Sauna Benefits Time: Why Dose Matters | LIBRARY

Video·Jesse Chappus·11 min read·February 20, 2026

Infrared light may be one of sunlight’s quiet biological signals: able to pass through clothing, reach deep tissue, and support the mitochondria that shape energy, recovery, and metabolic resilience.

Sunlight Beyond Vitamin D

Seasonal health patterns ask a larger question of sunlight. For years, much of the conversation centered on vitamin D, yet winter still shows us that sunlight carries benefits beyond one nutrient. The body responds to light as information, and infrared light is one of its quietest signals.

Photobiomodulation is the study of light influencing biology. It sounds technical, but the principle is simple: certain wavelengths of light can interact with cells in ways that support energy, repair, and resilience. The field has existed for decades, and recent research has brought it closer to daily life.

Infrared light sits just beyond the visible spectrum. You cannot see it, yet you can feel it as warmth on skin, through a jacket, or from sunlight striking a surface. It is not heat alone; it is electromagnetic radiation with longer wavelengths than visible light.

The sun sends a large share of its photons in the infrared range. Unlike ultraviolet light, these wavelengths move through the atmosphere with unusual ease, then continue through clothing and skin. Some clothing studies suggest it takes 10 to 13 layers to fully stop certain infrared wavelengths, which changes the way we think about exposure.

This matters because the atmosphere is not a uniform filter. Nitrogen, oxygen, and other molecules absorb some wavelengths while allowing others to pass through transparency windows. Astronomers use these windows to see beyond the atmosphere; your body receives light through them every clear day.

The result is precise and elegant. Sunlight travels 93 million miles, passes through selective windows in the atmosphere, then reaches the body in wavelengths that can penetrate deeply. Infrared light is not only something you feel on the surface; it is a signal the body can receive beneath it.

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The wait is over. Let's move into infrared light. Give us the 101, what it is and why it's important. Okay. We have known for a long time that there are seasonal aspects of death. We see much more deaths in the summer or in the wintertime than we do in the summertime. - There's a number of data... that came out of "COVID" that showed that even in the wintertime, the sun has benefits. So for a while, it sort of burned within me to look for... the other aspects of sunlight... that had nothing to do with vitamin D. So, sure enough, an area of study called photobiomodulation was looking into light therapy for things... And this... research has been going on for decades, but it's really picked up in the last few years. And what they have basically shown is that... infrared light, which is light that has a longer wavelength than visible light, cannot be seen...

You can feel it as heat, but it's not heat by itself. It actually is electromagnetic radiation. - The majority of the photons from the sun are actually in the infrared spectrum. That this type of light, as opposed to ultraviolet light, is very easily able to penetrate not only through the atmosphere, but also your clothes. In fact, they've done research for some types of clothing, it takes about 10 to 13 layers of clothing to fully stop this type of light... So it can go right through your clothes without a problem. It can go right through your skin and actually come out the other side. Obviously not as strong because much of it gets absorbed in the body. There's... a paper that... I would highly recommend reading two papers. One of them is called "Melatonin and the Optics of the Human Body." That's by "Russel Reiter" and "Scott Zimmerman." And another paper that was put out last year by "Glen Jeffery" and "Robert Fosbury," who looked at a similar

situation... and was published in "Nature Scientific Reports," looking at longer. The title of that is "Longer Wavelengths" and it talks about how longer wavelengths pass through the human body... and actually can have systemic effects on a particular part of the cell. So let's back up here again. The sun. The sun has something called a photosphere around it. It's an atmosphere. And it selectively allows infrared photons to come through more easily... So that means that a sun that is the size and the temperature that it's at, specifically in our solar system, our sun is designed in a way that allows more... infrared photons than would normally be expected. And that's really interesting that radiation comes 93 million miles and comes to our Earth's atmosphere. And there are -- transparency windows in our atmosphere that allow certain types

of light in much better than others. And that's because of the molecules that are in our atmosphere. You've got nitrogen, you've got oxygen, and that wiggling of those bonds absorb specific wavelengths of infrared light. Well, there are these windows of transparency that... astrophysicists are well aware of, because if they want to see through our atmosphere, if they have an observatory high up on a mountain, they've got to look through a window of wavelengths through there. So there isn't any kind of interference with the atmosphere. Well, as it turns out -- there's a number of windows in the infrared spectrum that allows this sun... light through that photosphere, and it penetrates easily through our own atmosphere... And so, it's this very precisely type of this infrared light, that can go into our skin and can get and get down to a far enough distance that it actually can have

