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Light therapy effective for treating depression, not just winter blues (washingtonpost.com)
53 points by ca98am79 on Nov 28, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 20 comments



In the rush to replace all incandescents with CFLs, no one seemed to care about the poor quality of light we now live and work under. Fluorescent lighting ruins my once-beautiful university campus at night, makes my parents house dreary and grim, etc. I hope some day we'll realize that the energy cost savings weren't free and pay some attention to the effect lighting has on our spaces and, correspondingly, our moods when we inhabit them.


Incandescent light is simply more familiar to you, it is hardly ideal. It is very high on the yellow/red spectrum compared to sunlight.

LED has a better balance than incandescent or fluorescent, but still not "natural" light.

See http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/g...


Incandescent bulbs which mostly emit light in the yellow–red part of the spectrum are much better for nighttime lighting, because they make less glare in your peripheral vision (which is dominated by rods and “S” cones), have less effect on night vision (short-wavelength light causes the eyes to become bright-adapted, making the rods completely useless), and cause less disruption to sleep cycles (Melanopsin is less sensitive to longer wavelengths). Furthermore, incandescent bulbs have a nice smooth spectrum, which in my experience results in better preservation of color relationships.

LEDs can be okay if you make an effort to find ones which are ~3000K CCT, and diffuse them properly. Fluorescent bulbs are invariably unpleasant, and tend to give me a headache, in addition to making everything look garish.

LED car headlights and streetlamps of CCT >3000K should be illegal, they’re much too bright in the short-wavelenth part of the spectrum, blinding drivers and pedestrians, disrupting people’s sleep (and animals and plants), creating nasty light pollution which blacks out the stars, and not actually improving visibility compared to less-blue LEDs or high-pressure sodium lamps. Same goes for flashlights and camping lamps, though those probably shouldn’t be literally illegal, just discouraged.

I hope someday display technology improves a bit and can support broader spectrum output with more than three isolated/intense primaries. Ink on paper is much nicer to look at than pixels on current screens. (Of course screens have the nice feature that they can easily change what they show.)

For daytime lighting a carefully constructed LED lamp might be better than incandescent lamps, but I much prefer just sitting near a window.


Incandescent light bulbs are still made for 'industrial' use and can be bought from Amazon and electrical suppliers in the UK. I still use a couple of 40w bulbs in steel reflector luminaires upstairs in the 'cave' because I prefer the light.

May well move to a 'chandelier' style luminaire downstairs for Xmas look and warm spectrum.

Days are short at this time of year at 52.5 North. Art shops sell 'daylight' bulbs (incandescent with light blue glass envelope).


Glad it's not just me. Since the War on Incandescents, I have realized that lighting fundamentally changes the nature of a space, including our homes.

CFL yellows everything and washes out colors. I believe some people are more sensitive to this effect. For me, it deadens everything. I think some are sensitive to the frequencies as well, just as to the old interlaced monitors.

LEDs have gotten better, but the light tends to be harsher and less diffuse than incandescent. Even the newer halogen incandescents on offer tend to be too white or harsh for my taste.

Never realized that the "default" incandescent brightness and temperature were so perfect until they became harder to find amidst the push towards energy efficiency. Since then, our living spaces have become dimmer and more lifeless. It literally changes how we experience life.

I thought I just needed to get used to it, but the effect is still very noticeable to me.


From the study: "participants were exposed daily to 30 minutes from a fluorescent light box soon after waking up."

But subjectively, I agree with you; the quality of most fluorescent lighting is aesthetically inferior to halogen or other incandenscents.


I wonder, could LEDs be used to provide lighting that's both aesthetically more pleasing and more energy-efficient?


All my bulbs are LED. There's a local government subsidy for them that makes them very affordable. I think the light looks much better than CFL and they're cheaper to operate and last longer.


