Light Therapy And Seasonal Affective Disorder

Summary:

Some animals’ natural reaction to winter season is hibernation. And some humans also react to the changes in the season. Metabolism and mood are the often seen reactive. Often characterized by the extended periods of sleep and the want for longer sleep periods, increased eating habits, surprisingly lethargic; these reactions can have various health implications, and can often disrupt lives. These symptoms are known as the SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Seasonal Affective Disorder attributes to several enduring affliction: oversleeping problems but with general feeling of weakness, over eating but with surprisingly low metabolism, physical symptoms but often physical manifests of low psychological well being. As you can see, Seasonal Affective Disorder at a glance is purely psychological in nature though one can also attribute to the inherent nature’s code in our human anatomy. But explaining it to the sufferer won’t guarantee warm reception.

One common rationalization for the Seasonal Affective Disorder is that it is a natural adaptation to seasonal changes that isn’t quite lost to the adjustable humans. Seasonal Affective Disorder is often attributed to the presence of lower light levels. And coupled with the cold weather, individuals tend to coop up indoors lowering their light exposure to critical levels. That could cause biological circumstances of the body. The most prevalent form is of course hibernation wherein your body stores energy by limiting the amount of calorie to be burned while stocking up fats. These disorders often hit individuals who have too laidback lifestyles or suffering already from several cases of depression.

Light therapy is often a common treatment for the Seasonal Affective Disorder. And surprisingly it is a well known procedure attributed to the loads of sufferers during winter time. This treatment entails exposure to intense levels of light under controlled conditions. Treatment may be served with several sets of incandescent light bulbs where the sufferer must be in close proximity without staring directly at the light for a set amount of time. At most around 20 – 30 minutes. Some devices are a tabletop appliance that gives of streaming white light where you can read something nearby. Some devices are much bigger, a coffin likes apparatus where you can lie inside and close the lid. After which you can receive a healthy dose of radiation.

While light therapy was used primarily as a treatment for the Seasonal Affective Disorder, it has now been used also to treat other disorders though with varying results. Disorders like insomnia, bipolar disorders and other types of depressions like manic depressive disorder.

Light therapy can take on several forms aside from treating SAD. Full-spectrum and UV light treatment is used for disorders of the skin. Cold laser treatment involves acupuncture using low intensity light to treat symptoms including pain and stress. Colored light therapy is used to achieve several therapeutic effects on designated areas.