When lack of natural sunlight brings out your SAD symptoms, the most effect way to get relief is with a light therapy lamp.  These special lamps offer significantly more light than your typical office and home lighting.  The lamps try to mimic the way sunlight affects your brain and sleeping patterns.  For people that suffer from SAD at the onset of winter year after year, light therapy can improve symptoms in just a few days.

To treat yourself at home, purchase one of these special SAD lamps and follow your doctors dosing recommendations.  Most people put a SAD lamp by their computer or TV, or somewhere they are comfortable sitting for a few hours.  You can do normal activities while sitting in front of your lamp like reading, working on the computer, or watching TV.  You can treat yourself in the morning or after work, whatever works best for you.  Some people like to set their lamps on a timer so lights come on just as they are waking up and the effect is like a “natural” sunrise.

Light from these lamps tricks your brain into thinking it is getting regular sunlight.  Light hits your retina and enters your brain and sets your natural sleep timers.  Steadily increasing the time of treatments as the days shorten can keep symptoms at bay all winter long, and prevent springtime mania that many SAD sufferers experience.

SAD is more than just the winter blues and affects millions of people in the United States.  SAD affects more women than men and symptoms tend to appear by the time the person is in their 30s.  If symptoms appear consistently at the onset of winter in teens, 20s or 30s, then symptoms will likely not improve without treatment or a move to a lower latitude.  If you are older than your 30s and have never experienced debilitating symptoms, you will probably never suffer from SAD as diagnoses decrease with age.

As you might suspect, people that live in the North suffer from SAD more frequently than people in Southern latitudes.  Some people don’t discover they have SAD until they move north.  Light therapy can be a simple way to get relief from SAD symptoms all winter long.  No longer do you need to suffer from fatigue, lethargy, depression, over eating, irritability, social awkwardness, and anxiety.  Just a few minutes or hours of light therapy each day is all it takes.

SAD lamps come in a variety of types, from table lamps and light boxes, to tanning type beds and visors.  Now it is easy to get the correct amount of daylight you need to keep your SAD symptoms at rest.  Light therapy can also be used for summer-onset SAD that certain people experience.  The symptoms are similar to mania and often are experienced as the body comes out of its winter depression.

SAD is different from the normal mood and sleep changes that occur during the shortened days of the winter.  All animals huddle in bed to stay warm when its cold outside, and get more rest as a result of less time available to spend outside in the daylight.  But SAD is different.  Its symptoms worsen as daylight is denied, and the person finds it difficult to function and do daily tasks.  Whenever depression affects normal functioning, it has become a problem.

We have known for a while that children suffer from other depressive conditions, and now we know that they can also suffer from SAD.  SAD seems to get worse as people age, but may appear at any stage in a person’s life.  A move to a different latitude or a particularly harsh winter could trigger SAD symptoms in a teenager.

Light therapy is drug-free treatment for SAD, so it is safe for older children.  After diagnosis, your doctor will tell you how to adjust doses as the days shorten.  Then just sit in front of the lamp, while doing homework, and you will notice that sleep patterns and mood remain relatively normal over the winter.  SAD symptoms should remain at a level that your child never misses a day of school because they simply can’t get out of bed.  Light therapy for SAD should also help prevent mania that can occur in the spring, and can also improve skin affected with acne vulgaris.