- Hi, I'm Dr. Tracey Marks,
and I make mental health education videos.
What is something that you can do for your mania
that doesn't involve medication?
I've talked in a previous video
about using bright light therapy for bipolar disorder,
but this would be for the depressed phase of the illness.
You wouldn't wanna use a light box during mania.
Typically during a manic or hypomanic episode,
you have a decreased need for sleep.
Some people may only sleep a couple of hours and feel fine,
where some people can go a day or two
without sleeping at all.
But sleep deprivation fuels mania and makes it ramp up
to become out of control, so increasing your sleep
becomes a priority.
A treatment that's gaining some traction
as far as recommending it, is dark therapy.
Dark therapy works the opposite of bright light therapy.
You wear glasses with amber-colored lenses
that block out the blue light from the sunlight.
Blue light from sunlight blocks melatonin.
So when you have no melatonin around,
your body thinks that it's daylight.
When the sun goes down, or you put on the glasses,
you get melatonin release, and your body thinks
that it's nighttime.
So here's why this works.
It works because of a photoreceptor
in your eye called melanopsin.
This receptor detects light, but it doesn't help you see
because it's not connected to the visual cortex,
which is the part of your brain that controls your vision.
Instead, the nerve endings are connected to the part of
your brain that controls your biological clock,
called the suprachiasmatic nucleus.
Also, this receptor is selectively sensitive
to short wavelength light.
In this case, that's wavelengths around 480 nanometers
which corresponds to blue light.
So blue light activates the receptor and causes
your pineal gland to stop producing melatonin.
As long as you're exposed to daylight,
and in some cases, blue light from your devices,
your melatonin is shut off.
Now, here's how the glasses fit in.
The blue light-blocking glasses have an amber-colored lens
that blocks the blue light that you see.
So when you put them on, it's as if you're walking
around in complete darkness.
Visually, you see the light, but because your brain
isn't seeing the blue light, your mind thinks
that it's nighttime.
Then, you get the release of melatonin.
The protocol for dark therapy is to wear the glasses
from six p.m. to eight a.m.
If you work late, you should wear them
before you leave work if you can do it discreetly.
This becomes even more important in the spring
and in the summer when we have longer days.
If you like wearing the glasses, more is not better.
You really don't wanna wear them longer
than the recommended 14 hours.
Wearing them for longer can actually disrupt
your circadian rhythm and worsen your mood.
Because, remember, while you're wearing them,
it's like you're walking around in the dark,
and you don't want your body to think
that you're in the dark all day and all night.
And by the way, the glasses don't make you sleepy,
at least not immediately.
But they do help restore your sleep schedule
to sleeping more soundly in the evening.
Once your mania resolves, you can still wear the glasses
as maintenance, as long as you're not depressed
and sleeping for a long time.
In the maintenance phase, you can push back the time
that you start wearing them from six p.m.
to between eight and 10 p.m.
These glasses have been studied in people
who have trouble falling asleep
and do not have bipolar disorder.
One study showed improved sleep in people who wore
the glasses about two hours before their desired bedtime.
As with everything, it's not guaranteed
to work for everyone.
It's also not a substitute for bipolar disorder medication,
but it can be a way to regulate your sleep
in a preventative way when you're not
in the throes of a manic episode.
In the studies, it did help people sleep deeper as well.
You can get really expensive fancy glasses,
or you can get an inexpensive pair online.
The Uvex Skyper brand was actually one that was used
in one of the studies, and you can get it on Amazon
for $10 or less.
I'll put a link in the description for these glasses.
Here's a video on bright light therapy
for bipolar depression.
It works a little bit differently from unipolar depression
or seasonal affective disorder.
See you next time.