Absence of solar. The most cloudy cities in Russia

All living things on Earth, including humans, are constantly under the influence of our heavenly body - the Sun. And, despite all the benefits of civilization we have achieved, first of all, electricity, we still get up and fall asleep according to the Sun. Our rays also depend on it. general well-being and just a state of mind. This is most noticeable in those periods when, for the sake of economic gain, we are forced to move the clock forward or backward an hour. or in winter time of the year. Many of us immediately feel the consequences of such changes.

How does sunlight affect human health?

The most valuable thing that gives sunlight to a person is ultraviolet. It makes our immune system- but, just in the autumn- winter period many begin to get sick when there is little light. During these same dark seasons of the year, many people gain excess weight, since the lack of ultraviolet radiation negatively affects our metabolism. In winter, people are more sleepy and indifferent, and in summer, on the contrary. Because bright sunlight increases efficiency, and its lack lowers it.

The lack of ultraviolet radiation also affects our skin. For example, in winter, with low light, the skin begins to itch and peel off. This happens due to a violation or cessation of the formation of vitamin D in the body.

In winter, more than ever, holes in the teeth begin to form.
There is even an opinion that the lack of sunlight has a bad effect on human vision.

How to make up for the lack of sunlight for a person?

1. In order to feel better in winter and autumn, first of all, you need to take walks on fresh air during daylight hours. To make up for the lack of sunlight, it is enough to walk for 10-15 minutes about twice a week, exposing your face and hands to the sun if possible. It is worth saying that tanning in a solarium can in no way help a person make up for this deficiency, because in a solarium, instead of a real sun, it is artificial.

2. A good way to deal with the lack of sunlight is to keep your home clean. For example, dirty windows delay entry sun rays indoors by 30%. Therefore, keep your windows clean. Tall flowers on the windowsill take on about 50% of the sun. So, you need to place them in some other way.

3. Eat in winter so that your body receives enough vitamin D. Eat plenty of fatty fish, such as salmon. Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, it helps the heart and is able to suppress various inflammations. But at the same time, do not forget to walk, because this vitamin is absorbed only under the influence of sunlight.

4. Activity hormone - serotonin, replenish with food. Eat more dark chocolate (but not at night), pineapples, apples, bananas and plums.

5. If in winter you often want to sleep during the day, then it is better to succumb to this temptation. If possible, get some sleep (15-20 minutes). This can be done even on the desktop. Such a short sleep can perfectly restore strength. Also try to be distracted from any work for five minutes per hour.

6. In winter, very often we are accompanied by a breakdown. You need to deal with it with physical activity, since experts say that this problem often occurs due to lack of movement. During physical work or exercise increases the production of hormones. So, for example, exercising physically for about half an hour a day, you can increase the concentration of happiness hormones by 5-7 times.

So, the cleanliness of the home, walks in the fresh air in daytime, exercise stress, timely sleep, and balanced diet will help you fight the lack of sunlight in winter and survive the winter without health problems.

Here comes last month winters. In many ways, it is the hardest. On the one hand, it's still cold. On the other hand, this is still a very dark month, and people are noticeably tired of this darkness, which is seriously injurious to health. Residents of northern countries have long known about this, but now they have begun to talk about the problem of light deficiency in relatively southern Britain.

Polls have shown that about half of Britons believe they have little natural light in their workplace. They are burdened by the fact that they come and / or leave work at night. All this is not a joke - this is the loss of millions of hours of working time per year due to an ailment called "seasonal affective disorder» (SAD).

Living in the dusk

The fact that the northern climate with its lighting conditions leaves a special imprint on human health has long been known. Back in the 6th century, descriptions of Scandinavia spoke of the gloominess of the locals. Many have heard a line from Petrarch, who lived in the 14th century: "Where the days are cloudy and short, a tribe will be born that does not hurt to die." For the inhabitants of Italy, both the south of Britain and Denmark are already a cold and dark North.

