Why Andrew Huberman And Sleep Experts Keep Talking About Morning Light

Morning light has become one of those wellness recommendations you hear everywhere once you start noticing it. Sleep doctors bring it up. Functional medicine experts bring it up. Neuroscientists bring it up. Andrew Huberman has built entire protocols around it. And unlike so many wellness trends, this one is not about buying something new. It is about stepping outside early in the day and giving your body the signal it has been designed to respond to all along.

So why is everyone suddenly so obsessed with getting light in the morning? The answer has less to do with romanticizing a sunrise routine and more to do with circadian rhythm, cortisol timing, alertness, mood, and sleep. 

The Case of Morning Light

For readers who want to go straight to the source, Huberman outlines his morning light protocol in his newsletter Using Light for Health. In it, he writes, “View morning sunlight!” and says, “I consider viewing morning sunlight in the top five” actions that support mental health, physical health, and performance.

He also goes deeper on the science of timed light exposure in the Huberman Lab episode Using Light: Sunlight, Blue Light & Red Light to Optimize Health, which covers how light can affect sleep, alertness, hormones, mood, and overall circadian timing.

Huberman’s case for morning light is not just that it makes you feel more awake in the moment. It is that morning light helps set the timing of your entire day.

In Using Light for Health, he explains that viewing sunlight within the first hours after waking, even through cloud cover, increases early day cortisol release. He calls that the ideal time for elevated cortisol. He also says this morning signal helps prepare the body for sleep later that night and may positively influence immune function, metabolism, and daytime focus.

That is the key distinction. Cortisol is not automatically bad. A morning rise in cortisol is part of a healthy daily rhythm. The issue is when that rhythm gets flattened, delayed, or pushed later into the day, which modern life makes very easy to do.

Why Cortisol Needs Better PR

Cortisol has become wellness culture’s favorite villain, but the body is supposed to produce more of it in the morning. Research on the cortisol awakening response describes a normal rise in cortisol after waking, which helps the body transition into daytime alertness.

The problem is not having cortisol. The problem is timing. Ideally, the body gets a strong daytime cue in the morning, then gradually moves toward a calmer, lower light state later in the day.

Morning light helps reinforce that rhythm. It tells the brain: this is daytime, be alert now, wind down later. It is less about chasing a perfect morning routine and more about giving your body a clear biological timestamp.

Why Other Experts Keep Repeating It Too

Huberman may be one of the loudest voices on morning light, but he is not the only one saying it.

Michael Breus, PhD, known as The Sleep Doctor, told WebMD, “Every single human, just as soon as possible after waking up, should go outside and get at least 15 minutes of direct natural light. Period.” That may sound intense, but the logic is simple: morning light helps reset the body clock and supports better sleep later.

Cleveland Clinic makes a similar point. In a Cleveland Clinic piece on sunlight, Neha Vyas, MD, says, “The health benefits of sunlight can include improving your vitamin D level, your sleep and your mood.” The same article notes that getting sunlight in the morning helps wake us up and regulate the sleep and wake cycle. It also gives the important reminder that sun needs vary by person, and that sunscreen and avoiding prolonged exposure still matter.

The National Sleep Foundation puts it plainly in its guidance on light and sleep: bright, natural light helps you wake up, while dim, dark environments help you go to sleep. The organization also notes that circadian rhythm is especially sensitive to light about one hour after your usual wake time and again in the hours before bed.

What The Research Actually Shows

The research behind morning light is really research about circadian rhythm, which is the body’s internal clock. This clock helps coordinate sleep, wakefulness, body temperature, hormones, metabolism, and mood.

Light reaches the eye and sends signals to the brain’s circadian pacemaker. From there, the body begins coordinating what should happen next. Morning light tells the system that the day has started. Evening darkness tells the system that it is time to wind down.

A 2025 study on sunlight and sleep regulation found that morning sunlight exposure before 10 a.m. was associated with earlier sleep timing and better overall sleep quality. In that study, every additional 30 minutes of morning sunlight was associated with a 23 minute earlier midpoint of sleep.

The takeaway is not that morning light is magic. It is that light timing matters. Morning light helps anchor the day. Evening darkness helps protect the night. Your body needs both signals.

How To Make Morning Light Actually Happen

The best version of this habit is the one you will actually do. Huberman recommends getting outside within the first hours after waking. On a sunny morning, he suggests 5 to 10 minutes outside. On overcast days, he recommends increasing that to at least 15 to 20 minutes, since there is still enough sunlight coming through cloud cover to trigger positive effects.

The key detail is that outdoor light matters. Huberman notes that trying to get this effect through a window or windshield is not ideal because too much of the relevant light signal gets filtered out. Contacts and regular eyeglasses are fine, but sunglasses and blue blockers reduce the effect.