effectual changes, -- where? At the mitochondria... Now, let's put that aside... If we were to look at many of the chronic diseases that we see going on in the United States, whether it's... diabetes, obesity, congestive heart failure, dementia, "COVID," long "COVID," cancer, inflammation in general, at the epicenter of many of these chronic diseases, is the mitochondria. In fact, the central theory of aging, "Jesse," is this idea that as we get older, the energy output from our mitochondria, our batteries of our cells, start to drop off incrementally. In fact, some studies show up to 60 to 70%... of the energy output in our mitochondria drops after the age of 40, after a number of years. So, what we're seeing here is that there is a type of light, precisely this type of light, that comes

from the sun more than we should expect. We have an atmosphere that is perfectly set up to allow this very type of radiation through the atmosphere very easily. And we have our bodies in a way that allows this light to come in and interact at the mitochondrial level to increase, to improve, to enhance the amount of "ATP" and energy production in those mitochondria in just about... all of the cells in the body... that have mitochondria. And what we're seeing... is not only changes epidemiologically, longevity, people who are out in the sunlight longer, but that has confounders with exercise... We are now seeing randomized, placebo-controlled sham studies... that showed that precisely this type of light from the sun in the infrared spectrum, is reducing the length of stay of "COVID" patients in the hospital,

is... reducing the amount of glucose in the blood - in patients who are healthy and are given a glucose tolerance test, are reducing the length of stay in... "ICUs" by 30%. And they're coming out more, actually stronger and less need of physical therapy. And the list goes on and on. The number of randomized controlled trials that show that... sunlight, and specifically infrared light, is having this effect at the mitochondrial level in humans that are healthy... and humans that have diabetes and chronic disease. Okay, that's a great overview... As you're sharing that, it gets me thinking about infrared saunas. Yeah. Yes. Is there any connection there between what's going on with a far infrared sauna and this light? Yes. This brings up a very interesting point that we need to make sure that everyone's very clear about.

The type of light... of infrared light that we're getting from the sun is multiple wavelengths over a large... period. So we're talking 760 nanometers all the way up to 1,200 or even beyond. Even into long wavelength. --- - The same thing from an incandescent light bulb. We're getting... infrared light from about 760 way out... in an incandescent light bulb. That's different, fundamentally, than us going into an infrared sauna or having a laser focused on us. --- Because... that's monochromatic light. -- - That's infrared light at one particular wavelength. Do you understand what I'm saying? I do. Yeah, so these are very different things. Now in both of these situations. We are seeing improvements

in health outcomes. I don't want to come across as saying that one does all of the heavy lifting and the other one does nothing, because we have data in both groups that shows that a broad infrared light exposure does benefits. And monochromatic laser, one particular wavelength also has benefits. However, what I am trying to say is that we are noticing that the benefits are more pronounced in the broader sense when a broad source of infrared light... is going into the patient, as opposed to just one. And again, the data that I cite for that... is... "Glenn Jeffery's" work. He's done work in the eye, which has the highest concentration of mitochondria in the retina. And again. --- The endpoint there was... how well are the mitochondria in the cones producing energy

to allow the patient, the subject, to differentiate between two color groups. When he used monochromatic light, he got about -- 15% improvement and not in every single cone... When he used an incandescent light bulb, every single... type of colorblindness improved. And it was not just 15%, it was north of 20%, 25%. So when you ask the question to me, what do I think about infrared saunas, I would say that the infrared sauna is a way... of delivering... infrared light, like we see in many of these studies, where there is benefits. What I don't know is whether or not infrared saunas are superior to somebody just making more time outside in the sun. Okay, good answer. Important we went there. Yeah. We'll put the sauna aside for now, at least then.

