Reader Hank Roberts left some terrific comments on my earlier post about light and dark and how they affect sleep and bipolar cycles. Light is used as treatment [free reg req'd], and Hank and his wife recovered from insomnia and Seasonal Affective Disorder after changing indoor lighting to amber LEDs and low-blue compact flourescents instead of the glaring blue high UV CFLs commonly sold. He shared lots of links to lighting sources and . Many comply with Florida environmental conservation law about outdoor lights and sea turtles who, like humans, need to avoid blue light after dusk (baby sea turtles must swim towards the moon and not toward lights on the shore).
One quick, easy and inexpensive way is using gels made to colour theatrical and film lights. Rosco manufactures gel sheets 24 x 12 for under $7.00 US. You can find amber gels at film supply retailers off and online, then cut them to whatever size and shape you need to cover fluorescent tubes, and your computer monitor. Neat that a little thing that helps produce big entertainment is also helpful in changing your mood, alleviate depression and avoid stimulating mania, and sleep cycles, at home.
Hank shared lots more info about lighting than I can fit in one blog post, so for more details read all of the comments. One important brief one:
NOTE, there are a lot of states (California) and countries (Australia) proposing to get rid of incandescent lights and push compact fluorescents.
Be afraid.
Agreed. Thank you, Hank!
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From Psych Central's World of Psychology:
Lighting the Way - World of Psychology (4/11/2007)
4 Comments to
“Lighting”
101 ways to get good night sleep
1.The bedroom should not be too hot or too cold. High temperatures can lead to disturbances in the quality of sleep. The optimum temperature is 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. If the room is too cold, use humidifier or warm blankets.
2.Don’t discuss about the bills or problems or watch television in the bedroom.
3.Drinking warm milk before going to bed helps in soothing the nervous system. As milk contains calcium, it works on the nervous system and makes the body relax.
4.Sleep on back as it allows all the internal organs to rest properly and it is the best position for relaxing.
Rests of 101 ways are………
http://www.sleepdisordersguide.com/blog/good-night-sleep-101-ways/
One correction (maybe correcting myself, if I was not clear).
Winter depression (my issue, not my spouse’s) has long been treated with bright lights; Brainerd et al. (2001) found the receptor that controls melatonin and circadian timing is sensitive only to a narrow blue-green band. You _need_ that band for treating winter depression.
E.g. the light from sunnexbiotech.com.
The farther blue (higher energy photons) may put some people at risk for eye damage. That’s a good reason _not_ to use bright _blue_ light for winter depression. Lots of info on that, e.g.
http://www.mdsupport.org/library/hazard.html
But blocking all the blue isn’t a good idea either! E.g.
2006 JOURNAL OF CATARACT AND REFRACTIVE SURGERY SYMPOSIUM … increase of alertness under blue light exposure …
http://www.escrs.org/EVENTS/06LONDON/sessiondetails.asp?id=146&category=Free&sessiondate=10/09/2006
There’s a big spike of blue light in ordinary white fluorescent lights (see links in earlier posts to LEDMuseum spectra pages); that may be a problem for sleep. Some researchers recommend using no-blue lights for the late evening hours, e.g. LowBlueLights.com https://www.lowbluelights.com/
I’ve seen (can’t find at the moment!) other reports that it’s the ratio of blue to yellow that determines the suppression of the melatonin/circadian clock.
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As always - I’m just reading and pointing; I’m no expert, not qualified to give any advice beyond “this worked for me so far” — I encourage anyone looking into this to be careful, do your own reading (Google Scholar or a good reference librarian will help) and remember it’s an area where what’s known is changing fast.
I am currently legally disabled due to nearly life-long recurring clinical depression which has tended (as is often the case) to get worse with each major recurrence, and I finally became functionally debilitated several years ago [I am 52], despite some pharmaceutical relief. (My body reacts atypically to most anti-deps, and only Nardil, an old MAOI rarely prescribed today, has proven to be reliably useful.)
I have also had atypical (and frequently shifting) sleep patterns all of my life. I wouldn’t call it “insomnia”–but my system seems completely divorced from the “normal” diurnal cycle. Even as a child, I seemed to be built more for a 36-hour day than a 24-hour one. As I’ve gotten older, my sleep-cycles have gotten even more erratic and unpredictable.
What’s more, it has often been remarked upon–by my psychological caseworker and others–that I tend to have a much better emotional affect on the days when I’ve been up all night, than on the days when I’ve gotten the “normal” amount of sleep.
As far as I know, I am unique in this. Does anyone know if similar cases have been documented and studied? I would love to know as much as possible about such cases, if so.
Thank you
Sam, quick comments.
I hope your doctor’s aware of the recent work on light and bipolar. See the “Light and Dark” link at top of thread from our host here. Lack of effect from standard antidepressants is a clue mentioned there.
Sleep patterns — this is a wonderful site; they include a sleep timing questionnaire I found helpful in deciding when to use bright light, and when to avoid light, to get sleep more consistent:
CET - Center for Environmental Therapeutics - …
non-profit organization dedicated to education and research on the new environmental therapies for circadian rhythm — http://www.cet.org
Missing a night’s sleep is well known to raise mood. I’d be very surprised if your doctor didn’t know about it, and hope you’ll talk about it with whoever’s giving you medical advice.
Google Scholar:
antidepressant +”sleep deprivation”
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=antidepressant+%2B%22sleep+deprivation%22&hl=en&lr=&scoring=r&as_ylo=2002
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 6 Jul 2007
