Light in the Dark

Using light therapy to combat  Seasonal Affective Disorder and other body ailments.

article by Starla Gatson

Light therapy, also known as phototherapy or heliotherapy, is exactly what you would expect it to be: it’s the use of an artificial light source to treat the body’s ailments.

Though it’s easy to appreciate the winter months because of the holiday cheer and shiny new year they bring, they often bring about a downside that can’t exactly be ignored. The stress of the busyness combined with the earlier sunsets and darker days can begin to weigh you down, and before you know it, you find yourself wishing for spring to come quickly. 

The “winter blues” aren’t just some made-up phenomenon, and you’re certainly not alone if you experience them. These mood swings, loss of interest, changes in sleep or appetite, and feelings of guilt or worthlessness may be symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, for short, and according to an article published in 2019 by Boston University Today, about 10 million Americans find themselves struggling with it. 

Though the symptoms of the disorder mimic those often associated with depression, Sanford Auerbach, an Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, said the key to distinguishing the two is noting the time of year your symptoms typically set in. “The way you recognize it is that over the course of several years, you see that there’s a recurrent theme; every four months you start to have these changes in mood. So after this happens maybe three years or more, then you could consider that it’s SAD,” he explained to Boston University Today. 

While many factors could contribute to the onset of SAD — like holiday stress or loneliness, to name a few — many believe it’s the winter’s change in light cycle that brings on SAD. “Certainly for people who live in areas where you don’t see such great variation in seasons, it’s not as likely to occur,” Auerbach told the Boston University publication. “The extreme would be people who live in equatorial areas. There, the times don’t shift much. They have close to 12-hour days all year round, whereas people farther north or farther south can have very long days in the winter, but very short, nonexistent days in the winter.”

Richard Swartz, MD, an associate clinical psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, echoed the importance of a consistent light cycle, and told Everyday Health, “Human beings evolved under the day-night cycle. It is the natural timekeeper that sets our biological clocks within our brains and organs throughout the body.” And when those biological clocks are disrupted, like when Daylight Savings sends our clocks back an hour and the sun down sooner in the winter, it’s not uncommon for depression or depression-like symptoms to set in. 

So, how do we survive until spring is sprung? The answer is simple: we shed a bit of light on the situation. That’s where light therapy comes in. Light, as it turns out, can do more than just illuminate dark rooms or create a growth catalyst for plants. It also makes an effective method of therapy. 

Light therapy, also known as phototherapy or heliotherapy, is exactly what you would expect it to be: it’s the use of an artificial light source to treat the body’s ailments. 

This non-invasive process is intended to compensate for the lack of natural light the body typically experiences from around November through March, so a white light is used to mimic the sunlight. Patients sit a little over a foot away from a lightbox — typically one that emits around 10,000 lux — for sessions lasting up to 30 minutes. 

Many people see improvement after a week or two of treatment, but how well it works depends on the individual and the severity of his or her symptoms. According to a Healthline interview with Illinois psychologist, Dr. Carl Vincent, however, light therapy is not meant to be hailed as an immediate miracle cure. “The idea is that it could be used as a supplemental therapy,” he told the website. “In addition to treatment, people suffering from depression in the winter months should try to be more active. Winter is a time when people tend to be more sedentary, and getting more exercise can help improve mood.”

Why exactly light therapy works in treating SAD is something experts aren’t totally sure of, but they know it does. This is probably because light triggers serotonin release in the brain and the sunlight-placebo lightbox can do the same thing. But, Mayo Clinic reports, the process is the most helpful when light intensity, duration of treatment, and time of day of treatment are balanced properly. This balance depends on the individual, so it may take some trial and error to get it right. 

SAD isn’t the only thing light therapy can treat. While white lights have been found to alleviate stress in the mind, red and blue lights can be used to heal physical ailments.

According to Healthline, red light therapy, which is often called low-level light therapy, uses red low-level wavelengths to treat a variety of conditions, from more cosmetic procedures like smoothing wrinkles or erasing scarring, to healing more uncomfortable or painful issues, like persistent wounds, psoriasis, or joint pain. 

The red light is thought to energize the mitochondria, or the “powerhouse,” of your cells, giving them the power to repair themselves and become healthy again. 

Last but not least is blue light therapy, which is commonly reserved for the skin. This form of treatment is usually used for treating sun damage or skin cancer growths. When used with a prescribed photosynthesizing drug, the blue light can also kill cancer cells. Blue light therapy can also be used to treat less-serious skin conditions, like acne.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Something as simple and easily attainable as light healing from the inside out. It’s non-invasive, so there’s no need for surgery or anything entering the body. And if you purchase the right kind of lightbox, you give yourself the luxury of undergoing treatments in the comfort of your own home, which is especially helpful as the uncertain presence of COVID-19 continues to urge us to stay inside as much as possible. 

But, along with the pros of light therapy come a set of cons that cannot exactly be ignored. The treatment is a generally harmless process, and though medical professionals are still unsure of whether or not long-term side effects exist, short-term side effects may include eyestrain, headache, nausea, or inflammation. Mayo Clinic says there’s no need to worry right away if you experience any of these sensations after a light therapy session. Just try shortening your treatment time, moving further away from the lightbox, or moving your session to another time of day. 

You don’t need a prescription or any kind of special permission to buy a lightbox for therapy, but before you rush out and buy one, it’s important that you talk to your primary care physician to find out if light therapy is a viable option for you.