We know now this infrared light can go through the clothes. It goes right through the body. You've highlighted a couple times now, mitochondria. Let's take it to the mitochondria Yeah. and explain what happens... when this light interacts with them. Well, this is... really where it's coming down to. -- There is some work that seems to indicate that there's a couple of electron transport... proteins... in the mitochondria... that can respond and upregulate their use when they... have... infrared light shone on them. - Let me just back up here. For those that are not biochemists... or chemists or people who don't understand how this works, -- I want you to picture the three different types of food that we consume. Fats, proteins, carbohydrates, all of them are broken down... into a final

common molecule... called acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA is a two-carbon molecule... that goes into the matrix of the mitochondria and undergoes something called "Krebs" cycle. And what we're trying to do here is we're trying to extract high-energy electrons off of this molecule so we can run the body. So again. Whether you eat fats, proteins or carbohydrates, all of that gets broken down into a molecule called acetyl-CoA or acetyl-CoA... that has high-energy electrons. Now, it goes in the matrix of the mitochondria. We're extracting these high-energy electrons in the form of "NADH" and "FADH2." If you want to be technical about it, these molecules, these "NADH" and "FADH2," go to the electron transport chain. Now what I want you to picture... is <break time=“2.39s"/> the Colorado River. It starts off in Colorado and it goes through the western United States.

And as it drops down, on its route toward the sea, which is in Baja California, it will reach these lakes. And we've built in the United States these massive dams... that basically collect the water and run turbines as we let it go down below. I think the analysis, analogy would be the Welland locks... there in Niagara Falls. So you've got Lake Erie which dumps into Lake Ontario... and... it goes through... the Welland locks and it goes down. But you also have a big hydroelectric, probably one of the first and biggest hydroelectric power plants in the world, where it was built right there in Niagara, where water at 200 ft above Lake Ontario... is directed and is turning turbines and generating electricity. So I want you to imagine these high-energy electrons that are... at a high level. And what... the mitochondria is doing is it's allowing these electrons to transfer down

the energy gradients... And as it's doing that as instead of turning turbines, what it's doing is it's pumping protons out into this reservoir around the mitochondria. -- So as you're eating food and it's being broken down and you're getting high-energy electrons from the food, what the mitochondria is essentially doing is it's taking all of -- the diverse foods that you eat, and it's saying the final common pathway of all of this is going to just be pushing protons into this reservoir on the outside of this mitochondria. Because later what happens is these protons start to come back in through a pump, and this pump then creates "ATP," and that's how you get energy. -- But let's focus on how they're pumping these protons out. As these electrons are going down the chain, as we're going down the Colorado River, as we're hitting the different dams, Hoover Dam and etc. All the way down to finally, it drains out into the Gulf of Mexico

as this water is going down its gradient... Instead of turning turbines, what we're doing is we're... exchanging electrons. We're moving electrons down to pump protons through. --- Here's where I believe... we are now coming around to this thinking and expect a paper on this coming up... shortly... to talk about the details. When... water goes down its gradient, there's a waterfall. That's an electron transfer, if you want to talk about it biochemically. Imagine a protein and you're transferring electron from one area... to another area. When... there's actually equations that you can figure out that'll show you what the change in energy is when you do that. And... those of you who are following and are biochemists, that's a negative delta G, which means it's a spontaneous reaction. Here's the issue, though. Here's the issue... is when that electron goes from one area to the other, you can imagine now that the area that it left is now positively charged

and the area that it's going to is now negatively charged. Correct? Yes. -- When that happens, because this is happening in water. - And water is polar, there's gonna be a change in the orientation of... those water molecules. The water molecules that were over here before, that were around the neutral... protein, are now gonna be flipped around in a way because they have to buffer... this positive charge. Does that make sense? Yeah. And similarly the opposite for the negative charge. So in other words, there's an energy... of reorganization that occurs. So that's not captured in the equation of the free energy. There is a barrier to that electron moving there. And that barrier is not just the free energy. There's an activation energy that occurs and there's a reorganization... energy. This gets into quantum mechanics. It gets into "Marcus" energy.