This also does not mean staring directly at the sun. Face toward the general direction of natural light, keep your eyes relaxed, blink normally, and do not look at anything painful. Think of it as letting daylight reach your eyes, not turning your morning into a staring contest with the sky.

The easiest way to make it stick is to attach it to something you already do. Take your coffee outside. Walk around the block. Step onto the patio before opening email. Sit near natural light after waking, then move outside when you can. If you wake before sunrise, turn on bright indoor lights first, then get outside once the sun is up. 

For anyone who wakes before the sun, this is also where a sunrise alarm can make the habit feel less brutal. A device like Hatch Restore can gradually brighten your room before your alarm goes off, creating a softer wake up cue before you get outside for actual morning light. It is not a replacement for sunlight, but it can help make the first few minutes of the morning feel less like being dragged into consciousness by your phone.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is consistency. You are giving your brain a repeatable cue that the day has started. SHOP HATCH RESTORE HERE

The Nighttime Piece Matters Too

Morning light works best when it is paired with lower light at night. This is where most of us make the habit harder on ourselves.

The same system that responds to sunlight in the morning also responds to bright screens, bathroom lights, kitchen lights, and late night scrolling. The National Sleep Foundation notes that light exposure at night can reset the body’s natural clock, promote wakefulness at the wrong time, and disrupt sleep.

Huberman’s broader light guidance follows the same pattern: bright light early, bright enough light during the day, and much less light in the evening and at night. His cortisol episode also includes guidance around lowering evening cortisol with dimmer lights and warmer light color.

This is where your home environment can help. Swapping harsh overhead lighting for warmer, lower-blue options at night is one of the more realistic ways to support that transition. BON CHARGE’s blue light blocking light bulbs are designed for circadian-friendly lighting, with options like blue light blocking bulbs, low blue light bulbs, full spectrum bulbs, lamps, and night lights that help create a softer light environment after dark.

So yes, get outside in the morning. But also consider what your eyes are getting at night. Dim the lights, lower screen brightness, switch to warmer bulbs where it makes sense, and stop treating your bedroom like a tiny airport terminal.

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Is Banana the It Scent of Summer? We Found the Ones Worth Wearing

Banana is making a very convincing case for itself as summer’s next It scent, which is not a sentence we expected to write, but here we are.

Forget the fluorescent banana candy smell of childhood lip gloss. The new banana is creamier, sunnier, and considerably more chic. It smells like banana milk, coconut cream, warm skin, tropical flowers, and the faint possibility that someone nearby has just ordered dessert.

From Athena Club’s latest launch to Flamingo Estate’s glossy cult balm and niche interpretations from Nette, Granado, and Juliette Has A Gun, these are the banana scented body mists, balms, and perfumes making the note feel genuinely wearable right now.

Athena Club Banana Sunmilk

Athena Club’s Banana Sunmilk may be the scent that finally convinces the banana skeptics. Launching today alongside Pink Marshmallow, a soft blend of pink sugar, marshmallow, fresh strawberry, sugared cream, vanilla, and musk, it continues the brand’s run of playful body mists that smell delicious without veering into cupcake shop territory.

Banana Sunmilk blends banana milk, coconut cream, and vanilla soft serve into something sweet, creamy, and light enough for hot weather. It smells a little like sunscreen, a little like dessert, and a little like coming home from the pool with damp hair, salty skin, and absolutely no intention of checking your email.

The banana keeps it fun, while the soft serve note makes it cozy and familiar. Spray it after a shower, before dinner on vacation, or anytime your body is technically at work but your spirit is already wearing a hotel robe.

Flamingo Estate Oaxacan Apple Banana Body Balm

Leave it to Flamingo Estate to make banana feel sensual, botanical, and vaguely connected to a beautiful person who owns several ceramic bowls.

The Oaxacan Apple Banana Body Balm skips banana candy entirely. Instead, it layers banana leaf with ylang ylang, violet leaf, patchouli, woods, and amber for something greener, earthier, and much more grown up.

The balm melts into a silky oil as you massage it into the skin, leaving behind the kind of glossy finish that makes limbs look especially good in low lighting. It is rich enough for evenings when ordinary lotion feels emotionally insufficient, but the scent keeps it from becoming too heavy.

The overall effect is less banana split and more warm skin after a day spent near salt water. Creamy, earthy, and quietly seductive.

Ellis Brooklyn Banana Milkshake Perfume Mist

Ellis Brooklyn’s Banana Milkshake is exactly what the name promises, and honestly, we respect the lack of mystery.

Banana milk, vanilla ice cream, tonka bean, rum wood, and juicy fruit notes make this the cutest and most unapologetically creamy scent on the list. It is sweet, flirty, nostalgic, and fully aware that sometimes perfume does not need to communicate your inner complexity. Sometimes it can simply smell really good.

