Outside Morning Light

Recently I've been working on methods to help with getting a good night's sleep.  While listening to a doctor speak on ways to strengthen the immune system, quality sleep was naturally mentioned.  I don't know about you, but for me that is often easier said than done.  One of the things she recommended was to get outside morning light daily.  She explained it as going outside with no glass between your eyes and the natural outdoor light (ie:  windows, sunglasses or glasses).  Ideally this should be done for 30 minutes sometime before 11:00 a.m.  Apparently this signals the brain to turn off the melatonin for 14 hours.  Melatonin is naturally released by the brain to help us sleep.  She said that it wasn't an instant fix, but with time it would help with the natural circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle).  

This sounded very logical and easy enough to do.

For the past two weeks it has become my morning routine.

Get dressed, make a cup of coffee and slip out onto the patio.

Currently the little hummingbirds are keeping me entertained.

Some days I watch larger birds glide through the skies.

This day I think they were turkey vultures.

This morning a hawk visited briefly.

September also brings another type of visitor.  Namely spiders and lots of them.  I haven't taken pictures of them as I find them to be creepy.  There is one I see every morning right in the middle of a huge web.  I keep an eye on him to make sure he stays on that web while I am outside.  One day I watched in fascination as he reeled in the entire web as he made his way up to the roof and disappeared.  Fascinating (from a distance :).

The bug in the photo above was hanging out on the patio this morning.  He is either resting in peace or just resting.  Either way he didn't move for the entire 30 minutes I was out there.  Hence the reason I got brave enough to get close enough for a photo.  I am a bit fascinated by the "camo" he is sporting and look at those huge eyes!!

The view looking toward my neighbor's yard.

Just past the last of the crepe myrtle blooms her dogwood tree is beginning to show some fall color.  A perfect illustration of summer giving way to fall.

Since beginning this practice my sleep does seem to be improving.

I plan to make it my permanent routine.

I'm usually out there between 7:30 and 8:00.  A peaceful time of day.

Breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the occasional breeze and getting up close with nature are all nice ways to begin the day.  

🌞🌞🌞

On another note:  With my return to blogging I have pretty much figured out the new Blogger changes.  The only thing that I can't figure out is why my text size seems to randomly change on it's own.  Has anybody else had that issue?

Enjoy your weekend!