- "Rudolph Marcus," who's actually still alive, he's 102 years old, living in Pasadena. He's the one. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry... in 1992 for his work in 1988 on exactly what I'm talking about here... And what he showed was that basically there's a reorganization energy that occurs when electrons go from here to here. - It's not just... the change in the electron state... It's the change in the actual shape of the protein. It's the change in the solvents around the protein. And that is a barrier to those electrons moving... So here's what I believe infrared light does... I believe that infrared light in many different wavelengths. -- - It changes, it makes it easier for the water to restructure itself in a way because it's introducing... low energy... vibrational energy. So it's basically greasing the skids to allow this conformation change to happen more frequently,

to allow it to happen more easily, and to allow the restructuring of the solvents to allow that electron to move more easily. So when you have that type of energy entering into all of your cells in the sunlight, and you have that ability to restructure the solvents, -- the reorganization energy, which is labeled lambda when you're talking about "Marcus" theory. -- The electrons, instead of having to go over activation energies to go down their concentration gradient... and to go out, instead of that happening more slowly, now, it's almost like a slide. The electrons can go down the electron transport chain much more easily. You have a much better pushing out of those protons into the inner membrane space. And of course, because of that, those protons are going to come back into the matrix and you're going to make a lot more "ATP." And that's exactly what we are seeing in these experiments,

"Jesse." In "Glen Jeffery's" work, he gave normal subjects glucose, and he had them drink this glucose... And he was able to measure in those that were not exposed to long wavelength light, the glucose... spike went up a certain amount. And in those people who we gave this long wavelength energy to, which presumably was improving the reorganization energy, was allowing these electrons to fall faster, was pumping out more protons, there was more energy being produced at this time, and there was an over 20% reduction in the spike of glucose when these subjects took the glucose tolerance test. Now, he believes that this was because of mitochondrial metabolism, because in those subjects there was not only a reduction in glucose, but there was an increase... in the production of exhaled carbon dioxide, which we know is a product of mitochondrial or mitochondrial aerobic metabolism. Fascinating stuff. Wow. A lot we can get into here.

Yeah. Where my mind goes initially. What does dosage look like... for somebody that wants to see this benefit? Is it getting a daily exposure or is it getting multiple exposures a day? And then also talk about different times of the day, and then how much of this "IR" light is available. What's really interesting about this is that "Glen Jeffery" has looked at... bees, he's looked at insects, he's looked at humans, and he tells me, he's like, look, "Roger," it's the same every time. It's like a switch. You get about 15 to 20 minutes of this infrared light, and that's enough --- to get the system going. And further stimulation really has... diminishing marginal utility. So he's done these experiments, as I mentioned, in various different species. When we look at the randomized controlled trial data,

when we look at the Brazilian study in "COVID" that was done in 2023, when we look at the... "MICU-SICU" study that used infrared light in Brazil in 60 patients that was just published last year. How long did they give them... infrared light... to get the effect that they saw, which was dramatic? 15 minutes a day... And we're not talking about a large amount of light. -- A lot of us will believe that if a little is good, a lot is better. - So if we were to look at the amount of infrared light in total that's coming from the sun and hitting us... after it gets through to the atmosphere, at the surface of the Earth, you're talking about 100 milliwatts per square centimeter. -- The... energy... that was given in these randomized controlled trials that showed tremendous benefit was 2.9 milliwatts per... square centimeter.

Not very high... You don't need a lot to get the benefits. And this is the reason why people are saying. When we decry the fact that incandescent bulbs... Why do we need to go to incandescent bulbs? You need to go outside. Incandescent bulbs only give a fraction of the energy... that's coming from the sun. Guess what? You only need a fraction of the energy. We're finding out that the amount of infrared light that is necessary is actually diminishingly small... 2.9 milliwatts... was the energy that was used in the... Brazilian study that showed that these patients with "COVID" left the hospital four days faster. Twelve days in the control group, eight days in the intervention group. -- And that intervention group, by the way, started off sicker than the control group. Fascinating... I mean... look.

"Tamiflu" was "FDA" approved because it reduced flu symptoms... for 24 hours. It stopped flu symptoms 24 hours earlier than the control group. We're talking about... an intervention here that reduces four days off of hospitalization. 2.9 milliwatts per square centimeter. --- It's incredible. And the thing that I'm thinking about is that we're spending so much time inside. We have windows that on purpose block infrared light because we don't want to increase our cooling costs. We have replaced all of the lights in our homes with "LED" bulbs because we want to reduce energy costs. Essentially, what "Bob Fosbury" calls this is the scurvy of the 21st century. Three hundred years ago, British sailors needed food on their ships. And the way that they preserved the food unfortunately leached out all of the vitamin C out of their food.