This is very much a body mist girl fragrance. A quick Sephora stop that becomes a forty minute visit. A friend leaning closer and asking, “Wait, what are you wearing?”

For anyone experiencing vanilla fatigue, Banana Milkshake offers the same comforting sweetness with a little more personality. Vanilla has been carrying the gourmand category for years. It deserves a vacation.

KAYALI Maui In A Bottle Sweet Banana

KAYALI’s Maui In A Bottle Sweet Banana smells like banana remembered to pack something nice for dinner.

The opening is creamy and tropical, with sweet banana and coconut, but gardenia, jasmine, rum, sandalwood, and vanilla bourbon give it a warmer, more polished finish. It is sunny without being juvenile and sweet without smelling like it belongs near the frozen yogurt toppings.

This is the banana fragrance for people who want tropical energy but still need the scent to work with a silk dress and a dinner reservation.

It smells like warm evenings, moisturized skin, and the specific confidence that comes from having nowhere to be the following morning.

Nette Mochi Banane Eau de Parfum

Nette’s Mochi Banane is the cool, slightly enigmatic member of the banana fragrance family.

Rather than going full beach cocktail, it pairs blue banana with rice milk, mochi, hibiscus, toasted sesame, vanilla, and sandalwood. The result is soft, milky, gently gourmand, and just unusual enough to make you keep smelling your wrist every few minutes.

It has the creamy comfort of banana milk, but everything feels filtered through a niche fragrance boutique with excellent lighting and one intimidating sales associate.

If Ellis Brooklyn is the banana milkshake and KAYALI is banana on vacation, Mochi Banane is banana downtown, wearing an outfit you briefly consider copying.

Juliette Has A Gun Banana Rush

Juliette Has A Gun’s Banana Rush is banana with better nightlife plans.

Ripe banana, maple syrup, coconut, vanilla, and sandalwood create a fragrance that is undeniably sweet, but the richness of the maple and the smoothness of the woods keep it from veering into novelty territory.

There is something sticky, golden, and almost sun warmed about it. It still has the fun of a gourmand fragrance, but with more depth and a noticeably sexier dry down.

This is for anyone intrigued by banana but unwilling to smell overly innocent. Think less banana pudding at brunch and more banana pudding ordered to the room at midnight.

Banana after dark, essentially.

Granado Yes, Nós Temos Banana Eau de Parfum

Granado’s Yes, Nós Temos Banana is the fragrance most likely to change the mind of someone who insists they do not want to smell like banana.

Rather than leaning milky or dessert-like, it brings the note into a greener, more elegant world with fig, peach blossom, banana leaf, iris, hay, musk, sandalwood, and cedar.

The banana is present, but it is not shouting. The leafy and woody notes make the composition feel airy, polished, and much more botanical than gourmand.

It smells less like a beach snack and more like the lobby of a very beautiful hotel in a warm city. There are plants everywhere. The furniture is custom. You are suddenly considering extending your stay.

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In Conversation: Why You Should Rethink What’s in Your Shampoo

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For decades, shampoo has been marketed around shinier hair, bigger volume, and fewer bad hair days. Rarely has the conversation focused on the scalp itself or the ingredients behind those promises. But as ingredient transparency becomes a bigger priority across wellness, more people are starting to rethink the products they use every wash day.

Carly Ferrarese, founder of Under Luna, has built her brand around that very idea. Ahead, she shares why the future of healthy hair starts with the scalp, how she approaches formulation differently, and why she believes it's time we all paid closer attention to what's in our shampoo.

Why You Should Rethink What’s in Your Shampoo

You’ve said your own non toxic journey began with questioning the lack of transparency in beauty. Why do you think shampoo ingredients have largely escaped the same scrutiny people now give skincare ingredients? Great question. Somewhere along the way, hair care became framed as cosmetic, while skincare became synonymous with self-care and ingredient awareness. But before shampoo was commercialized, hair care and the rituals around the scalp  were part of daily life.

For me, skincare and scalp care have always been tied together. The scalp is skin, and it has many of the same needs as the skin on our face: a healthy barrier, balanced oil production, and thoughtful, supportive care. For decades, we’ve been taught to focus on facial skincare while largely overlooking the scalp. As a result, many people don’t realize how much the scalp influences the health of the hair. Once you begin viewing the scalp through a skincare lens, the entire conversation around hair care changes.

Haircare has historically been marketed around shine, volume, or repair, but recently there’s been much more conversation around scalp health. Why do you think that shift is happening now? Hair care has traditionally focused on surface-level results: more shine, more volume, less frizz. But scalp care asks a different question: what’s happening at the root?

People are becoming less interested in quick fixes and more interested in understanding the underlying causes of the issues they’re experiencing. We know there can be a strong connection between hormones and hair growth, just as inflammation, gut health, stress, and diet can often show up through the scalp, whether that looks like excess shedding, irritation, oil imbalance, or flakes.

