But there’s another part of the picture that gets ignored – which is that we’re getting too little light during the day. The science is explained by Linda Geddes in an extract on Literary Hub from her book Chasing the Sun:

Researchers found significant impacts:

Unsurprisingly, the effects were particularly pronounced during winter when it’s much easier to miss out on daylight.

Modern architecture was meant to compensate for our troglodytic indoor lives – plateglass buildings supposedly brightening our days. But if you’ve ever been in an open-plan office during a power cut, you realise that natural light doesn’t penetrate very far into our 21st century caves.

One day we might realise that the comforts and efficiencies of modernity come at a price – and not solely a spiritual one. The impact of comprehensively de-naturalising our lives can be measured in terms of physical well-being and even economic productivity.

One doesn’t have to believe that we should ‘go back to nature’ to see that we need more room for it in our lives.

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Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

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