By and large, the point here is not the temperature, although this is also important, namely the “north” of residence. The further north, the shorter the days in winter, the longer the dark time of the day. By the way, London is located at the latitude of Kursk. So if in London they were already concerned about the influence of a short daylight hours to health, then the Muscovites and everyone who lives to the north, God himself ordered.

Also pay attention to the word "cloudy" in Petrarch. Low, dense, stratus clouds are a typical sign of both Russian and Scandinavian winters. This winter in Siberia is sunny, although frosty. But we don't. And these clouds reduce our daylight hours by another hour and a half. This "under the blanket" weather is simply depressing. Gray life, in a gray city, under a gray sky...

Such a color scheme acts depressingly at the subconscious level. And it's not about architecture - we miss the blueness of the sky and the light of the sun

And exactly 30 years ago, in January 1984, the phenomenon, called "Seasonal Affective Disorder" (SAD), was described by Norman Rosenthal from the National Institute mental health. He noted that the syndrome is characterized by recurring depressions that occur annually. People with SAD are sleepy, tend to overeat in general and carbohydrate foods in particular, and gain weight easily. At the same time, their condition changes with a change in the latitude of the place of residence and climate. In the worst case it might be marked decline levels of vitamin D, which leads to a weakening of the immune system, bone fragility, and a decrease in testosterone levels in the body of men, and therefore to impotence. And all these troubles due to lack of light...

The light that is not

In addition to visible light, which reaches us in winter for only 4-6 hours, its ultraviolet component is of great importance for the human body. In certain doses, ultraviolet is useful for our body: it stimulates the immune system, helps to develop valuable vitamin D. Only here is the problem - for example, in Moscow, ultraviolet does not reach the surface of the earth from about the last ten days of November until the end of January. And only now, on clear days, the detectors began to capture it, but still it is still 0 points on a special scale of UV radiation intensity.

In St. Petersburg the situation is even sadder - there " biological night” lasts from mid-October to early March. In principle, everyone can follow the situation on various meteorological sites that provide information on the intensity of the UV flux. But it's not just ultraviolet, unfortunately.

We just don't have enough light. Bright summer light. Normally for the human body (and these are southern countries), melatonin is produced in the dark, which is also called the sleep hormone, and in the daytime - serotonin, the hormone of joy and activity. This system is millions of years old, and it has the iron logic of life. Nature, however, could not take into account that we would literally run (by the standards of evolution) from southern countries to the northern limits.

As a result, both in winter and at the peak of summer in our northern latitudes, a person experiences severe stress - however, various properties. And if in the summer we only need to close the curtains tightly at night to ensure healthy sleep, then in winter everything is much worse - the mechanism of daily rhythms is completely deranged in our country. And the reason for this is the wrong lighting.

Wrong light

Ideally, we should sleep in a dark room and then spend the day in natural light. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the population lived this way, even in developed countries. However, rapid urbanization and the development of electric lighting have caused our normal circadian rhythms to break down.

We illuminate our apartments and cities by no means with natural light. Radiation in the yellow part of the spectrum does not really help the production of serotonin - this is the light of the evening, a signal that you need to get ready for bed. Lighting with incandescent or sodium lamps high pressure(street yellow-orange light) knocks them down in the morning: we start to “warm up”, and the signal is about the evening.

During the day, we can find ourselves many times in different rooms where we will use various sources light - with a maximum in both the yellow and blue parts of the spectrum. The body gets a bunch different teams and eventually starts to fade.

The issue of lighting is very important - there are still no ideal lamps. Habitual fluorescent lamps can be of a different spectrum - storekeepers often save money and buy those that are cheaper. "Daylight" lamps - long tubes - are specially marked: for example, MANUFACTURER L18W/840. 840 is good. But 640 is already a violation of the norms, the radiation spectrum is too bad. I recommend more about labeling lamps - since this topic is very extensive. I will only note that it is best to use powerful incandescent lamps (which are no longer produced), halogen lamps or lamps for lighting. good producers. Cheap consumer goods will eventually come out sideways to you. Look at your lamps - perhaps it makes sense to buy high-quality lamps yourself, because this is your health.