As these concerns become more common, it feels important to start connecting those dots. The reality is, if we want real shine, real growth, and real repair, we have to look at the scalp first.

A lot of consumers are starting to realize that “clean” doesn’t always mean transparent. How do you personally define truly non toxic haircare? Unfortunately, “clean” doesn’t mean much on its own anymore. Many of these marketing claims aren’t clearly regulated, which is why transparency matters so much.

For me, truly non-toxic hair care starts with the ingredients. Under Luna was born from my own need for shampoo and conditioner I could truly feel good about using. I felt like real transparency was missing from hair care, and that became part of the mission: to create formulas where every ingredient had a purpose, and nothing was hidden behind vague claims.

We don’t add ingredients as fillers, and we don’t choose something because it looks good on a label or happens to be trending. We work closely with trusted suppliers, source many locally grown herbs, and put a tremendous amount of care into finding ingredients that are both safe and effective. We aren’t interested in performative clean beauty. We’re interested in formulas that are transparent, thoughtful, and truly support the scalp and hair. That level of quality is something you can feel.

What are some of the biggest “greenwashing” tactics you see in the haircare space today? One of the biggest forms of greenwashing I see is brands relying on buzzwords instead of transparency. Words like “clean,” “natural,” or “non-toxic” can sound reassuring, but they often have no clear definition behind them.

I also see brands highlighting one hero plant-based ingredient on the front of the bottle, while that ingredient may make up only a tiny part of the formula. True transparency means being willing to talk about the entire formula: where ingredients come from, why they’re included, and how they support the scalp and hair.

The most honest brands aren’t just selling an image of nature, they’re willing to show their work.

Under Luna’s formulas lean heavily on herbs and roots like white willow bark, horsetail, yarrow, chamomile, and yucca root. What drew you to these particular botanicals? I did a tremendous amount of research before creating my first shampoo samples. I kept coming back to the same questions: What is shampoo, really? How did we get here? What were people using before hair care became commercialized?

That curiosity led me into the origins of scalp and hair rituals across cultures and traditions throughout history. What drew me to these herbs is that many of them have been used for generations to cleanse, soothe, strengthen, and support the scalp and hair.

I love that they carry a story, but they’re not in our formulas just because they’re beautiful. They’re there because they have function. Each one brings something purposeful to the formula, whether it’s helping create a gentle lather, relieving an itchy scalp, calming flakes, or strengthening the hair. Plants are incredibly powerful when you understand how to work with them.

Yucca root is one ingredient that appears throughout your shampoos and isn’t something most consumers are familiar with. What makes it so special as a cleansing ingredient compared to more traditional surfactants? Yucca root is so special to me. It was one of the ingredients that opened up my entire scalp care journey. Once I began studying yucca, the formulas started to come together piece by piece.

Traditionally, yucca root was crushed or worked against stone to release its natural saponins, creating a gentle, soap-like lather for cleansing the scalp and hair. What makes yucca different from many cleansing agents is that it helps cleanse without stripping the scalp of its natural oils, which is so important when you think about the scalp as skin.

Our shampoos are designed to remove dirt, buildup, and excess oil while still protecting the scalp barrier and supporting pH balance. That’s why yucca appears throughout our shampoos. It’s gentle, effective, and foundational to the way we formulate.

Are there any ingredients commonly found in conventional shampoo that you personally avoid entirely when formulating? Yes, there are many ingredients I avoid entirely when formulating, but the biggest categories are synthetic fragrance, harsh surfactants, silicones, and preservatives that don’t meet our standards.

Fragrance is a big one because it can hide so much under one word, including undisclosed aroma compounds. I also avoid harsh cleansing agents that can strip the scalp barrier and leave people stuck in that cycle of dryness, irritation, and overproduction of oil. Silicones are another category I avoid entirely because they can create the temporary feeling of softness and shine, while masking what the hair and scalp actually need and contribute to buildup.

For me, it always comes back to the same questions: Where does this ingredient come from? What is it derived from? Is it something the body can recognize? And how does it benefit the scalp and hair?

Under Luna’s shampoos each seem to support different scalp needs and hair textures. Can you walk us through how you think about matching formulas to specific concerns? We always start with the scalp. Our shampoos are designed around scalp needs, while our conditioners are designed around the needs of the hair itself.

Because our shampoos are built around these intelligent plants, I’m able to layer in different herbs depending on the type of support the scalp needs. For someone who is more oily or dandruff-prone, we created Warrior Shampoo with herbs traditionally used to decongest the scalp and help rebalance oil production. For someone experiencing dryness, sensitivity, or irritation, Luna Clear Shampoo leans into herbs known for their soothing and restorative properties.

For balanced or fluctuating scalps, especially during periods of hormonal change like pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause,  we created Tulsi Bloom Shampoo. In those cases, the goal isn’t to aggressively correct the scalp, but to help bring it back into balance.

