The morning habit Liz will never give up

Author

Wellbeing Team

8 March, 2026
The morning habit Liz will never give up

In this episode of Age Better, Liz shares the one non-negotiable she does each morning to reset her system.

She also explains why alcohol wrecks your sleep even if it helps you drift off, and what’s really happening to perimenopausal skin when it suddenly becomes dry, reactive and impossible to manage.

Stream the episode below, or download the recording via Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The morning habit Liz will never give up

There’s one thing Liz does before coffee, before switching on her phone or starting her morning – and she says it’s the single most powerful reset her body gets all day.

“If I had to strip it back to just one non-negotiable,” Liz explains, “I guess it would have to be the early morning daylight.

“I try and wake naturally, if I can, without shocking my system awake with an alarm. The very first thing that I do now is get outside. Even if it’s just for five minutes, I expose my eyes — without sunglasses, without any kind of glasses at all — to daylight.”

Why morning light matters so much

Early morning light isn’t just a nice thing to see. As Liz explains, it resets our whole system.

“It’s saying it’s daytime, it’s safe,” she says. “It’s time to set up our hormones, our metabolism, our mood and our energy all in the right way for the next 24 hours or so.”

  • Morning light exposure helps to:
  • Regulate cortisol so you feel alert in the morning and not wired at night
  • Program melatonin release for better sleep
  • Support blood sugar control and appetite signalling
  • Improve mitochondrial energy production
  • Stabilise mood and metabolism

Light also plays a key role when it comes to our cellular energy.

“Mitochondria, which are the little batteries in our cells, when we expose them to proper daylight, they produce more energy,” says Liz. “They become more efficient.”

For midlife women navigating sleep disruption or metabolic shifts, this daily cue can be particularly powerful.

Also in this episode:

  • What causes perimenopausal dry skin and how can you treat it?
  • How does alcohol affect your sleep cycle?
  • How does stress affect your health and nervous system in midlife?
  • Why does restless legs syndrome get worse at night and what actually helps?

Links mentioned in the episode:

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