scrubbedexpat091

That are supposed to help raise mood in the winter?

Like this one..



They say not to use if bipolar so would have to keep it off when my wife is home, but I have a really hard time in winter keeping mood up and finding enough energy to stay awake, and I've seen this before, just not sure if they are of any real help, or if they would do much if only used a few days a week when my wife isn't home.

Just curious if anyone has used them before and what they may have experienced.

Siouxie

My brother suffers with SAD, he has found a light therapy box to be helpful. You might want to do some research on which are the 'better' ones and what to look for.

Seasonal affective disorder treatment: Choosing a light box - Mayo Clinic

caretaker

Tried it on my old boss but she was just too mean, waste of resources.

Shard

Taking the dog for an extra walk (in the day) would probably be an even more effective choice.

scrubbedexpat091

We go out 3 times a day for about 40 minutes each time, the biggest problem is the lack of sun in the winter because of the clouds we tend to have and the apartment faces the wrong direction so we don't get any sun or really any light inside, with the curtains open in the living room, still dark and gloomy inside and need to have the lights on when its cloudy out. Being an apartment we don't have windows on the sides, just a front window, and 1 window in the bedroom.

I don't have a good track record of staying mentally healthy in BC winters, so just trying to find something to help when we have days of no sun.

I assume its from the cloudy days as when living in San Diego, I don't have the same issue in winter, but then it's sunny nearly everyday.....lol....

I didn't have the issue in Edmonton either, but again more sunny days in winter.

I am just already feeling the no energy, low moods and since medication doesn't work well, nor does spending more time outside seem to work, figured a light inside might work for the days when the sun is missing, and the rain is falling.

caretaker

**** the expense, buy the cat a goldfish - how much does a lightbulb cost? Look for a sale.

Pulaski

Honestly, for that money, I just upgrade the lights in all your rooms. There are a variety of light intensities and "temperatures" available in fluorescent and compact fluorescent bulbs, and also in LED bulbs, but they are still a bit pricy.

I recently upgraded the lights over the mirror in our bathroom to ones that are more powerful than the old CF ones (but still CF so only a few watts each, .... which, incidentally, throw out a LOT less heat than old incandescent bulbs, which is nice in the summer). The new bulbs are available in a stark white color, or a sunlight version; we chose the sunlight version and it made a dramatic difference to the brightness of the bathroom. We made a similar change to the fluorescent tubes in the kitchen a couple of years ago, and that improved the ambience of the kitchen too.

BristolUK

Curiosity got the better of me and I looked on the US version of Amazon where, surprise surprise, it was half the cost.

scrubbedexpat091

.com is almost always cheaper. I buy on .com a lot and go to the US and pick it up since we are in Vancouver a lot these days, it's not a huge issue to go to Pt. Roberts.

Last items I bought was 34.99 on .ca and 10.99 USD (approx 14.20 CAD) so still a $20 savings. The items I buy are generally not available locally.

While in the US I also stock up on a particular brand of cereal I like, that can't be found in Canada.

Original Wheat Berry Flakes - Uncle Sam



Pulaski- I never thought of the regular light bulb idea, I may just try that first and buy a couple of the daylight one's, right now we have soft white, but the daylight versions may just work.

scrubbedexpat091

Thanks, I will give the link a read.

Shard

Since you're moving, move to White Rock...more sun, closer to the States. Try and find a sunny apartment. Somehow I am sceptical on light boxes, but who knows.

caretaker

If you have a flourescent light fixture you can just change out the 'miser' tubes for 'full spectrum'. Those are the ones that are supposed to be good for SAD. As I mentioned, it didn't seem to work in our offices, at least we couldn't tell the difference.

BristolUK

Not just cheaper but usually much cheaper and very often the US site won't even deliver here. I found a nice exception the other day.

I ordered an air purifier/smoke filter (to solve a tenant conflict) and the same machine on .com was only about $15 cheaper. But it included an estimate of cross border fees with the potential for a balance being payable and, thus, a whacking great courier fee for collection that would have made it more expensive.

Pizzawheel

From a technical perspective, they work. Upgrading your bulbs won't- of the top of my head you're looking at well over 1,000 lux to affect your physiology, bigger bulbs is not going to get that unless you replace your lights with quad-strip fluorescents.

However a walk under cloudy skies will work just as well. No matter how much cloud you have there's still a ton more light flying around than there is in front of almost any lightbox.

The tricky thing here is the human eye because it is so brilliant at adapting to extremes of illumination- they'll work (with adaptation) down to a few hundredths of one lux, and 9again with adaptation) up to brilliant sunshine which can hit 50,000. Fantastic pieces of kit- but hopeless at judging how much light is available.

Pulaski

You are probably right, but that pokey little lamp linked in post #1, above isn't going to help either. It boasts of 10,000 lux, but lux is a /m2 measure, and I doubt that unit is even 1/10m2, so not producing a whole lot of light. ....... I suspect the row of lights over our bathroom vanity produce about as much light.