That’s really at the heart of how we formulate: shampoo based on scalp needs and conditioner based on hair needs. Together, they support each other, helping the scalp and hair return to balance.

Warrior Shampoo has become one of your most recognizable formulas. What specific scalp or hair concerns were you trying to solve when creating it? Warrior was our very first shampoo formula, and it was created for the scalp that feels oily, congested, itchy, or dandruff-prone.

I wanted to create something that could deeply cleanse and help rebalance the scalp without stripping it. So often, people with oily or flaky scalps reach for harsh shampoos that over-strip the scalp, leaving it feeling tight, irritated, and even more reactive.

Warrior was designed to support that cycle differently: to help lift buildup, calm a flaky, itchy scalp, and leave it feeling clean, balanced, and like it can breathe again.

If readers take away just one thing from this conversation, what do you hope it changes about the way they think about their shampoo routine? If there’s one thing I hope people take away, it’s to become more in tune with their scalp.

The scalp tells a story. Just like we learn to read our skin, a breakout, dryness, irritation, congestion, we can begin to read the scalp in the same way. Oiliness, flakes, itch, buildup, sensitivity, or shedding can all be signals worth paying attention to.

When I’m under stress, I often notice a small dry patch appear right at my hairline, front and center, so I get the message loud and clear. It’s a reminder that the scalp is part of an incredible system, and often, it can be a reflection of what’s happening internally.

When you have a routine that is nourishing and supportive, washing your hair isn’t something to avoid. It becomes something you can turn to when your scalp feels out of balance.

For so long, we’ve been told not to wash our hair too much, but the issue isn’t shampoo itself, it’s what’s in the shampoo. I hope people begin to see their shampoo routine not as a chore, but as an opportunity to care for one of the most overlooked parts of the body.

The more we learn to listen to the scalp, the more we understand what it needs and what our body may need, too.

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What Is Somatic Healing? A Nervous System Expert on How the Body Holds Stress

We've all felt it: the stress that lingers long after the moment has passed. A tension headache that won't quit, a lower back that flares when life feels like too much, an exhaustion that no amount of sleep seems to touch. The idea behind somatic healing is that this isn't random, it's the body holding onto what it couldn't process, and waiting for us to finally listen.

To understand what that really means, we sat down with Dr. Carli Axford, founder of the Spinal Flow Technique and a nervous system expert with more than 30 years in holistic healing. Here, she explains what somatic healing actually is, how the body stores stress, and the signs that we're carrying more than we realise. She's also the author of the forthcoming Awaken Your Spinal Flow (Hay House, May 2027).

What is Somatic Healing?

You trained at leading Western institutions like the Texas Back Institute, but you also studied wisdom traditions in India. How did those two very different worlds come together in your work? For a long time they felt like separate worlds, and like two separate parts of myself. I started out purely scientific; as a chiropractic student I'd roll my eyes whenever anyone mentioned energy or emotion. That focus led me to the Texas Back Institute, where orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists and science-focused chiropractors all worked under one roof. I watched people with devastating spinal injuries recover without surgery. During my time there, 85 per cent of surgeries were prevented. It showed me what becomes possible when many modalities work together rather than in competition.

India gave me what science hadn't. It was there I learned how energy moves, where emotion stores stress inside the nervous system, and how to trust the wisdom of the body more than anything a textbook had taught me. The two worlds stopped competing and became one lens: the West gave me the how, the spine, the nervous system, the physiology of stress, and the East gave me the why, that the body holds the story of a life and everything it needs to heal, that healing comes from within, and that our symptoms are messages we're meant to listen to.

What is the Spinal Flow Technique, and what led you to develop it? The Spinal Flow Technique is a gentle, hands-on modality that works with the spine and nervous system to release the stress and trauma the body has been holding, often for years. When something overwhelms us and doesn't get fully processed, that stress doesn't simply vanish. It settles into the body as a blockage: a headache, low energy, an aching lower back, a wave of anxiety that seems to come from nowhere. Spinal Flow works with the 33 access points along the spine to help that stored stress finally move, so the body can do what it has always known how to do, heal itself.

I didn't set out to create a modality. It grew out of decades of sitting with people with stress and pain and refusing to accept that some of them simply couldn't be helped. Every approach I trained in revealed only part of the picture. Chiropractic focused on what was blocked, the energy modalities didn't reach the deep blockages, the mind-based work didn't address the body, and the body-based work didn't address the mind. So I created Spinal Flow to work with all of it: the nervous system, the physical blockages I came to recognise through chiropractic, and the flow of wisdom that lives inside the body. I drew on Eastern modalities, craniosacral work, and Taoist understanding of what we each hold within us for healing, including that river of intelligence, the cerebrospinal fluid that flows up and down the spine. The blockage is the message, and Spinal Flow is the language I developed to help people hear and release it.

