Hi, I'm Dr. Tracey Marks.
I'm a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
And I'm here to give you a tip
about why and how to use a light box.
This is designed to be for information purposes
and not intended to be medical advice or treatment.
So what is light therapy?
Well, bright light therapy
is where we use light
that is the same intensity, color,
and wavelength of sunlight.
Bright light therapy, traditionally,
was used for seasonal affective disorder.
When someone, because of not getting
very much sunlight exposure,
may get depressed in the winter time.
And then when there's increased light exposure,
may even get manic or hypomanic in the spring time.
Well, more recently, we have realized
that light therapy is even beneficial
for more than just seasonal affective disorder,
but even for depression,
it's considered an adjunct treatment for depression.
So if you are someone who is
on antidepressant medications,
and let's say, you're 80% better,
and just feel like you need to be a little bit better,
but don't want to change your medication,
or try anything different,
or even add another medication,
you could consider using light therapy
as an adjunct to help boost
the effectiveness of your medication.
But in addition to that,
light therapy is also very, very helpful
in regulating sleep.
It can help you be someone
who becomes more of a morning person
and just pops out of bed in the morning.
Suppose you've spent the whole summer
going to bed at 11 o'clock
and waking up at seven or eight o'clock.
And now, you really need to be up
at six or even five o'clock in the morning.
And how in the world are you going to accomplish that
without a lot of pain and suffering?
Well, light therapy can help pull your sleep forward.
So what is light therapy?
Here is an example of a light box.
It's very small.
They used to be these huge contraptions
that you'd have to sit on a shelf.
Now, and there's some that's even smaller than this.
This is probably four or five years old,
this particular device.
You turn it on.
It's very bright.
And it's pretty bright, but it's not that bright, actually.
But the way you would use it
is you would turn it on,
and you would use it for 15 to 30,
or even perhaps 45 minute, intervals or increments,
and that would be a session.
You would hold it at, at least an arm's distance -
not sure if you can see this -
arm's distance at like a 45 degree angle to your eyes,
so that you're eyes actually see the light,
but you're not looking directly at it.
Kind of like you wouldn't look directly at the sun.
So, if you're trying to, say, get ready in the morning.
And also, you would use it first thing
in the mornings upon rising.
So, let's say, within an hour of waking up.
Because if you use light, this type of light,
too late in the day,
it can actually push back your sleep
to where you have trouble going to sleep
in the early evenings.
So, you could use it first thing in the morning.
You could put it, say, on a shelf
in the bathroom while you're getting dressed.
If you need to, say, go to your closet to get something,
just grab it and walk with you, or walk with it.
And it can follow you,
so you don't have to have 15 minutes
where you're just sitting doing nothing.
You can continue to be active
while you're using the light therapy.
You could start with 15 minutes.
30 minutes would be an average time,
probably more effective if you're tryin'
to use it for depression.
15 minutes could be suitable for someone
who's just trying to wake up earlier in the morning.
If you start using this
to help you wake up in the morning,
you should probably see results,
as far as waking up on your own at that time,
within a day or two.
It works very fast that way.
So, little tip for the day.
Light boxes, light therapy.
I can put a link in for a couple of types.
This happens to be a Philips goLite.
But there's many out there on the market.
So, good luck to you,
and thanks for listening.