Seasonal affective disorder and light therapy

[badger]

interesting you mention it, I'm on day 2 of my SAD light therapy experiment.

I went to IKEA and bought a $30 desk lamp, and got myself a full spectrum lightbulb.

I have the lamp sitting on a filing cabinet that abuts my "cubicle", and it's currently shining down on my workspace.

I'm not expecting miracles, but it does give a nice, bright, cheery light. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks/months if it's working.

[solobiker]

One of my co-workers husband used one last year and according to her it helped him.

[owlice]

I found that going to the Bahamas in January was very helpful in relieving SAD. I wish I were kidding about this, but I'm not; I felt sooo much better the rest of that winter after that trip, which was just a long weekend.

So: Get your doctor to prescribe a long weekend in the Bahamas! It works!

Thanks for the link for the full-spectrum light bulb.

[Tuckervill]

Looked it up on wikipedia, and there appears to be no possible scientific definition of "full spectrum" when it comes to light. IOW, it's a meaningless marketing term. I need more light, for sure, when it has been gray and icky for days and weeks in mid-winter. I'm not sure a bulb can provide that, after reading today.

Curiously, I was thinking about it just today while I was driving home, and the clouds parted and I saw the sun for the first time all week. I think I'm going to try Vitamin D, first.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

IOW, it's a meaningless marketing term.

Probably true. But the lights that doctors prescribe have a demonstrated effect, and their product information should describe their spectrum so you can compare it against midday sunlight.

As far as the consumer-grade low wattage lights - I don't have an appreciable degree of SAD, but Vita-Lite bulbs made an enormous difference in my sleep patterns when I worked in an office with no windows. I'm sure the wattage was way too low to have an effect on SAD, but the difference in my sleep was (I have to say it) "night and day."

[Tuckervill]

A very detailed article on the subject, from the standpoint of the bulbs themselves.

Full-spectrum light sources and health. Full-spectrum light sources will not provide better health than most other electric light sources. Recent research has shown that human daily activities are strongly influenced by the solar light/dark cycle. The most notable of these daily, or circadian, cycles is the sleep/wake cycle; but other activities including mental awareness, mood, and perhaps even the effectiveness of the immune system go through regular daily patterns. Light is the most important environmental stimulus for regulating these circadian cycles and synchronizing them to the solar day. Short wavelength (blue) light is particularly effective at regulating the circadian system; long wavelength (red) light is apparently inconsequential to the circadian system. Thus, to maximize efficiency in affecting the circadian system, a light source should not mimic a full spectrum, but instead should maximize only short wavelengths. Even if a full-spectrum light source includes short wavelength light in its spectrum, it will not necessarily ensure proper circadian regulation because, in addition, the proper intensity, timing, and duration of the light exposure are all equally important for satisfactory circadian regulation (Rea et. al, 2002).

Light therapy treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) usually involves regulated exposure to a white light source, commonly 10,000 lux at the eye for 30 minutes per day (Partonen and Lönnqvist, 1998). Any white light source will be effective at these levels (Lam and Levitt, 1999), so full-spectrum light source is in no way special for treatment of SAD.

Full-spectrum light sources and psychological benefits. Full-spectrum light sources may have psychological benefits, particularly in societies that place value on "natural" environments. One of the claims often associated with full-spectrum light sources is that they are most like natural daylight. Unlike full-spectrum electric light sources, however, daylight does not have a fixed spectrum. Rather, natural light varies with latitude, time of day, season, cloud cover, air pollution, ground reflectance, and, if a person is indoors, window tinting. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that people consistently prefer natural lighting from windows and skylights to electrical lights. These preferences are robust and may reflect psychological associations with the natural environment that produce positive affect in many people. Positive affect induced by daylight may, in fact, help improve mood and motivation and thus increase productivity and retail sales. Full-spectrum light sources offer this positive association with daylight. Although positive psychological benefits from full-spectrum light sources may have been observed in some circumstances, there appears to be no biophysical explanation for those observations (Heschong, Wright & Okura, 2000). Still, the power of psychological associations cannot be denied and it is certainly conceivable that cleverly marketed full-spectrum light sources may provide beneficial effects to some people susceptible to that marketing. As NLPIP's survey demonstrated, there appears to be a strong positive association with full-spectrum light sources that has resulted from marketing, presumably because of the association between full-spectrum lighting and "natural" light.

Link

I think if I lived in a place with a period of constant darkness, I'd certainly invest in more natural appearing light sources (non-flourescents, which I do not tolerate very well). For my brief encounters with the gray skies, I think I'll try the Vitamin D and getting outside more, regardless of the weather.

I suppose if the benefits are "all in my head", that's good enough, since that's where the problem originates in the first place.

Karen

[lo123]

Upon recommendation by my therapist, I picked up a Verilux HappyLite Mini Plus at Costco Last year for ~$40.

It's not a magic fix, but I do notice a difference in my moods when I use the light vs when I don't. As soon as DST ends, I have mine on for several hours when I'm at work.

[badger]

tuckerville: why not just let people believe it has benefits? let it be a placebo effect; if people believe it's working and feel better, why not let them? (provided it's not a health hazard!)