Since the 1980s, light therapy has been clinically shown to alleviate symptoms that, for many, come with shorter days and a lack of sunlight – including low mood, fatigue, carbohydrate cravings, social withdrawal, and others.
Waitsfield mental health center Hannah’s House is loaning out light therapy devices to Valley residents. Director Chrissy Rivers said that sitting in front of the light emitted from the device each morning, even for 10 minutes, can ease symptoms.
Hannah’s House can drop devices off to people at their homes, and will purchase a device for residents who may want to use it on a longer-term basis.
Commercial light therapy boxes and devices were made available in the early 2000s – for example, the Sunlight Jr. came to market in late 2003.
The device provided by Hannah’s House is the Verilux Happy Light, which the New York Times called one of the best light therapy lamps of 2024. From a 9-by-6-inch surface, it provides 10,000 lux of UV-free LED light – the amount of light one would see on the horizon at sunrise. It also has three color temperatures to choose from and comes with a countdown timer.
These devices are largely marketed for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) – a seasonal pattern of depressive episodes, first named by American psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal in 1984. He published “Defeating SAD, Winter Blues” and two other books on the topic.
SAD affects about 5% of people in the United States, according to research.
Shortly before Rosenthal started publishing about SAD, a physician and researcher of sleep disorders based in Oregon, Alfred Lewy, published a small study indicating that exposure to bright, artificial light could alleviate the symptoms of seasonal depression by suppressing peoples’ nighttime production of melatonin – a hormone linked to the regulation of the sleep cycle.
Lewy and his colleagues proposed the “phase shift hypothesis. They said that in the winter, with shorter days and less sunlight, most peoples’ circadian rhythms drift later into dawn, out of phase with their natural sleep-wake cycle – something akin to having jet lag for months. With bright-light exposure in the morning, then, those rhythms are pushed back earlier, into phase with their sleep.
According to a recent meta-analysis in the medical journal “JAMA Psychiatry,” these devices offer significant benefits not just on their own, but as adjunct therapies, accelerating the response rate to other forms of treatment for depression.
Devices aside, socializing is a critical factor in addressing the symptoms of depression, Rivers said. Hannah’s House also invites Valley residents to join a walking group on Monday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Participants can meet in the parking lot on Meadow Road, behind Neck of the Woods, and walk the dirt road together.
Those interested in loaning a light therapy device, or seeking more information about support groups offered by Hannah’s House, can contact the center at 802-496-9715, or visit its website at hannahshousevt.org.