And so, there was this issue with scurvy on British sailing ships because they were living in an environment that was perfectly designed to get the results that it did. And I know this sounds like wishful thinking. It sounds like it's almost woo-woo. Here I'm saying that you just need to get outside in the sun. But yet, what do we see on those British ships? Drink this ration of lime juice and your gums will stop bleeding. Your sailors, your colleagues will stop dying. It's that simple. I also believe that we have created for ourselves an environment that is completely bereft of the, precisely the same wavelength of light that the sun is actually giving us the majority of. And it is also very beneficial for just about every single cell in our body. Good news in all this. The infrared light, as we've talked about, does penetrate clothing. You gave that example before of that

business person in Toronto not going outside all day. But we're only talking about 15 minutes here being outside per day. And you can be clothed. So it seems like to me, for most people, they would almost have to try not to get that, even in the winter. If you're shoveling your driveway, if you're walking your kids to the bus... Yep. To me, it seems like most people should already be hitting this metric. Yep. Yeah. So you're living in Ontario and you're saying, Doctor "Seheult," you live in sunny Southern California. Easy for you to say. First of all, I grew up in Toronto, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Here's the good news. The good news is that you don't need a lot of infrared light. -- What is everyone concerned about in Toronto? When you have a lot of snow and you get a few days of sunlight and some of that snow melts and then it freezes at night because it's really cold, what is everyone concerned about the next day?

The roads. Exactly. We're concerned about black ice. Why are you concerned about black ice? Let me prove it to you. It's the infrared light from the sun, even when the sun is low enough in the sky, that's actually melting the snow. The snow is highly absorbent of infrared light. So when that infrared light comes and hits the snow, it starts to melt. And at night, it refreezes. Do me a favor. You've got plenty of snow to try this out on. - When you see the sun out today hitting the snow in Toronto, you will start to see that it's dripping. -- And note the temperature. The temperature may be above freezing. It may be below freezing. It really doesn't matter. It's the warmth of that infrared light that is penetrating the atmosphere, even in Toronto, and it is melting the snow. Notice the moment the sun goes down and sets, even though the temperature has not changed, the snow will stop melting immediately

and you will no longer see any more drips. It stops. And that is because the thing that is melting the snow is the infrared light that we're talking about now. It is precisely the very same light that is available even in the dead of winter when the sun comes up, even in Toronto. Since you made it to the end of this clip, I know you're going to love the full episode. Click here to watch. I'll see you over there. We're spending so much time inside, we have windows that block infrared light. Because we don't want to increase our cooling costs, we have replaced all of the lights in our homes with "LED" bulbs. What "Bob Fosbury" calls this is the scurvy ----

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Why Mitochondria Are The Target

Mitochondria sit at the center of this conversation because they shape how much usable energy the body can make. They are often described as cellular batteries, but that image is only a beginning. They help convert food and oxygen into the energy that supports movement, focus, recovery, and daily vitality.

Many chronic conditions involve impaired mitochondrial output. Diabetes, obesity, congestive heart failure, dementia, cancer, inflammation, COVID, and long COVID all appear in the broader discussion because energy production sits close to the core of health. When the mitochondria lose efficiency, the whole system feels the cost in stamina, clarity, and resilience.

A central theory of aging also points toward mitochondrial decline. The transcript describes studies showing that mitochondrial energy output can drop by 60 to 70 percent after age 40 over a number of years. That loss is not abstract; it can show up as slower recovery, lower capacity, and less available energy for the demands of life.

At the epicenter of many of these chronic diseases, is the mitochondria.

Infrared light draws attention because the relevant wavelengths can reach tissue deeply enough to interact with mitochondrial activity. The proposed target is not the skin alone. It is the cellular machinery that turns fuel into ATP, the practical energy currency that helps you feel capable, clear, and ready.

That is why the research feels consequential. Human studies described in the source connect infrared exposure with shorter hospital stays in COVID patients, lower glucose responses after a glucose tolerance test, and shorter ICU stays with stronger recovery markers. These are measurable outcomes, not aesthetic impressions.

The signal is still being studied, and the mechanism deserves precision. Yet the direction is clear: infrared light belongs in the conversation about mitochondrial energy, recovery, and metabolic resilience. Sunlight is not simply brightness; it is biological context.

