(Updated April 2024.) I’ve mentioned this in passing a few times on the site — the exposure length and timing of the bright light therapy I use to control carb cravings, insomnia, low mood, and zombie brain changes over the years.
I used to need it only from October to April, for 30 minutes, and it wouldn’t work after 9 am. Then I switched to 60 minutes for quite a while, until it started to make me antsy. In my forties my daily exposure time was down to 20 minutes, but wouldn’t work after 7:15 am, and I seemed to need it all year.
When I moved to the desert, 7 degrees of latitude further south, I went back to only using it from October to early March. I consider this proof that some chicks are not meant to live further north than a palm tree.
Here are a few references I’ve used to figure out timing and “dosage.”
- Chronotherapeutics for Affective Disorders: A Clinician’s Manual for Light and Wake Therapy
- Light therapy online info guide
Other interesting info:
- Light therapy has different effects on younger and older eyes (paywall — New York Times article)
- According to one light therapy retail website that no longer exists (lighttherapyproducts dot com), “Some drugs make patients photosensitive, as can contact lenses, and those patients may need to be conservative when starting light therapy.”
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This content was first published in May 2013 and updated in April 2023 and April 2024.
Marjorie R.
Marjorie is the creator of AvoidingRx.com, a record of her and her guest authors’ experiences with non-prescription health solutions. She is a third-generation nutritional-therapy self-experimenter.