Light treatment

If the right light is not enough, then it must be added. This is the basis of light therapy. Finland and Sweden, which are considered among the darkest countries in the world, have long practiced enhanced lighting. To do this, install special lamps, the light of which is maximally optimized for natural. These lamps are placed at the workplace, at home, where you relax or eat, and even in a cafe - while you are meeting with friends, you are healing along the way.

In Swedish Umeå, special panels of lamps were installed even at bus stops - in order to take care of city dwellers.

However, nothing can replace natural light. Therefore, it is very important to be in the sun for at least half an hour every day, or at least an hour for a walk in cloudy weather in an open area. At the same time, the main thing here is not to walk, but to look. If you have a terrace, a balcony, large windows - move your table so that when you look up from the screen, you see the flow of daylight.

We ourselves are able to help each other. Clothing in black, gray and white only exacerbates the situation. Just in winter you should dress brightly. Particularly preferred colors are yellow, bright green, blue. Even a rich red will also be good.

The white color of the room is the basis. Now here you need to arrange and decompose bright, colorful objects.

And finally, the design of the premises. Ideal - the sea is white, which will be diluted with bright, saturated color spots. In Finland, a trend is now developing to combine bright "Mediterranean" colors in a classic white interior. A white interior is also more light for our eyes, it is an expansion of space, it is a stimulation of the whole organism.

Thus, there are quite physiological ways to deal with the SAD syndrome, which should not be underestimated. The lack of light depresses almost all functions of the body, including the destruction of the psyche. We must fight this, since there are recipes, and then the world around us and we in the world will feel much better.

Short daylight hours, vitamin C deficiency and lack of sunlight cannot but affect the well-being and condition of the body during the period winter cold. Scientists believe that, first of all, such conditions affect the change hormonal background.

This is due to insufficient production of such important hormone-like substances. V human body like dopamine (wake hormone) and melatonin (sleep hormone).

The problem is that with a shortage of sun for long period time, an incorrect ratio of these hormones can be observed: melatonin is usually produced during the winter in large numbers, while dopamine in the body is critically lacking.

This fact largely explains the reason sleepy state most people during the winter months. Activity is significantly reduced, sleep problems appear, and with a lack of sun, health and general state. People begin to get tired faster, observe apathy and depressed mood, which are often accompanied by poor performance.

In addition, as the researchers suggest, the lack of sun has an adverse effect not only on the hormonal background, but also on many other body systems. First of all, short daylight hours affect:

internal biorhythms;
natural processes of skin renewal;
immunity;
vitamin D production processes that cannot function normally with a lack of sunlight;
endocrine system;
cardiovascular system;
reproductive function.

Who suffers from sun deficiency the most?

Poor health in winter, associated with changes in hormonal levels and lack of sunlight, is most often observed in following groups patients:

elderly people;
children and teenagers;
patients suffering from chronic insomnia;
women of different ages.

Statistics show that the female population is more affected by the lack of sun than men. Increased production of melatonin and scarce state wakefulness hormone in the body also affects the sexual female hormones, so women very often face such unpleasant symptoms during the winter season as:

frequent dizziness;
headaches and migraines;
fatigue for no reason;
constant state of drowsiness;
increased appetite;
depressed psychological state;
tendency to apathetic state;
reduced performance;
excess weight gain.

How to deal with lack of sun?

