Many years ago, I started writing about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) before most people had even heard of it and the idea to use lighting to eliminate it. Since its Winter and there are people who definitely have sad, I thought I’d write about it today.

Just as a reminder, with SAD people experience a much more intense case of the mid-Winer Blues which can include feelings of depression, low energy, trouble sleeping, changes in appetite to name a few. 

Even if you don’t have SAD, being under bright lights can really help you feel better in the wintertime.

They now sell light boxes that produce the amount of light that you need which is 10,000 lux. You don’t look directly at the light. You want the light to enter your eye indirectly from around 16 inches away.

You want to aim to be using the light box daily for around 20 to 30 minutes. Some people may even feel like they need less time in front of the light to feel good which is perfectly fine. You want to find the amount of time that works best for you.

While morning is often the best time to use the light box, you should play around with different times of the day to find what works best for you.

Here are 2 light boxes that I found that are highly recommended.

If your SAD is pretty intense, then you want to use the Carex Day-Light Classic Plus www.carex.com.  It’s currently around $110. The reason it’s good for more severe SAD is because it has a bigger screen.

The other light box is the Verilux HappyLight Luxe. It’s recommended for moderate cases of SAD. It’s also portable so you can travel with it. It’s currently around $70. www.verilux.com. 

So…get together with some friends and have a Winter beach party in your living room with people taking turns on the light box! Now all you need is some sand and surf (and no, you can’t substitute snow for surf) to have fun in the sun.
(Reported Prevention.com, January 2023)