For someone who's never heard the term, how would you define somatic healing in the simplest way? And what does it mean to "release" stress somatically? Somatic simply means "of the body." Somatic healing rests on a truth we often overlook: we don't only think and feel our stress, we physically store it. Think of a time we were too busy to stop and listen to the body and simply had to keep going, a shock, a loss, a fear there was no time to feel. The mind moves on, but the body doesn't quite let go. Because it couldn't process the moment then, it holds onto it as a blockage, and that stored stress can't be resolved through thinking, because it was never a thought to begin with.

To release it somatically isn't something we force or figure out, it's something the body does in its own way, in its own time. The body placed the blockage there for a reason, and the body is the one that knows how to release it. With Spinal Flow, we don't chase the blockage or try to fix it. We switch the system out of fight-or-flight and into the healing zone, then engage the nervous system to bring awareness to what's held. As the body feels safe, it creates more flow, more ease, more cerebrospinal fluid moving through the system, and from that place its own wisdom finds and corrects the blockages, releasing what it no longer needs to carry. My work is simply to turn that process on, then trust, watch and allow the body to do what it has always known how to do.

When someone begins somatic work, what does the process actually look like? Is there a natural sequence the body moves through? There is, and it often surprises people, because it doesn't begin where they expect. The body is always talking to us. Every symptom, every tightness is stored for a reason, but knowing the story isn't what heals us. The first and most important step is to move the body out of fight-or-flight and into the healing zone, because repair simply isn't possible while the nervous system is braced for survival. And this is where my work differs from most approaches: rather than chasing what's stuck or blocked and trying to fix it, we do the opposite. We work at the level of the brain and nervous system to focus on what's already working, the places where there is abundant energy, flow and wisdom, and we grow that. As the body feels safer and that healing state expands, it naturally begins to release what it's been holding, in its own order and its own time.

And what this looks like, visually, is a river. There's a flow that runs from the sacrum all the way up to the cranium, the cerebrospinal fluid moving up and down the spine, and you can actually see that movement in the body. That's the end point of the sequence: full flow with no blockages, where the whole body moves and interacts as one rather than in separate, guarded segments. It's beautiful to watch, and it's the body doing exactly what it was always designed to do.

What are the most common signs that someone's body is holding onto stress, even if they don't feel "stressed" day to day? The most common sign is simply the way the body talks to us. It's always communicating, sometimes it whispers, sometimes it screams, and the first place to look is the symptoms we've learned to normalise: tension headaches, a stiff neck, a lower back that flares when life feels like too much, digestion that never quite settles, an exhaustion that sleep doesn't touch. Breathing is another early clue; when it's shallow and high in the chest, the system is already bracing. Most of the people I work with wouldn't describe themselves as stressed at all. They've simply grown so used to these signals that they assume they're normal.

Beyond the symptoms, with Spinal Flow we have two clear ways to see what the body is holding. The first is posture: when someone's posture has shifted, shoulders rounding forward to protect the heart, the chin pushing ahead of the body, it tells us stress has accumulated, sometimes over twenty or thirty years. The second is the assessments I've created for each of the seven gateways, designed to reveal exactly how and where stress is stored. The pause gateway, for example, is assessed by turning the head fully to the right and left to check whether there's full, free movement. Between the body's own symptoms, the posture and the gateway assessments, we can show someone precisely what they've been carrying in their bodies.

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Ellis Brooklyn’s New Vanilla Perfume Is Cozy, Creamy, And A Little Unexpected

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Not every summer fragrance needs to smell like sunscreen, citrus, or a very expensive hotel lobby. Sometimes the best ones are softer than that. A little warmer. A little stranger. The kind of scent you keep coming back to because you cannot quite place why it feels so comforting.

That is the feeling behind Ellis Brooklyn’s newest launch, Vanilla Rice, a creamy Eau de Parfum that takes vanilla in a more delicate direction. Instead of leaning into frosting, caramel, or anything overly sweet, this one pairs vanilla with toasted rice, coconut milk, sakura blossom, jasmine nectar, and skin musks.

It sounds a little unexpected at first, but that is the charm.

The Toasted Rice Twist

Vanilla has been everywhere in fragrance lately, but Vanilla Rice makes the note feel softer and more personal. The toasted rice gives it a gentle warmth that feels cozy without being heavy. Think warm rice steam, clean skin, and something creamy on the stove.

The fragrance opens with mandarin, freesia dew, and toasted rice, so there is a little brightness before the softer notes settle in. It is fresh for a second, then slowly turns creamy and comforting.

Creamy, Floral, But Not Too Sweet

At the heart of the scent are sakura blossom, coconut milk, and jasmine nectar. This is where Vanilla Rice starts to feel pretty and romantic, but still easy. The coconut milk gives it that smooth, milky softness, while the florals keep it light instead of dessert like.

