, practices such as “forest bathing,” which originated in Japan and consists of individuals basking in the shade of a forest, have popularized around the world for their supposed long and short-term health benefits.
As students across the country launch into summer, they should take advantage of the longer, emptier days and take time to explore nature’s playland. Who knows: It might do them a little good.
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