{"id":2176,"date":"2026-10-01T16:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pk-pharmakommunikation.de\/blog\/cloudy-days-a-tired-mind-does-a-lack-of-sunlight-actually-slow-us-down\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T16:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:08:08","slug":"cloudy-days-a-tired-mind-does-a-lack-of-sunlight-actually-slow-us-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pk-pharmakommunikation.de\/en\/blog\/cloudy-days-a-tired-mind-does-a-lack-of-sunlight-actually-slow-us-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloudy days, a tired mind: does a lack of sunlight actually slow us down?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s grey outside, and it gets dark at four. Why on earth does it take me three attempts to remember the name of the colle\u00adague I\u2019ve been bumping into in the coffee kitchen for the past three years? Is it down to me \u2013 or is it October?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s now a new argu\u00adment in favour of the \u2018autumn excuse\u2019. Rese\u00adar\u00adchers at the Univer\u00adsity of Edin\u00adburgh have inves\u00adti\u00adgated whether the amount of sunlight has a short-term effect on our mental perfor\u00admance. To do this, they linked data from two large British cohorts with the level of suns\u00adhine on the day of a cogni\u00adtive test and the day before. Results from tens of thou\u00adsands of adults and young people were included in the analysis.<\/p>\n

Words: yes; numbers: no<\/strong><\/p>\n

When there was more suns\u00adhine on those two days, perfor\u00admance actually improved. In adults, this included, amongst other things, imme\u00addiate and delayed recall of words, as well as verbal fluency. In adole\u00ads\u00adcents, corre\u00adla\u00adtions were observed in reading compre\u00adhen\u00adsion and maths. Ironi\u00adcally, however, no effect was observed in adults when it came to number sequences. Appar\u00adently, at least this part of the brain is not affected by the weather.<\/p>\n

The corre\u00adla\u00adtions were stron\u00adgest when there was low levels of sunlight \u2013 as is typi\u00adcally the case in winter and, to some extent, in autumn. At higher levels, the curve levelled off. So more suns\u00adhine did not make the brain perform better indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Light on for the brain?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And why does light help, then? It is possible that the circa\u00addian rhythm, mood and the release of nitric oxide \u2013 which also plays a part in regu\u00adla\u00adting cere\u00adbral blood flow \u2013 all play a role. Vitamin D, on the other hand, is not a very plau\u00adsible expl\u00adana\u00adtion for an effect occur\u00adring within a few days.<\/p>\n

Please note: this is an obser\u00adva\u00adtional study and does not prove that a walk in the suns\u00adhine imme\u00addia\u00adtely gets the brain working at full speed. However, it does provide a deci\u00addedly health-promo\u00adting working hypo\u00adthesis for the autumn: if nothing is working out today, perhaps you should just get out for a bit. And then maybe check that last set of figures you typed up in the office one more time.<\/p>\n

Stevenson A & Dibben C. Acute lack of sunlight expo\u00adsure is asso\u00adciated with poorer cogni\u00adtive test perfor\u00admance: evidence from two national cohorts in the United Kingdom. Photo\u00adchem Photo\u00adbiol Sci 2026.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s grey outside, and it gets dark at four. Why on earth does it take me three attempts to remember the name of the colle\u00adague I\u2019ve been bumping into in the coffee kitchen for the past three years? Is it down to me \u2013 or is it October? There\u2019s now a new argu\u00adment in favour [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en"],"yoast_head":"\nCloudy days, a tired mind: does a lack of sunlight actually slow us down? • PK Pharmakommunikation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pk-pharmakommunikation.de\/en\/blog\/cloudy-days-a-tired-mind-does-a-lack-of-sunlight-actually-slow-us-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cloudy days, a tired mind: does a lack of sunlight actually slow us down? • PK Pharmakommunikation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s grey outside, and it gets dark at four. 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