I have soft white CFLs that look identical to incandescent bulbs. I also recently bought some full spectrum 5500K CFLs for my bathroom vanity, in an effort to see if full spectrum light in the morning will help my mood. A lot of the "daylight" CFLs are not full spectrum, and are a harsh blue. Things look rather natural under full spectrum once they warm up and your eyes adjust. When I turn off the full spectrum light, it is interesting to see just how yellow "soft white" light is.


No CFLs are “full spectrum”. The fundamental nature of the technology is to create a number of sharp “spikes” in the spectrum. This inevitably causes distorted color relationships relative to daylight or incandescent lighting.

The bulbs also cost much more to produce than incandescents and are full of toxic mercury, and wear out much more quickly than advertised when turned on and off frequently (as is typical in residential uses).

This page mirrors my thoughts reasonably well (http://www.richsoil.com/CFL-fluorescent-light-bulbs.jsp). On the whole, CFLs are a handout to a small handful of rich lighting companies, sold to the public under false pretenses.


I am aware it's not truly "full spectrum", but it is more tolerable than the harsher bluer "daylight" CFLs. These CFLs were designed to provide truer whites for photography. They were also cheaper than buying a lightbox.

Incandescent bulbs also use about 3 - 4 times the power, and burnout quite often. There is no perfect solution.


Soft white incandescents are warm and cozy; soft white CFLs are just yellow.


Interesting reference, I'll read that article for sure, JAMA Psychiatry is a top-tier journal. However not a new idea, there have been prior studies showing benefit of light treatment for non-seasonal depression, particularly in "elderly" individuals (e.g., people over 60).

How it works in practice, well, the usual caveat about varying mileage definitely applies in this domain. I've recommended adjunctive light treatment over many years. Though it can help reduce symptoms, in most cases other therapies are still necessary to achieve remission of depression.

Several comments were made about the lamps used for light treatment. The optimum emission spectrum for light therapy is really an unsettled question. Early on (in 1980's) the quantity of light was emphasized, 10000 lux is considered standard since that is equivalent to minimal "normal" daylight, e.g., heavily overcast midday sky in late fall. Some work suggests as little as 4-5K lux may be sufficient for response.

Some studies have shown blue light (say ~460nm) to be most effective, others found peak response to green (~500-550). And some researchers in the field have the opinion the spectral quality is less important the light intensity.

Since usually light treatment for depression is administered in early morning, consistent with normal circadian influence, the blueness of light as encouraging wakefulness is not a problem. As some comments noted, some research suggests blue light exposure in evening hours can trigger wakefulness, though not yet enough evidence to say that's been proven.

Notably device displays have been getting brighter, and more blue, thanks to "white" LED illumination which has prominent emission ~450nm. Of course LED output spectrum varies across diodes, but kind of a parallel to fluorescent lamps which tend to have prominent green emission regardless of apparent "warm" or "cool" effect.

The advice to avoid computer or phone use in evening is based on both brightness and spectrum, to say nothing of the mentally stimulating effects interfering with sleep onset.


First thing that came to mind about the study was that if participants have to wake up at certain time every day, and they have to be still for 30 minutes, they are likely to use that eating breakfast.

For me having fixed sleep rhythm and eating breakfast are two things that help with moody periods. So it could be that the side effects are more important than the light itself.

If it's true that this helps, but doesn't really cure. Then it might be best used on healthy people. So they don't ever get depressed.


I want lights with adjustable spectrums. I.e. more blue wavelengths during the day and more yellow/red at nights.


Hue Lux bulbs can do that.


Not sure if this is relevant (the panels may or may not produce vitamin d in people's skin) but since taking a high quality vitamin d in winter I feel considerably clearer and more solid in my mentality.


Production of Vitamin D3 is produced by UVB hitting 7-Dehydrocholesterol.

If that light is producing UVB, then people should be wearing UV goggles while using it. I highly doubt they are using "naked" CCFLs producing UVB.


What is some good hardware I can buy for this "light therapy" ?


I have heard that this one is used in many of the studies: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PCN4UVU/ref=s9_wish_gw_g...




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