Pam Killeen

The recently released Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report, chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and initiated under President Trump, delivers a sobering snapshot of the health crisis facing America’s children. The numbers are staggering:

Over 40% of U.S. children suffer from at least one chronic health condition
Childhood obesity affects more than 1 in 5 kids
Teen depression nearly doubled between 2009 and 2019
Autism rates have climbed to 1 in 31 children
Childhood cancer has risen by 40% since 1975
Three-quarters of American youth are unfit for military service due to chronic illness or behavioral disorders

While the MAHA report deserves credit for spotlighting key drivers of this crisis—pharmaceutical overreach, ultraprocessed food, environmental toxins, and excessive screen time—it gives only passing attention to one of the most foundational and overlooked pillars of health: our relationship with light and darkness.

☀️ Where’s the Sun?

The MAHA report briefly acknowledges that children are spending less time outdoors and more time on screens—but it stops short of offering clear guidance on how much time in nature is actually needed. When I was growing up in the 1960s, we played outside for hours every day, even in the cold or rain. That natural connection with the outdoors wasn’t just enjoyable—it was essential for our physical and mental well-being.

While the report mentions that sunlight supports circadian rhythms, it doesn’t go far enough in explaining why that matters—or how profound the consequences of light deficiency can be. Sunlight isn’t just about vitamin D; it’s the body’s primary circadian regulator, influencing nearly every biological system, including sleep, metabolism, hormone balance, immune strength, and brain development.

Morning sunlight exposure, in particular:

Sets the internal body clock, aligning sleep-wake cycles
Increases serotonin, enhancing mood, focus, and emotional regulation
Supports evening melatonin production, improving sleep quality
Improves insulin sensitivity and metabolic function
Strengthens immune resilience

Research has shown that disrupted circadian rhythms are a core feature of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and autism—precisely the conditions highlighted in the MAHA report. Children who spend more time outdoors are also significantly less likely to experience depression, obesity, nearsightedness, and sleep problems. Yet these connections—and their straightforward remedies—remain largely underemphasized.

🌙 What About the Night?

If daytime is a problem, nighttime is arguably worse. Children today live in an environment not only devoid of sunlight but also saturated with artificial light after sunset. Phones, tablets, TVs, LED lighting, and overhead fixtures all emit blue light—a frequency that powerfully suppresses melatonin, delays sleep onset, and disrupts the body’s internal timing.

The MAHA report briefly mentions the effects of blue light from screens—but stops short of providing guidance on how to restore healthy circadian rhythms. It fails to educate on simple, evidence-backed solutions: dimming lights after sunset, avoiding screens in the evening, and keeping bedrooms truly dark at night.

Disrupted darkness at night has been linked to:

Obesity and insulin resistance
Behavioral and emotional dysregulation
Sleep phase delays and insomnia
Early puberty in girls, low testosterone in boys
Increased risk of childhood cancers

Put simply, our children are no longer synchronized with the 24-hour light–dark cycle. And this desynchronization is damaging their health in ways no pill or diet alone can fix.

📱 Screens: More Than Sedentary

The MAHA report rightly criticizes screen time for promoting sedentary lifestyles and reducing outdoor play. But it overlooks a critical point: screens don’t just displace movement—they displace biological timekeeping.

Screens used after sunset emit high-intensity blue light, tricking the brain into thinking it’s still daytime. This miscommunication:

Delays melatonin production
Disrupts sleep quality and timing
Alters the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
Contributes to mood disorders, fatigue, and immune dysfunction

Without darkness, the hormonal cascade required for cellular repair, detoxification, and neurological development never fully activates. These basic principles of chronobiology are absent from the report’s proposed solutions.

🔦 Too Vague to Guide Change

To be fair, the MAHA report does mention circadian health and light exposure (page 51). And on page 72, it suggests further research into movement, diet, light exposure, and sleep timing. But here’s the problem: the science already exists. The solutions are straightforward. Waiting years for more research only delays action.

Why do we need to “study” what’s already clear? The crisis is now. Children need sunlight in the morning, darkness at night, and routines that respect the solar clock. These are actionable, low-cost strategies that should have been featured front and center—not buried in vague references and future studies.

🌎 A Bigger Realignment

The MAHA Commission’s call to realign our food, health, and education systems is admirable. But if we are truly going to reverse the chronic illness epidemic in children, we must also realign with nature’s rhythms.

We need a new public health standard—one that acknowledges the role of sunlight, darkness, and circadian rhythm in human biology. Solutions should include:

Daily exposure to morning sunlight (within 30–60 minutes of waking)
Outdoor learning and unstructured play
Limiting screen use after sunset and switching to amber lighting indoors
Keeping bedrooms free from artificial light (including blackout curtains and screen curfews)
Circadian literacy as part of health education campaigns

Food and medication alone can’t restore what artificial lighting and circadian disruption have broken.

🧠 What the MAHA Report Got Right—and What It Missed

The MAHA report is a much-needed wake-up call. It takes bold aim at failed health policies and industry corruption. And yes, it does mention the influence of light and circadian biology—but only in passing.

It doesn’t offer clear, practical steps for how to restore a healthy relationship with light and darkness. It doesn’t explain how circadian disruption affects everything from sleep and metabolism to emotional regulation and brain development. And it doesn’t empower parents, educators, or practitioners with the tools they need to support real change.

In other words, the report shines a light on the problem—but leaves us in the dark when it comes to fixing it.

💬 Final Thought

We’re raising children in a world where the sun is feared, natural darkness is extinguished, and screens rule the night. While efforts like improving school lunches and reducing sugar are important, they won’t be enough on their own. To truly turn the tide on chronic disease, we must also restore balance with nature’s rhythms—starting with light and dark.

If we genuinely want to Make America Healthy Again, we need to restore the rhythms that made us healthy in the first place—sunlight by day, darkness by night, and sleep aligned with the 24-hour solar clock.

Pam Killeen is a health and sleep coach, author, podcaster and advocate for circadian health, with almost four decades of experience in the wellness field. Her career has evolved from focusing on nutrition and natural health strategies to integrating the critical principles of circadian biology into her online practice.

She is the author of three books—The Great Bird Flu Hoax (co-authored with Dr. Joseph Mercola); Addiction: The Hidden Epidemic; and Survival of the Unfittest—which highlight her deep interest in nutrition. Reflecting on her work, she wishes she had included information about circadian practices in her writing and consultations but believes it’s never too late to start. Her website is www.pamkilleen.com.