It is sweet, but not sugary. Floral, but not powdery. Cozy, but not sleepy.

The Part That Stays With You

The dry down is all skin musks, tonka bean, and vanilla, which gives the scent that warm, close to the body finish. It is not the kind of perfume that walks into the room before you do. It is more of a “you smell really good” perfume, the kind someone notices when they are near you.

There is something nostalgic about it too. Not in a literal way, but in that soft, familiar, hard to explain way that good vanilla scents can have.

Why We’re Into It

Vanilla Rice feels like a quieter take on the gourmand trend. It has the comfort people love about vanilla, but the toasted rice and coconut milk make it feel more interesting and less obvious. It is creamy, soft, lightly sweet, and surprisingly chic. Basically, vanilla grew up, got a passport, and started ordering dessert somewhere beautiful. SHOP HERE

The post Ellis Brooklyn’s New Vanilla Perfume Is Cozy, Creamy, And A Little Unexpected appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

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The Quiet Rise Of Head Spas And The Japanese Brand That Won Us Over

If you have spent any time scrolling lately, you have probably seen it: someone reclined in a salon chair, eyes closed, while warm water cascades over their hair like the world’s chicest shampoo commercial. That, friends, is a head spa. And in much of the world, it is not a trend at all. It is just Tuesday.

In parts of Asia, scalp care is a regular part of the beauty and wellness conversation. Across Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, and beyond, head spa rituals have long been treated as more than just a very luxurious wash. They are about circulation, relaxation, scalp health, hair health, and the kind of nervous system exhale most of us are desperately trying to schedule into our week.

Here in LA, the head spa is still a little under the radar. It is the kind of thing your most in the know friend mentions casually, and suddenly the entire group chat wants the address. But it is starting to make noise, and after our visit, we get why.

A Little History, Because This Is Not Just A Fancy Shampoo

The head spa as we know it traces back to Japan, where the connection between beauty and overall wellbeing has always run deep. Early rituals drew from practices like shiatsu massage, which applies pressure to specific points to encourage relaxation and energy flow, along with nourishing oil treatments meant to care for both the scalp and the mind.

The idea is that, much like reflexology maps pressure points on the feet, the scalp holds its own network of tension, sensitivity, and release. Anyone who carries stress in their temples, jaw, or crown already knows this without needing a diagram.

By the 1990s, head spas had become staples in high end Japanese salons, where massage techniques, scalp treatments, and premium haircare came together as a full beauty ritual. From there, the experience traveled. Over the last two decades, head spas have made their way into luxury spas and wellness spaces around the world as self care became less of a Sunday night afterthought and more of a lifestyle category.

Which brings us, finally, to a salon chair in Los Angeles.

Enter YOLU

Plenty of head spas have been popping up around LA, and honestly, we have been watching the category with interest. But YOLU caught our attention for one very good reason: it is Japan’s number one haircare brand, and now it has a physical space in LA where you can actually experience the philosophy in real life.

Instead of just admiring the bottles on a shelf, you get to lie back and let the whole thing happen to you. Which, frankly, is our preferred method of research.

We booked the Sayo, YOLU’s sixty minute signature ritual, described as a complete journey to purify, nourish, and restore from scalp to soul. The treatment includes:

+ Head, shoulder, and décolleté massage
+ Shampoo massage
+ Purifying healing head bath
+ Hair treatment
+ Final nourishment with scalp serum and leave in treatment

If that reads like a lot, it feels like even more in person. The head bath alone is worth the trip. It is warm, weightless, and oddly emotional in the way only a really good wellness treatment can be. The kind of experience where you start by thinking about your to do list and end by wondering why you have been accepting regular shampooing as enough.

We walked out softer, calmer, and weirdly clear headed, with hair that stayed touchably good for days.

Let’s talk products

The in salon experience is built around YOLU’s hero range, but the good news for anyone not ready to commit to the full treatment is that the ritual can also come home with you.

YOLU recently arrived at Olive Young in the US, the Korean beauty retailer that opened its first US flagship in Pasadena and launched a dedicated US ecommerce platform in late May 2026. And yes, people lined up around the block for the opening. We were not surprised.

At the center of YOLU’s US expansion is its four step overnight collection: shampoo, conditioner, scalp serum, and hair oil. The system is designed to work in sync with the body’s natural nighttime renewal cycle, helping support a healthier scalp while restoring moisture, softness, and shine overnight.

Powered by the brand’s proprietary Night Cap Serum and Alpine Willow Extract, the collection targets scalp discomfort and dryness while helping protect strands from the stressors that happen while we sleep. Think friction, dryness, pillow chaos, and whatever else your hair is apparently dealing with at 2 a.m.

The full lineup lives here for the curious.

