Intense Light
Light therapy is an alternative treatment to antidepressant drugs and other therapies for depression and sleep disorders. An intense light used during therapy triggers a chemical reaction in the brain's pineal gland. This lessens the transformation of serotonin into the sleep hormone melatonin, which determines sleep cycles. People may slow down and feel lethargic due to low levels of serotonin, leading to depression.
Many people suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as natural daylight shortens during the fall and winter months. Light therapy counteracts these effects. It not only works for depression and sleep disturbances, but also for bipolar disorders. Light therapy usually consists of sitting in front of a box that emits intense light for about 15 to 30 minutes.
Studies
A Canadian study of 96 patients at the Mood Disorders Centre, UBC Hospital, in Vancouver, compared light therapy and antidepressant treatment, such as Prozac-like drugs, on people who suffered from depression in the winter. Both therapies showed equal improvement, but the light therapy was a bit faster, lowering depression scores after one week.
Another study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had similar results, revealing that light therapy worked as well as antidepressant medication for SAD and depression. The advantage to light therapy is that it is far less expensive than standard treatments and has fewer side effects. Standard treatments usually take a year or more to be successful. Patients can be treated at a clinic with light therapy or treat themselves through light boxes that cost as little as $200.
Brighter
Light therapy works by emitting more light to the eyes than normal interior lighting. During wintertime, for example, people will get most of their light from inside lighting. The outdoors can be 500 to 1,000 times brighter than inside lighting. The lack of such lighting can have a tremendous negative effect on certain people's moods, because of the resulting low levels of serotonin. More studies on light therapy have been conducted in recent years, as increased funding became available and more scientists became convinced of its stimulating results. Research has also revealed that light therapy may help reverse the regenerative aging process and sun damage to the skin. Since it is a non-invasive procedure it has hardly any side effects and it seems to work quickly, according to researchers.
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