Melatonin isn't a sleep hormone.
Your mitochondria make it during the day—under sunlight.
Scott Zimmerman, an optical engineer with 80+ patents, connected the dots.
Here's what this changes: 🧵
1/ Scott Zimmerman is an optical engineer with 40 years of experience & 80+ issued patents.
He applied optical physics to human biology—working alongside Dr. Russel Reiter, the world’s leading melatonin researcher.
What they found flips what we know about light & melatonin.
2/ Melatonin isn't just an antioxidant—it's a CASCADE antioxidant.
One molecule neutralizes up to 10 ROS (reactive oxygen species).
How? Its metabolites also scavenge free radicals.
Vitamin C neutralizes 1-2 ROS per molecule.
Melatonin is 5-10x more powerful.
3/ We’ve been taught melatonin = a nighttime hormone from the pineal gland.
In reality, that’s only 5% of the story.
The other ~95% are made inside your mitochondria, during the day, under sunlight.
4/ There are two types of melatonin.
Mitochondrial melatonin—made inside cells during the day, fighting oxidative stress in real time.
Pineal melatonin—the “hormone of darkness.”
Released at night to signal darkness & exists to supplement cells when sunlight (NIR) is gone.
5/ Daylight melatonin is triggered by near-infrared light (NIR).
NIR makes up ~70% of sunlight’s photons & penetrates deep into your skin, brain & organs.
It triggers melatonin inside mitochondria—where ROS are born—protecting your cells from oxidative stress all day.
6/ We’re living through the greatest reduction in solar exposure in human history
For millions of years, we bathed in NIR: Sunlight, firelight, incandescents, even moonlight carries it
Now? LEDs, screens, glass erased it
Less NIR = less melatonin = oxidative stress unchecked
7/ Most NIR photons don’t come directly from the sun—they bounce off trees, grass, dirt & clouds.
That’s why shade under a tree still nourishes you.
NIR penetrates deep, even through clothes—reaching 60% of adult cells & 100% of fetal & child cells.
8/ We were designed to spend time in the shade.
Zimmerman’s grandfather—a dairy farmer in Kansas—worked fully clothed, long sleeves, wide-brim hat, lunch under a tree.
He still got plenty of reflected NIR.
For most farmers through history, that was the human default.
9/ Why do you feel sleepy after a workout or a day at the beach?
It's your daytime melatonin response.
Exercise & sun raise ROS (oxidative stress). Your body raises melatonin to neutralize it.
When the stimulus ends, melatonin stays elevated causing the fatigue.
10/ I’ve always noticed the more time I spend in natural light, the better I sleep.
Zimmerman’s research explains why: daytime NIR triggers melatonin inside your cells.
At night, less is needed from the blood—your cells already have what they need.
More daylight = deeper sleep
11/ One major reason to train outdoors: NIR
Outdoor exercise = NIR exposure → mitochondrial melatonin → antioxidants preloaded → better sleep & ATP efficiency.
Indoor gyms? Zero NIR. Blue LEDs → oxidative stress & reduced mitochondrial performance.
12/ 8 h in an office = 30 min on the beach..
750 lux of LED light generates the same free radical load as 30 minutes in 76,000 lux sunlight.
Zimmerman got “blueburn” handling LEDs—1 mm of skin died & peeled.
Visible light isn't benign—may be a primary skin cancer risk factor.
13/ The problem with sunscreen: UV is only half the story.
Half of sun-induced free radicals come from visible light, not UV.
Sunscreen blocks UV but lets visible through—so you lose the warning cue (sunburn) to get out & stay exposed longer.
14/ NIR acts like nature’s sunscreen.
When your skin gets NIR before UV—like under real sunlight—it builds up to SPF 15 protection.
NIR photons prep your cells to handle UV stress.
Remove NIR, keep only UV (or blue light)?
Skin cancer risk skyrockets.
15/ Blue light harms developing brains
Kids spend 7+ hrs a day under “visible-only” LED light
Studies show cortical thinning—reduced brain volume—under artificial light
Schools with natural light? Better focus & learning
Zimmerman: we should consider banning LEDs around kids
16/ Red light therapy works because it replaces what modern life removed—NIR
If you spent your days outside, you wouldn’t need it
Athletes using red light doubled morning melatonin—like sitting by a campfire before sleep
But isolating 670 or 850 nm isn’t what nature intended
17/ Nothing replaces full-spectrum sunlight.
Zimmerman: It’s not about isolating 670 or 850 nm—those are just the bands we could study.
Our devices only measured up to 1000 nm.
Sunlight ranges from 250–6000+ nm.
We don’t yet know what the upper bands do—only that they matter
18/ Blue blockers = symptom of toxic light.
We built light so unbalanced it needs filtering to be tolerable.
The fix isn’t tinted glasses—it’s correcting the source.
Restore NIR to a 3:1 ratio & you won’t need red bulbs.
Full spectrum is the goal—not a red light bordello.
19/ no.mind verdict: you don’t fix this with a melatonin supplement.
You fix it by rebuilding your light environment.
You don’t need to bake in the sun—NIR is abundant even in shade and passes through clouds.
That’s why forest bathing works.
Use incandescent bulbs or NIRA bulbs Zimmerman designed to mimic natural shade, bringing outdoors indoors & dim naturally.
Train outdoors, not under LEDs.
Spend 10 hours in true darkness each night—don’t flip on lights when you wake up to pee.
NIR by day. Darkness by night.
That’s how your biology was designed to operate.
Zimmerman puts it well: “GARDENERS ARE WINNERS”
20/ Bottom Line: Scurvy was a vitamin C deficiency.
Today’s version? Near-infrared light deficiency.
Melatonin isn’t just the hormone of darkness—it’s the molecule of sunlight.
Ignore the full spectrum & your body loses its own repair code.
Thanks for reading!
If you found this valuable, repost the first tweet so more people can access this information.
Follow @the_no_mind for in-depth health & energy insights you won't find anywhere else.
P.S. If this thread resonated:
I created a free 5-day email course that shows you how to rebuild mitochondrial energy—through light, sleep, nutrition & environment.
So you get all-day energy, deep sleep & consistent performance.
Get it here ↓
energy.no-mind.io
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.