The bigger idea

What makes YOLU more than a pretty bottle is the philosophy underneath it. The brand is rooted in yōru no biyō, or nighttime beauty, built on the belief that beauty begins the night before.

It is a very appealing idea, especially for anyone who loves a morning payoff but has limited interest in doing more in the morning. YOLU is designed to turn an everyday routine into a small ritual of rest and renewal, supporting scalp and hair health while the body is already in repair mode.

By morning, the result is softer, smoother, more balanced hair. The kind that makes you feel like you did something impressive, even though the most important part was going to sleep.

But more than haircare, YOLU is really about the pause. The head spa takes something we usually rush through and turns it into a full body reset. The products bring that same sensibility home, making the shower feel a little less like a task and a little more like a ritual.

Whether you book the full Sayo treatment or simply swap in the overnight collection, consider this your sign that the best thing you can do for your hair might just be falling asleep.

Where to Book

YOLU Beauty Salon Head Spa & Blow Dry Bar is located at 8118 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048. https://yolubeauty.com/

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Sleep Hygiene Mistakes You Might Be Making Every Night

This piece comes to us from Lola Mark, a freelance writer specializing in women's health and wellness

You've got the silk pillowcase, the blackout curtains and maybe even a magnesium routine. But if you're still waking up foggy or lying awake longer than feels reasonable, the problem might not be obvious. Some of the most common sleep hygiene mistakes are so woven into everyday habits that they barely register as habits at all. Here's what might be working against you.

+ Your Bedroom Has an Identity Crisis

The bedroom does many jobs for many of us now. It's a home office, a streaming room, a scroll zone and sometimes a place to eat dinner in peace. The problem is your brain is paying attention to all of it.

When you consistently do stimulating things in bed like working, watching or debating whether to text back, your nervous system stops associating that space with rest. Over time, lying down stops being a cue for winding down and becomes just another activity.

The fix is refreshingly simple: keep the bed for sleep. If you can't drift off, get up and do something quiet in low light, like listening to calming music or reading a book, until you feel genuinely drowsy.

+ Your Wind-Down Routine Starts Too Late

Most of us don't start winding down until we're already exhausted, but that's too late. Your body needs time to shift out of high-alert mode, and that transition doesn't happen the moment you decide you're ready for bed.

Cortisol, your main alertness hormone, doesn't drop on command. If you've been replying to emails, watching something intense or doom-scrolling until 11 p.m., your nervous system is still running warm when your head hits the pillow.

Build at least 45 minutes to an hour of low-stimulation time before you want to go to sleep. Dim the lights, put on something undemanding or just sit quietly. The goal isn't to feel sleepy immediately, but to stop adding fuel to the fire.

+ Weekend Sleep Feels Like a Treat, but It's Costing You

Sleeping in on Saturday feels restorative. In reality, it's quietly shifting your internal clock, and by Monday morning, your body has no idea what time zone it's in.

This is called social jet lag, and it's more disruptive than most of us realize. Even a two-hour difference between your weekday wake time and your weekend wake time is enough to affect sleep quality, mood and energy for the first half of the week. You don't have to be rigid about it, but keeping your wake-up time within about an hour of your usual time makes a real difference over time.

+ Your Room Is Too Warm

Your body needs to drop its core temperature to fall asleep and stay asleep. If your room is warm, that process is harder than it needs to be.

The sleep-friendly temperature range is between 60° and 65° Fahrenheit. If that feels cold, consider taking a warm shower or bath before bed. It brings blood flow to the surface of your skin, helping release heat and nudging your core temperature down afterward. Cooling the room, keeping your feet uncovered or using a lighter blanket can all support the process, too.

+ You're Treating Sleep Like a Luxury, Not a Health Priority

It's easy to see sleep as the first thing to sacrifice when you're busy, but treating sleep as a luxury, rather than a nonnegotiable part of your health, is a mistake.

The impact goes far beyond feeling tired. Research links poor sleep to an elevated risk of heart disease, including high blood pressure and cholesterol. When you cut sleep short, you're interrupting crucial maintenance work that your cardiovascular system relies on. Over time, this can also negatively affect your metabolism, contributing to weight gain and other health issues.

This isn't about scaring yourself into better habits. It's about understanding that the hour you lose to your phone at midnight isn't neutral. Instead of seeing sleep as passive downtime, try framing it as one of the most powerful and straightforward things you can do for your long-term health.

+ Your Caffeine Cutoff Is Too Late

It can take anywhere from 2 to 12 hours for your body to eliminate only half of the caffeine you've consumed. That means a 3 p.m. latte could still be doing its job at 9 p.m. A reasonable cutoff for most people is somewhere around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m., and earlier if you're sensitive to it. If you're relying on sleep supplements to counteract a late caffeine habit, you're making the work harder than it needs to be.

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