SAD Lamps - Working With A Blue Light Box
During the winter months, where there isn't much sunlight, many people experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which is a form of acute depression. Some of the symptoms that SAD sufferers experience are fatigue, lack of concentration, low motivation, carbohydrate cravings, lower sex drive and the lack of restful sleep. Mostly, the regions further away from the equator have any significant population suffering from SAD.
Early on, researchers believed that treatments where just the eyes were exposed to light would lift the depressed mood. As the research evolved, specialists that particular receptors in the eyes reacted to the short wavelength lights, or blue lights, by reducing that amount of melatonin produced (the sleep hormone). They found that test subjects became more alert after thirty minutes of exposure to blue light, especially in the morning.
Additional testing determined the range of exposure time and the time of day for the most effective treatment of blue light therapy. Patients noticed less symptoms if they were exposed to the light therapy in the morning verses afternoon or evening.
Light intensity can be measured in units of lux (the measurement of brightness). A bright summer's day is approximately one-hundred thousand lux. A bright spring morning right after dawn only measures at ten thousand lux (now the standard for SAD lamps). Whereas a bright office tops out at one thousand lux and your home, in the brightest room, only offers five hundred lux.
The color of the light plays a significant role as well. Kelvins are the unit of measurement for the light colors. For instance a high Kelvin number is found on the blue end of the spectrum with short wavelengths. Low Kelvin numbers are found on the other end for long wavelengths and are red to yellow. Blue sky is represented at twenty-eight thousand Kelvin whereas firelight is eighteen hundred. Ordinary daylight is fifty-six hundred.
When shopping for a light box or lamp for SAD therapy, you will want to imitate natural light. Look for lamps that fall in the five thousand Kelvin range. The light will have a bluish cast and a good unit will filter out harmful ultra violet rays. Based on your level of SAD, your length of therapy will last anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours, daily. The best time to use your unit would be at the beginning of your day.
Early on, researchers believed that treatments where just the eyes were exposed to light would lift the depressed mood. As the research evolved, specialists that particular receptors in the eyes reacted to the short wavelength lights, or blue lights, by reducing that amount of melatonin produced (the sleep hormone). They found that test subjects became more alert after thirty minutes of exposure to blue light, especially in the morning.
Additional testing determined the range of exposure time and the time of day for the most effective treatment of blue light therapy. Patients noticed less symptoms if they were exposed to the light therapy in the morning verses afternoon or evening.
Light intensity can be measured in units of lux (the measurement of brightness). A bright summer's day is approximately one-hundred thousand lux. A bright spring morning right after dawn only measures at ten thousand lux (now the standard for SAD lamps). Whereas a bright office tops out at one thousand lux and your home, in the brightest room, only offers five hundred lux.
The color of the light plays a significant role as well. Kelvins are the unit of measurement for the light colors. For instance a high Kelvin number is found on the blue end of the spectrum with short wavelengths. Low Kelvin numbers are found on the other end for long wavelengths and are red to yellow. Blue sky is represented at twenty-eight thousand Kelvin whereas firelight is eighteen hundred. Ordinary daylight is fifty-six hundred.
When shopping for a light box or lamp for SAD therapy, you will want to imitate natural light. Look for lamps that fall in the five thousand Kelvin range. The light will have a bluish cast and a good unit will filter out harmful ultra violet rays. Based on your level of SAD, your length of therapy will last anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours, daily. The best time to use your unit would be at the beginning of your day.
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