Scientists advise not to despair and to seriously deal with overcoming this problem, in no case succumbing to an apathetic state. To do this, they propose to be guided by a number simple rules, which can help restore the body, even if the lack of sun has been observed for quite a long time:

Competent organization of the regime. It is necessary to go to bed and wake up at the same time each time so that the body can get used to it and no longer experience a feeling of lack of sleep. Sleep is advised by experts 1-2 hours before 12 noon.
Proper morning wake up. To make the morning rise much easier, you can use eleutherococcus, lemongrass or aralia, taking them sutra on an empty stomach. Also, in the winter season, with a lack of sun, instead of coffee, it is recommended to take drugs that can regulate the balance of melatonin and dopamine in the body. For example, drug "Melaxen" helps not only to gradually improve overall well-being, but also psychological state.
Searching for sunlight. Try to spend as much time as possible in the fresh air under the sun as soon as it comes out at the first opportunity. Some experts are convinced that the lack of sun is easily overcome by traveling to warm countries during the winter period. You can also sign up for phototherapy procedures, which will also help temporarily replace natural sunlight. For this, special white light lamps are used.
Improved mood and increased activity. Herbal preparations , which include St. John's wort, have a beneficial effect on nervous system and have an antidepressant effect.

Do not forget about taking additional vitamins with a lack of sunlight. In autumn and winter, many patients often experience beriberi. Restore your diet by focusing on orange-colored fruits and red and orange-colored vegetables.

This is most noticeable in those periods when, for the sake of economic gain, we are forced to move the clock forward or backward an hour. or during the winter season. Many of us immediately feel the consequences of such changes.

How does sunlight affect human health?

The most valuable thing that gives sunlight to a person is ultraviolet. It makes our immune system work - but, just in the autumn-winter period, many begin to get sick when there is little light. In the same dark seasons of the year, many people gain weight, because the lack of ultraviolet radiation negatively affects our metabolism. In winter, people are more sleepy and indifferent, and in summer, on the contrary. Because bright sunlight increases efficiency, and its lack lowers it.

Surely many had to feel bad in the fall just because at this time there is also a lack of sun. And this is not surprising. The fact is that in sunlight, the human body produces the hormone serotonin, and its second name is the hormone of activity. It is produced during daylight hours and is regulated by the intensity of the light. This hormone regulates our sleep and keeps us alert. Therefore, many experts suggest that the causes of most depressions are not personal problems of a person, but a simple lack of sunlight.

The lack of ultraviolet radiation also affects our skin. For example, in winter, with low light, the skin begins to itch and peel off. This happens due to a violation or cessation of the formation of vitamin D in the body.

In winter, more than ever, holes in the teeth begin to form.
There is even an opinion that the lack of sunlight has a bad effect on human vision.

How to make up for the lack of sunlight for a person?

Tip #1

Walk more. But remember: only walks during daylight hours will benefit. To gain the “solar” norm necessary for a normal existence, it is enough to expose your face and hands to the sun for 10-15 minutes a couple of times a week. By the way, it is useless to sunbathe in a solarium in order to replenish the reserves of ultraviolet radiation. The artificial sun cannot replace the real one.

Tip #2

Let the light into your home. Wash the windows (dirty ones block up to 30% of the light) and remove tall flowers from the windowsill (they take 50% of the sun's rays).

Tip #3

Vitamin D stores can be replenished with food. Chief Assistant- Fatty fish. The largest number(about 360 units per 100 g) of vitamin D is found in salmon. It is rich and Omega-3 fatty acids, which also help support heart health and suppress different kind inflammation. But even absorbing loading doses vitamin D, you need to walk - in order for it to be absorbed.

Tip #4

The activity hormone - serotonin - can also be obtained from foods. It is found in dark chocolate, pineapples, bananas, apples and plums.

Tip #5

It is useless to fight drowsiness - it is better to surrender to it. Peak drowsy state- from 13:00 to 17:00. At this time, it is better to take a nap in a chair for 15-20 minutes, and then wake up cheerful and healthy. A short rest perfectly restores working capacity. Plus, every hour you should be distracted from work and rest for 5 minutes.

Tip #6

You can enhance the synthesis of hormones with the help of physical activity - during training, their increased production occurs. Half an hour of intense physical activity increases the concentration of "happiness hormones" by 5-7 times. By the way, in the gym you can solve another winter problem - a breakdown. There is evidence that one of the reasons for this phenomenon is a lack of movement.

