Light Therapy for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Philips goLITE BLULast time I wrote about this most inauspicious January, and I said I'd talk briefly about how I'm trying to stay more positive and have more energy (other than exercising).

Last December I finally bought a Philip BluLight from Amazon. I'd been resisting buying this product mostly because it's not cheap and I wasn't sure if it'd actually work. But since I got really really tired of feeling SAD and lethargic in winter, I broke down and bought it.

Despite my skepticism, I've been using it for close to a month now, and I think it works.

I use it at the lowest setting for about 30 minutes in the morning after breakfast. (I may try the medium intensity at some point, but the lowest setting seems to work fine for me.)

The days I use it, I don't really need to drink coffee or anything, provided that I had at least 7 hours of sleep the night before. (And the BluLight helps with getting to sleep at night — double whammy!) I also feel less blue and depressed despite the cold and dreary weather. However, it doesn't help my joints feel better. They ache when the weather's bad.

I only use it once a day, but some people use it more often. It is not recommended for use in the late afternoon / evening because it might make it hard to fall asleep. Since I only use it in the morning, I haven't felt any adverse effects. But just because I feel refreshed and more alert in the morning doesn't mean I need less sleep.

The only time I didn't use it is when I was deathly ill around the time Reunited in Love was released. I slept so much during that time that it didn't make any sense to use the product (I didn't get up until almost noon anyway).

I remember seeing some questions about the BluLight from my Tweet followers. Feel free to either @ me on Twitter or leave some comments / questions here, and I'll be happy to answer them. :)