Rowan Jacobsen新书《为阳光辩护》：适度晒太阳与健康

从“防晒教条”到重新审视阳光

作者Hannah Seo回忆，自己成长过程中一直把太阳视为威胁：紫外线意味着早衰皱纹、晒斑乃至皮肤癌，身边的韩国长辈用墨镜、遮阳帽、阳伞和防晒袖套严格践行这套观念。她虽未做到这种程度，却已把“阳光有害”内化。转折来自记者Rowan Jacobsen的新书《为阳光辩护》（2026），书中认为这种普遍回避已经走得太远。

研究说了什么

Jacobsen梳理了数十年研究，把适量户外日照与多种积极健康结果联系起来。其中一项追踪近3万名瑞典女性、历时20年的研究提示，回避阳光作为死亡风险因素的量级约与吸烟相当。这一发现被作者称为尤其令人意外，但它属于观察性关联，不能读成阳光直接延长寿命。

机制方面，阳光被认为能促进维生素D生成，并促使身体释放一氧化氮等化合物，后者可降低血压。心理层面，阳光作用于皮肤有助于释放内啡肽，可能对抑郁有保护作用；规律的光照与黑暗则有助于校准昼夜节律、改善睡眠，进而影响整体生活状态。

平衡而非抛弃防晒

文章明确保留边界：一切都要适度，仍需防护过度日晒和紫外线，防晒霜不必丢弃。作者的做法是倾听身体信号——那个夏天她尝试接纳阳光，一旦过热或过度刺激就退回阴凉处。她把这套拉扯式的平衡归结为Jacobsen的底线建议：“晒太阳。别太多。到户外去。”

Like many people nowadays, I grew up learning to see the sun as a threat. Exposure to its rays meant consequences like premature wrinkles, sunspots and, of course, skin cancer. The Korean aunties I knew heeded this dogma with sunglasses, flared visor hats, parasols and sun sleeves. While I’ve never gone to such lengths, I internalised the message.

But in his latest book In Defense of Sunlight (2026), the journalist Rowan Jacobsen argues that the common aversion to the sun has gone too far. He lays out decades of research linking moderate amounts of outdoor sunlight exposure with various positive health outcomes. One especially surprising study – which followed almost 30,000 Swedish women over 20 years – suggested that avoiding sunlight was about as big a risk factor for death as smoking. Sunlight is thought to aid physical health by, among other things, stimulating the production of vitamin D as well as the release of compounds such as nitric oxide (which can lower blood pressure).

Then there are the mental health benefits. Sun on the skin helps the body release endorphins, its natural opioids, and might help protect against depression. And proper exposure to sunlight and darkness massages the circadian rhythm into regularity, improving sleep quality, which, in turn, benefits your wellbeing.

Of course, everything in moderation: we still need to protect ourselves from excessive sun and UV exposure (so don’t throw away your sunscreen). But Jacobsen’s writing has helped me see how too much fear of the sun might be harming rather than protecting my health.

Now, the trick is to strike a balance, which I’ve sought by listening to my body. This past summer I tried to embrace the sun, retreating to the shade when I felt overheated or overstimulated. Maintaining moderation takes some push and pull, but I try to follow Jacobsen’s bottom-line message: ‘Get sun. Not too much. Go outside.’

by Hannah Seo

FIND OUT MORE

For more on how the sun looms large in our minds, you can read Karl Ove Knausgaard’s ‘An Ode to the Sun’ (2017) on Literary Hub. This short piece meditates on the sun’s godlike power, its indifference to life and its inevitability.

The advice to seek sunlight aligns with what mental health researchers have learned about our body clocks – see the Psyche Idea ‘Our Internal Clocks Could Be Key for Preserving Mental Health’ (2024) by Jacob Crouse.

Prefer Psyche on Google