Lack of sunlight adversely affects:

* skin regeneration, hair growth

* mood

* immune system

* performance

* cardiovascular system

* hormonal status

Neutralize Negative consequences will help:

* walks

* sports training

* good sleep

* meals including fish, fruit and dark chocolate

It is easy to guess how to deal with the autumn-winter lack of light - flood your home and workplaces with artificial light. It is much more difficult to figure out which light to choose. It is to choose, because the days of the only possible incandescent bulbs are long gone, and different light sources have appeared on the consumer market.

I will say right away - there is no ideal among the lamps, so the choice will be very difficult.

Which light to choose?

Modern lamps give out different shades of light - from white and bluish to yellow with redness and even violet. Which light to choose? It is not simple. Natural light is the light of the sun, and it is white. But turn on the fluorescent lamp, which gives exactly White color, and many wrinkle - do not like it.

Living under eye-irritating light is also wrong. Therefore, everyone will have to make a choice on their own: either to recreate natural light, or to please their own emotional state. The choice, by the way, is great. There are lamps on the market that give out various shades light: candle flame light; dark red hue, reminiscent of the coals of a fire; the so-called daylight, or direct sunlight; White light; daylight with a touch of pure blue sky; deep blue and even purple.

Lamps

Lamps are easier to choose, because, from the point of view of health, the main requirement for a light source is a constant luminous flux. That is, the light should be even, not flashing. Only one lamp gives an absolutely even stream of light - the good old incandescent bulb. All other new types of lamps flicker.

But! It all depends on the pulse frequency. For example, Fluorescent Lamp the old model gives out 100 pulses per second, and this is very noticeable to the eye. But if the lamps give out 20 thousand pulses per second, this flicker is almost imperceptible to the eye. That is, when choosing between a fluorescent, LED or organic LED lamp, pay attention to the pulse frequency. The bigger, the better.

Amount of light

This is very important question. After analyzing the traditions and habits of lighting their homes, experts learned with regret that the majority of the population is not properly illuminated.

First of all, insufficient illumination was revealed. In order for the level of illumination to be comfortable, according to the standards it is necessary: for a room with active physical activities- 300 lx (illuminance is measured in Lux), for the dining room - 200, for the rest room - 100, for the living room - 200, for the hallway - 100, for the wardrobe, bathroom and toilet - 200, for the corridor - 100, for reading - 30– 50 (naturally, a stream of light directed at the book).

It is unusual for us to operate with such a concept as Lux, so we will translate it into more understandable values. For example, to get 200 lux of light in a room, you need about 1 incandescent bulb with a power of 60 W for every 1 square meter. How many lights are on in our rooms? 2-3, maximum 5 bulbs per chandelier. What happens if you turn on the required number of lamps? Yes, total destruction! However, their number can be reduced if you choose the right lamp.

Lamp

We choose lamps simply - which one we like, we buy one. In fact, the quality and amount of light that will be in the apartment depends on its “design”, the shape of the shades and even their color. To obtain maximum amount light, for example, from a chandelier on the ceiling, you need to select a lamp with large shades with high-quality reflectors (the best reflector is foil). In addition, colorful, painted ceiling lamps and with a large thickness of glass “eat up” the light.

Lighting in the apartment

Our home is also important for increasing the amount of light. That is, even minimal light can be enhanced with walls and ceilings.

There is only one rule here - to create as large a reflective surface as possible. It reflects white best of all, so potentially "dark" apartments should be painted in light colors - both walls, and ceiling, and floor.

By the way, about the walls. Wallpaper is better to choose not only light, but also "smooth". Mirrors can also increase the amount of light - the more of them in the rooms, the better.

By the way, if you create the most reflected light in the room, you can get another unexpected joy - visually increase the size of the home.

As for light, walls, floors and ceilings with maximum light reflection can increase its amount by up to 50%!