How to Boost Serotonin Naturally: Effective Habits for Improved Mood and Happiness

If you’ve ever felt calm after a walk in the woods, energized after a sunny morning, or deeply content after a wholesome meal, you’ve already experienced the quiet power of serotonin. It’s one of the four “happy chemicals” highlighted in The DOSE Effect by neuroscientist TJ Power—a book I recently read and highly recommend.

DOSE stands for Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. Power argues that imbalances in these brain chemicals are at the root of many modern challenges like low energy, mood swings, and chronic stress. But here’s the good news: with small, intentional habits, we can re-regulate these chemicals and feel significantly better—mentally, emotionally, and physically.

This is part three in my four-part series breaking down each of the DOSE chemicals. Today, we’re diving into serotonin.

What Is Serotonin?

Serotonin is your body’s natural mood stabilizer. When your serotonin levels are healthy, you feel: calm and emotionally grounded, energized and focused, and most of all, connected to your body and environment.

Over 90% of serotonin is produced in your gut, not your brain. This means digestion, food choices, and even your stress levels are deeply connected to how you feel emotionally and mentally. Serotonin also links to the vagus nerve, which acts as a two-way communication line between your brain and body. This nerve carries information about heart rate, breathing, digestion, energy, and emotional state. That’s why a “gut feeling” is often a chemical signal sent to your brain before you consciously understand what’s happening.

Why Was Serotonin So Important to Our Ancestors?

To understand why serotonin matters so much today, it helps to look backward. For our ancestors—whether they were foraging, hunting, or farming—survival depended on a strong connection to the natural world and their communities. Serotonin played a central role in regulating that balance. Here’s how:

1. Appetite and Digestion:
   Serotonin helped our ancestors detect when to eat and when to stop. This wasn’t just about comfort—it was about survival. Eating too little led to exhaustion; eating too much slowed them down. Serotonin worked with the gut to fine-tune this balance.

2. Sleep and Wake Cycles:
   Serotonin is the precursor to melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep. Before electricity, our ancestors’ lives revolved around the sun. Serotonin helped maintain circadian rhythms so they could rise with daylight and wind down at sunset. A good night’s rest meant better decision-making, sharper reflexes, and stronger immunity—key for surviving in the wild.

3. Sensory Awareness and Environmental Navigation:
   Serotonin regulated sensory input—sight, smell, temperature, and even pain perception. This fine-tuning helped ancestors detect environmental changes, such as spotting danger or sensing weather shifts. These small advantages contributed to their safety and survival.

4. Social Connection and Status:
   Serotonin played a role in group dynamics and social cohesion. Higher serotonin levels are linked to confidence and a sense of belonging—both vital for navigating group hierarchies. In tight-knit communities, being excluded could mean death. Serotonin helped humans feel secure, connected, and motivated to maintain social bonds.

In essence, serotonin wasn’t just about mood. It helped humans survive, connect, and thrive—all while aligning the body with the rhythms of the earth.

How Modern Life Disrupts Serotonin

While serotonin supported our ancestors in living attuned to nature, modern life presents challenges that interfere with healthy serotonin levels. Several everyday habits disrupt this balance.

1. Ultra-Processed Foods:
   Modern diets are often heavy in refined sugars, seed oils, and additives—ultra-processed foods (UPFs). These foods can damage the gut lining, kill beneficial bacteria, and feed harmful bacteria that disrupt the gut microbiome. Since serotonin is produced in the gut, this imbalance impairs serotonin production. Unfortunately, the average American gets about 60%-70% of their daily calories from UPFs (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). These foods are engineered for convenience and addictiveness, often at the cost of nourishment—and our nervous systems are paying the price.

2. Reduced Time in Nature:
   Modern life has drastically reduced the amount of time we spend outdoors. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, people now spend about 90–95% of their time indoors, leaving only 1-2 hours outside each day. This stark contrast to our ancestors—who spent 6–10 hours outdoors every day—has profound implications for our health, particularly serotonin production.
   
   The lack of outdoor exposure means less natural light, which is crucial for regulating our circadian rhythms and maintaining the serotonin-melatonin balance necessary for healthy sleep. Disrupting these rhythms has far-reaching consequences. We miss out on sunlight, natural movement, and the calming effects of nature that activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Adding to this, indoor environments are often filled with artificial noise and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from devices, which disrupt sleep and prevent deep, restorative rest. These factors ultimately hinder serotonin production, leading to negative effects on mood, energy, and overall well-being.
   

3. Scrolling After Sundown:
   The introduction of electricity has brought countless benefits, allowing us to be productive after dark and control our time. However, artificial light has also created significant challenges, particularly in disrupting our natural serotonin-melatonin rhythm.
   
   Screen use at night interferes with this balance in several ways. Blue light from screens signals to the brain that it’s still daytime, blocking melatonin production and reducing sleep quality. Since serotonin is required to make melatonin, disrupted sleep leads to disrupted serotonin. Moreover, endless scrolling often triggers stress and anxiety, increasing cortisol levels, which suppress serotonin. These habits create a biochemical environment that keeps the body wired and tired, making it difficult to achieve calm, restorative sleep and emotional balance.

Three Simple Habits to Boost Serotonin

You don’t need a dramatic lifestyle overhaul to improve serotonin. Start with these small, science-backed habits:

1. Eat Whole Foods 80% of the Time:
   Diet plays a significant role in boosting serotonin. Follow the 80/20 rule—aim for whole, unprocessed foods 80% of the time. Focus on single-ingredient items like protein (meat, fish, eggs), fruits, vegetables, and dairy, nuts, and seeds. Ask yourself before eating: “Could my ancestors have eaten this?” If the answer is yes, your body likely knows what to do with it.
   
   Special note about Protein:
   Protein is especially important—it provides tryptophan, which your body converts into serotonin. It’s no coincidence that our ancestors prioritized hunting before farming. Protein should be prioritized “before anything else” as it has numerous benefits for your body.
   

2. Get Morning and Evening Sunlight (10–30 Minutes):
   Think of sunlight as your body’s natural power source. Morning light boosts wakefulness and energy, while evening light calms the nervous system and prepares the brain for sleep. The habit is simple: go outside within an hour of waking and avoid sunglasses during this time—natural light needs to reach your eyes to activate serotonin pathways.
   

3. Take a Walk in Nature:
   Spending time in nature lowers cortisol, the stress hormone that blocks serotonin. Time spent in green or blue spaces activates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping you shift from stress into restoration. The soothing sounds and sights of nature stimulate serotonin pathways, helping restore emotional balance. Consider a morning walk in nature followed by a whole-foods, protein-first breakfast to boost serotonin, or adapt a similar habit in the evening for better sleep.

Final Thoughts

While dopamine might be the chemical of excitement and short bursts of pleasure, serotonin is what sustains us. It’s the foundation of calm, confidence, and internal equilibrium.

When your serotonin is balanced, you’ll sleep better, have better digestion, and experience steadier moods with feelings of groundedness, focus, and presence. In a world that often pulls us away from natural rhythms, tuning into serotonin is a way of coming home to ourselves. Simple daily habits—sunlight, real food, fresh air—help us restore what our ancestors once built their lives around.

Next in the series: Endorphins—your body’s natural painkillers and performance enhancers.