Sunlight, Saunas, And Narrow Beams

Not all infrared exposure arrives in the same form. Sunlight provides a broad range of infrared wavelengths, beginning around 760 nanometers and extending across a wide band. Incandescent bulbs also emit a broad infrared profile, which is one reason they remain part of this discussion.

Infrared saunas and lasers work differently. Many deliver a narrower exposure, and lasers often use a single wavelength. That focused design can be useful, but it is not the same as the broad signal of sunlight moving across many wavelengths at once.

The distinction matters because both broad and targeted infrared sources show potential benefits. Research on monochromatic light has reported improvements, including in work focused on the retina, where mitochondria are densely present and visual performance can be measured. Narrow beams can influence biology in ways people may notice as sharper function and better capacity.

Broad-spectrum exposure may produce wider effects. In the source, work comparing monochromatic light with incandescent light found larger improvements from the broader source in color discrimination, with every type of colorblindness studied improving under incandescent exposure. The principle is restrained but important: a wider signal can reach more systems.

Infrared sauna use belongs in the conversation. It can deliver infrared light, and studies around infrared exposure continue to show meaningful possibilities for recovery and health. What remains unclear is whether an infrared sauna is superior to simply making more time outside in the sun.

We view tools as support, not replacements for the natural protocol. A sauna can be intentional. A light device can be precise. Daily sunlight remains the broadest and most accessible source, and it asks for very little beyond a deliberate pause outdoors.

How Light May Prime Energy

The body turns food into energy through a shared pathway. Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates all break down toward acetyl-CoA, a two-carbon molecule that enters the mitochondria. From there, the body extracts high-energy electrons, creating the conditions for ATP production and the energy you experience as capacity, clarity, and recovery.

The electron transport chain gives those electrons a route. A useful image is water moving down a river system through dams. As water drops, it can turn turbines; as electrons move through mitochondrial proteins, they help pump protons into a reservoir, setting up the force that later creates ATP.

That reservoir matters. The mitochondria push protons across the inner membrane, then allow them to flow back through a pump that makes ATP. Food becomes movement, focus, heat, repair, and presence through this elegant exchange.

The proposed role of infrared light sits inside that exchange. When electrons move from one location to another, the surrounding protein and water environment has to reorganize. That reorganization takes energy, and it can create a barrier to smooth electron flow.

The source connects this idea to Marcus theory, which describes the energy involved when electrons transfer between sites. The details reach into chemistry, but the felt outcome is simple. If the system lowers the barrier to electron movement, the mitochondria can produce ATP with greater ease, supporting energy and recovery.

Infrared light may assist by adding low-energy vibrational input. In plain language, it can help water and proteins shift shape more readily as electrons move. That smoother movement may allow the electron transport chain to pump protons more effectively, creating conditions for more efficient ATP output.

This is where the sunlight story becomes practical. A quiet exposure of long-wavelength light could influence the same mitochondrial processes that determine how cleanly your body uses fuel. Better electron flow means better energy conversion, and better energy conversion supports metabolic balance.

The glucose tolerance work described in the source gives the idea a human frame. Participants who received long-wavelength light before taking glucose showed more than a 20 percent reduction in the glucose spike. They also produced more exhaled carbon dioxide, a sign connected in the source to aerobic mitochondrial metabolism and efficient fuel use.

The point is not to turn sunlight into a complicated ritual. The point is to respect the biology already present. Light, food, oxygen, water, and mitochondrial activity converge quietly; when they work in harmony, the body has more room to perform and recover.

The Daily Dose Question

Dose matters, but the dose described in the source is modest. Across different species and study contexts, 15 to 20 minutes appears repeatedly as a meaningful window. That is long enough to signal the system, then additional exposure shows diminishing returns.

This is a useful correction to the usual instinct. More is not always better. In this case, the body appears to respond to a measured exposure, then reach a point where added light no longer produces the same return.

The intensity used in some trials was also low compared with full outdoor sunlight. The source describes solar infrared reaching the earth’s surface at roughly 100 milliwatts per square centimeter, while a Brazilian COVID study used 2.9 milliwatts per square centimeter. The reported benefit was still substantial, with hospital stays reduced from 12 days in the control group to 8 days in the intervention group.

