Lack of Sunlight Exposure Linked to Depression and Poor Sleep

Aside from getting your daily dose of Vitamin D, there is now another reason why you need to have yourself exposed to sunlight, our natural light. A new study published by Chronobiology International reveals that lack of natural light exposure increases the risk of developing depression and having poor quality of sleep.

How Stress Affects Your Brain - Madhumita Murgia

Stress isn’t always a bad thing; it can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you’re playing a competitive sport or have to speak in public. But when it’s continuous, it actually begins to change your brain. Madhumita Murgia shows how chronic stress can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions, right down to the level of your genes.

Lesson by Madhumita Murgia, animation by Andrew Zimbelman.

10 Reasons Why Nature is the Best Medicine

10 Reasons Why Nature is the Best Medicine

1. The Closer to Nature, the Healthier You'll Be
Recent studies have shown that the closer you live to nature or green spaces in general the happier you'll be.

2. Nature Changes Your Brain -- For the Better
When you take a walk in nature, electrochemical changes occur in your brain, producing calming and beneficial results.

3. Sunny Skies Give You Vitamin D...
Vitamin D is crucial to humans, helping to prevent disease and infection and improving bone health.

Sunrays provide plenty of vitamin D, so being outdoors during a sunny day can greatly improve your health.

4. ...And a Good Night's Sleep
While it may sound counterproductive, being out in the sun also helps you sleep.

Sunlight, especially in the morning, helps regulate your internal biological clock, making it much easier for you to get your needed rest when bed time rolls around.

5. The Outdoors Can Help You Kiss Your Stress Goodbye
Researchers are finding that being out in nature greatly reduces people's stress levels.

Simply taking in outdoor sights and sounds is relaxing to the body and mind, helping to decrease worry and anxiety.

6. Nature has Astounding Healing Properties
Nature has been shown to directly improve people's physical health, including patients who are recovering from a disease or illness.

Patients who are exposed to the outdoors tend to recover more quickly, use less pain medication, and have shorter hospital stays.

Now, how astounding is that?

7. Being Outside is Good for Your Mental Health
Nature can also help curb mental dieses as well, like depression, ADHD, and other psychiatric problems and illnesses.

The relaxing and calming properties of nature greatly contribute to these results.

8. More Outdoor Activity Makes for a Fitter, Healthier You
Being out in nature often involves some form of physical activity, whether it be strolling through the park, biking through the mountains, or an exciting river raft ride.

This activity both improves physical fitness and can help decrease the likelihood of obesity.

9. Nature Heightens the Senses and Memory
Spending time outdoors can also strengthen your senses and memory.

When in nature, you're exposed to plenty of sights, smells, sounds, and touches and have ample amounts of new things to take in.

These experiences help enhance all your senses, and being outdoors has also been proven to improve short term memory.

10. Happiness -- Pure and Simple
Let's face it, being in nature just makes people happier in general.

The great outdoors changes brain chemistry in a positive way, improves mood, decreases stress, provides opportunities for fun, and is simply downright beautiful.

All this ends up making for a happier and, thus, healthier you.

How Plants Tell Time - Dasha Savage

Morning glories unfurl their petals like clockwork in the early morning. A closing white waterlily signals that it’s late afternoon. And moon flowers, as their name suggests, only bloom under the night sky. What gives plants this innate sense of time? Dasha Savage investigates how circadian rhythms act as an internal timekeeper for flora and fauna alike.

Lesson by Dasha Savage, animation by Avi Ofer.

Stanford Researchers Find Mental Health Prescription: Nature

A Stanford-led study finds quantifiable evidence that walking in nature could lead to a lower risk of depression.

Get Your Daily Dose of Trees - Health Benefits Video

Trees and forests create numerous health benefits: cleaner air that lowers childhood asthma rates, less heat exhaustion due to decreased summer air temperatures, blocking UV rays that cause skin cancer, and natural calming effect that decreases stress levels and increases focus. So, get your daily dose of trees.

Nature Is Smarter Than Us

Nature is pretty damn smart. In fact, many modern technologies get their ideas from nature. Trace explores the awesome field of biomimicry.

How Sunlight Affects Your Health

One of the best known benefits of sunlight is its ability to boost the body's vitamin D supply, but what happens when you can't get outside in the sun? George Washington University's Dr. Michael Irwig explains how sunlight, or lack of it, can affect a person's health.

Get Hooked on Nature: Ben Klasky at TEDxRainier

As kids now spend more time with entertainment media, they're getting less and less time outdoors, despite the mental and physical health benefits. Ben Klasky, CEO of IslandWood, a 255-acre outdoor learning center, proposes a free and natural remedy to the physical problems kids face: the Great Outdoors.

The Healing Power Of Mother Nature That Always Gives You Mental Peace

Nature helps us cope with pain. Because we are genetically programmed to find trees, plants, water, and other nature elements engrossing, we are absorbed by nature scenes and distracted from our pain and discomfort.