How roof lanterns can improve your health

Choosing an Aliwood roof lantern as an addition to your property will help bathe your home in natural light and improve the health of you and your family in the process. Here at Aliwood - manufacturers of premium, bespoke roof lanterns in Essex, we have compiled a list of roof lantern health benefits, so you can learn why they have such a positive impact on life.

We could all do with having a bit more natural light in our lives. After all, the health benefits of regular exposure to sunlight are well documented and plentiful. For example, sunlight and darkness trigger the release of serotonin and melatonin, which boost your mood and help you sleep. You may think that the easiest way to get exposed to more sunlight is standing outside for 15 minutes and basking in the sun rays. However, there are a number of other simple ways you can ensure you let more sunlight into your life.

Mental Health Matters

The importance of mental health has become increasingly prevalent during recent years, and rightly so; an estimated 1 in 6 people in the UK regularly experience a common mental health problem like depression or anxiety. Studies have shown that the more natural sunlight we’re exposed to, the more serotonin we produce. This is important because serotonin is the brain’s mood-lifting chemical. Therefore, the more natural light you’re exposed to, the better you will feel mentally.

Enhanced exposure to natural light is also thought to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and will drastically help those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder (of which 1 in 15 people in the UK suffer with). Our roof lanterns’ expansive dimensions ensure you’re maximising the amount of natural light entering your house. With an increase in natural sunlight, you are bound to see a boost in your family’s mood as well. Not only that, but with more natural light, you’re likely to get more done. Studies have found that employees who work in more naturally lit conditions are more productive then their artificially lit counterparts. So, if you work from home and your office feels a bit dark, then roof lights offer an ideal way to brighten it up and kick-start your work once more.

Even when the weather isn’t sunny, though, there are still be benefits to having a roof lanterns installed in your home. Being inside the house whilst a storm rages on outside helps contribute to a feeling of hygge. Hygge is the Danish term for warmth, cosiness and safety that has taken over the self-help shelves over the past few years. A strong feeling of hygge is thought to equate to a strong and contented satisfaction within your life.

Good Physical Health

It isn’t just your mental health that benefits from increased exposure to natural light, your physical health does too. Exposure to sunlight helps your skin to absorb vitamin D, a key vitamin in regulating the amounts of calcium and phosphate in the body. With an absence or lack of vitamin D in the body, it can lead to poor bone health and density, and conditions such as rickets in children, and osteomalacia in adults.

Studies have shown that those who live in sunny areas or who get regular access to natural light are less prone to developing arthritis, again, unsurprisingly given vitamin D’s importance for skeletal health. Therefore, having roof lanterns installed helps reduce all of these risks for you and your family.

Getting Enough Sleep

Your circadian rhythm. That’s the term for your body’s daily 24-hour (roughly) cycle that dictates a huge number of your body’s functions. One of these being sleep. Regular exposure to natural light helps maintain your body’s circadian rhythm and helps keep your sleep pattern stable. On the flipside, however, an absence of natural light, or too much artificial light, can disrupt your sleep pattern massively and impact adversely on your mental health. It’s especially important, therefore, given today’s world of constant artificial light from phone screens and office jobs sat in front of computers, that you get your natural light where you can. Aliwood roof lanterns are ideal for kitchens, living rooms and home office spaces where families tend to spend most of their time.

In an increasingly claustrophobic, insular and isolated world (a modern-day irony given how increasingly connected we all supposedly are), natural light has never been more important. Aliwood’s roof lanterns aren’t just beautiful, they’re beneficial and provide untold value to you and your family.

If you would like to find out more information about our bespoke roof lanterns in Essex, with delivery and installation options offered nationwide, then get in touch today by calling us on 01245 967107 or email info@aliwood.co.uk.