Mollie has reminded me that I have forgotten to give you all an update on how my light therapy has been going. My apologies for that, Mollie and others who wondered when I was going to get around to it. There’s rather a lot to put into one post, so what I am going to do is talk a little about light therapy in general today, then review the light box I bought specifically in a later blog post.

For those who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, light therapy is one of the most recommended treatments for a condition called SAD (or Seasonal Affective Disorder). SAD is a form of winter depression – symptoms in the darker months of the year include: oversleeping and difficulty staying awake, continual fatigue and disinterest in activities, cravings for carbohydrates and sugary foods, along with other common symptoms of depression.

The reason why people get SAD (which does appear to have a strong genetic component) is thought to be linked to nerve cells in our eyes that react to the blue portion of daylight in order to keep our body clock on track. As the days get darker in the winter, this process just isn’t as efficient for some people, hence triggering a “hibernation” effect with the symptoms listed above.

What light therapy tries to do is provide enough light at the correct time of day to “reset” that body clock. It has proven to be highly effective for most suffers of SAD and is often the first choice of treatment before antidepressants and counselling, although the latter two also have proven benefits for this condition.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Seasonal Depression, you can find out more information from the SADA website.

So that’s the theory. What did I find out in practise?

Well the first thing I discovered, is that (contrary to what you would expect… it’s only “light” after all) light therapy does have side effects.

For the first few days of treatment, I really did feel quite giddy and sick. On investigation, this is quite a common side effect and I think next year I will be much more careful to slowly work up to a full “dose” over several days rather than on day one – give my brain a chance to catch up a bit. I’ve also read that (for similar reasons) it’s important to slowly trail off exposure to the light over several weeks at the end of the SAD season.

The other thing that is tricky to get right is the dosage and timing.

I have a fairly high powered light box, which means my recommended exposure time varies between 15 minutes and half an hour (I can also vary the light strength). This was a bit of a balancing act as I found that using it too early in the morning meant I woke too early the next morning, but leaving it too late meant I really struggled to get out of bed in time the next day. Also, too short a dose meant I had an energy slump in the middle of the day and needed a top up.

It was a case of trial and error in the early days to get the right balance. I’ve ended up with a routine of using it an hour after I wake up, for half an hour on a three quarter dose – but each person will have different requirements, I’m sure.

I also found that if one day I had a lie in and hence had a later dose of light therapy than normal it completely messed my body clock up – so those days I would skip the light therapy completely, rather than reset my body clock to a different time. You do have to be careful though, as miss too many doses and the therapy is no longer as effective.

All that said, the light therapy has been fantastic, and I really don’t begrudge spending the money at all. I’m finding it so much easier to get up and have energy and interest in my day again. I’m a nicer person with my children (and you really don’t realise quite how depressed you were until that depression lifts and you start to feel so much better).

I did have a bit of a slump earlier in January when we had a week of constant rain – in retrospect, I should have upped the light strength just for that week as soon as I noticed my mood declining.

I will be using the light box again next year.

So there you go, I hope that was helpful. I will review the light box I bought shortly in another post.