That detail changes the standard. You do not need maximal exposure to receive a signal. A fraction of outdoor infrared intensity can be enough to support measurable recovery outcomes in a controlled setting.

Modern indoor life makes the question more urgent. Many windows intentionally block infrared light to reduce cooling costs. LED bulbs reduce energy use, but they also remove the broad infrared profile once present in incandescent lighting.

The environment has changed faster than the body. We spend long hours inside, behind glass, under lights designed for efficiency rather than biological completeness. The result is a quieter absence: less daily infrared contact from the source that shaped human rhythms.

The protocol can remain simple. Step outside for 15 to 20 minutes when daylight is available. Clothing does not erase the opportunity, because relevant infrared wavelengths can pass through fabric and reach the body.

It's like a switch. You get about 15 to 20 minutes of this infrared light, and that's enough

This is not a demand for perfection. It is an invitation to restore a basic signal with consistency and restraint. A daily outdoor pause can become a small act of metabolic care.

Winter Light Still Counts

Northern winter raises a fair concern. The sun sits lower, the air feels cold, and exposed skin becomes less practical. Yet infrared availability does not require summer heat, and it does not require bare skin.

Toronto offers a plain example. After snowfall, a few clear days can melt snow even when the air remains cold enough for that water to refreeze overnight. The next morning brings the familiar concern of black ice.

The source uses that observation to show infrared energy at work. Sunlight can strike snow, the snow absorbs infrared light, and melting begins. When the sun sets, the dripping stops even if the air temperature has not changed.

That is the point. Winter sunlight still carries infrared light through the atmosphere, through clothing, and into daily life. You do not need the feeling of summer warmth to receive a meaningful signal.

It is precisely the very same light that is available even in the dead of winter

Keep the protocol grounded. Go outside daily when you can, even briefly. Use saunas, lamps, or other tools as support, not as substitutes for the broader rhythm of daylight.

Expectations should stay measured. Infrared light is not a cure-all, and the research continues to develop. It is a quiet input with credible signals, and your role is simple: create the pause, receive the light, and let recovery have its conditions.

Wim's Wise Words

A second take, from someone who's lived it.

If you take one thing from this, let it be this: daylight is not a wellness extra. It is part of the operating environment your body expects.

I would not turn infrared into another complicated project. Start with the simple protocol. Step outside once a day, clothed if needed, and give yourself 15 to 20 unhurried minutes. No phone held close to your face. No need to chase heat. Just daylight on the body, breath moving naturally, attention coming back into the room of your own skin.

That small pause matters because mitochondria respond to conditions, not intentions. Food, oxygen, movement, sleep, temperature, and light all shape how cleanly you make energy. Infrared looks interesting because it may support that energy exchange at a cellular level, but the practice should still feel grounded. You are not forcing adaptation. You are restoring a signal.

Where I Would Start

I would put daylight before devices. Morning or midday is ideal when your schedule allows it, because light also helps set rhythm. In winter, I would still go. The benefit is not measured by how warm your face feels. If the sky is bright enough to cast shape and shadow, there is usually something worth receiving.

Then I would use heat with intention. A sauna can be a beautiful evening reset, especially when the nervous system has been carrying too much pace. I like heat later in the day because it creates a clear boundary: work is finished, recovery begins. Twenty measured minutes can do what an evening drink pretends to do. It softens the system without stealing from tomorrow.

If you want to go deeper on that distinction, Light, Mitochondria, and the Daily Signals That Shape Aging is the natural next read. For the sauna side, Infrared as Longevity Protocol gives you a more tool-focused lens.

The caveat is important. More light is not more wisdom. Longer sessions, stronger lamps, and hotter rooms can turn a precise input into strain. The body tends to respect measured exposure. You should finish clearer, calmer, and more settled than when you began. If you feel depleted, wired, or overheated, the dose was too much for that day.

None of this replaces sleep, strength, protein, hydration, or a steady daily rhythm. Infrared is not a shortcut around the foundations. It is one more way to bring the system back toward equilibrium.

The recommendation is simple because the body often responds to simple things done with consistency. Go outside. Receive daylight. Use sauna as support, not substitution. Let recovery have its conditions, and let the protocol stay quiet enough to keep.