Fertility + Light- A Lesson From My Chickens On The Importance of Light For Fertility + Hormones

Now this post isn’t about chickens. But let’s use them as an example for how light and stress impacts fertility in humans and how we as women have lost our innate wisdom in our modern society.

Chickens lay according to the light. That is why most chickens take a break and some stop laying completely in the winter when light is scarce. Chickens ovulate every 24-26 hours and need about 14-16 hours of daylight to lay. They will also stop ovulating and laying in times of stress - such as physical or emotional trauma, darkness and weather changes- keep in mind, this is for humans as well. Stress and lack of natural light greatly impacts our ovulation and fertility.

Light is SO powerful when it comes to balanced hormones and fertility.

Our modern lifestyles and artificial lighting are creating infertility and hormonal chaos. One thing that is not discussed enough when it comes to women struggling with infertility, anovulatory cycles, low progesterone and irregular cycles is light exposure!

Before blue lights from LED’s and screens and light pollution, lack of community, lack of understanding our cycles and lack of innate wisdom the moon was used as a guide, it connected women to their bodies.

The word menstruation is derived from the latin and greek word for moon, mene. In Ancient Greece, it was believed that menstruation was a spiritually and mentally powerful time for a woman.

If we are not exposed to the right kinds of light at the right times of day our master clock will fall out of sync with the world around us and in turn our body systems and our reproductive health falls too.

Working indoors under artificial lighting, being exposed to bright artificial sources of light can make it really hard for our bodies to distinguish real light and darkness. Night workers will likely struggle with infertility. Being a “night owl” is not natural.

You can make light (+ darkness) work for your hormones.

Our bodies have always been in tune with the natural rhythm of the earth and moon.

Before there were skyscrapers, street lights, and artificial lights illuminating the sky, when the night was actually dark, women’s bodies innately responded in accordance to their menstrual cycles.

Moonlight helps the body shift from preparing the lining of the uterus and the egg follicles to ovulation. The full moon is the earth’s most fertile time because of the additional light recieved by the moon for growth. A healthy menstural cycle is 29 days, the same a the lunar cycle. There is no denying that our bodies respond to a natural circadian rhythm.

Have you ever heard of or experienced best friends or women you are around often menstruating at the same time as you?

In the book, The Red Tent, women take refuge to a red tent as a community to menstruate, reflect and bond together every month. Women were in sync. All women menstruated together, at the same time, in accordance to the moon cycles. How beautiful and supportive!

Back in the 1970's researchers began to focus on using light exposure that mimicked the light of the moon to shorten and/ or regulate the menstrual cycle. They confirmed that women with long and irregular cycles who slept with the moonlight from days 13-17 of their cycle succeeded in regulating and shortening long cycles.

Working with your circadian rhythm and being in tune with nature, the sun and the moon will increase fertility, balance your hormones (yes, even ladies in peri-menopause) and your chances of getting pregnant.

Perhaps the pro-metabolic, pro-thyroid effects of sunlight and regulating your circadian rhythm are playing a role as well.

This is an often overlooked piece in fertility and hormonal struggles because the modern world has taken this innate wisdom away from us.

We have created such busy lifestyles to even think about stepping outside for sunlight in the morning, working under blue light all day, using super bright LEDs in our homes and honestly have no idea what is even going on with the moon or sun on any given day.

Pay attention to nature, the animals and the birds.

You can learn a lot about life, nutrition, health and how stress impacts our bodies.

Maybe your hormonal and fertility struggles just require you to tune into nature and your body, syncing your cycle with the moon, exposing your body to sunlight in the morning, being present, and slowing down.