Using sun and light to relieve depression
Do you
sometimes feel depressed, sluggish and inclined to nibble on sugary,
carbohydrate snacks, such as cakes and biscuits? Do you tend to
experience this during the late winter and early spring months? Do you
usually welcome the spring and the summer months? If the answer to each
of these questions is yes, you would probably benefit from light therapy.
Most of us usually feel better in the summer months when light levels are
higher than in the winter months. Our mood lifts, colors become more
vibrant, everything springs into life. A week's holiday in the sun during
the winter months can significantly relieve depression - although the
effect is, unfortunately, not long lasting. Increase your length of
exposure if you seem to be deriving little benefit. If you start to feel
irritable and overactive, decrease your amount of exposure to light.
Seasonal
Affective Disorder (SAD)
Winter depression may be caused by a rise in the level of melatonin, a
substance produced in the brain. When light levels are increased, the
production of melatonin stops and the depression lifts. The significance
of low light levels was not recognized until the start of the 1980s.
Research identified what is now known as Seasonal Affective Disorder,
SAD.
The results of using light therapy at trial stage in the early 1980s were
spectacular: up to 80 percent of people who had fallen into a devastating
depression every winter for years were suddenly, within a week, cured of
their depression with no serious side effects. They reported lifting of
the depression, good mood and soaring energy levels.
All you have to do is look at a light box from anything from 30 minutes
to up to four or five hours, depending on the intensity of the box used
and on the severity of depression. You can continue to work, read or
watch television while looking at the light box.
Melatonin
Production
The pineal
gland in the brain secretes a hormone called melatonin, which is derived
from serotonin. It is linked to the cycle of day and night, is involved
in regulating bodily functions and is what causes animals to hibernate.
Sunlight stops the production of melatonin. The weaker light of winter
often does not reach a sufficiently high level, so melatonin production
is not suppressed and susceptible people develop SAD.
Key Facts:
-
Sunlight and
artificial light of sufficient intensity relieve depression in less than
a week in 75-80 percent of people with SAD.
-
If you obtain
a box of 10,000 lux, you will probably need only 30 minutes' exposure
each day.
-
Light therapy
still works successfully through spectacles and contact lenses.
-
Some light
boxes are portable and some are designed so that you can continue
working, reading or watching television while absorbing light.
-
Ordinary
domestic electric lights are not intense enough to affect hormonal
changes in the body.
