What else can light therapy help?
As light can influence levels of our brain chemicals, seronotin and melatonin, there are several other situations in which altering levels of these chemicals responsible for alertness and sleepiness can be useful, in addition to improving mood. Also some conditions are known to be associated with low levels of serotonin.
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Shift-work - As the body clock or circadian rhythm can be significantly disrupted by night working or very early or late shifts, light therapy can be used to help the body adjust more quickly and re-set the body clock, once the shift hours change.
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Jet Lag - As with shift workers, those who are frequent business travellers or who work on aircrafts or are simply licky enough to have lots of holidays, the constant time zone changes can also disrupt the body clock, resulting in low energy and daytime sleepiness. For those who regularly take very early morning flights to on business trips, a brief session of light therapy on your journey can help you feel awake, alert and sharp before arriving at your meeting. Similarly pilots and cabin crew can help re-set their body clocks before or following long flights.
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Sleep Disorders - Sometimes insomnia can be caused by a disrupted circadian rhythm. Re-setting the body clock with light therapy can be very useful if this is the cause.
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Fatigue Management - Energy improvements may be offered to those with chronic fatigue syndrome or ME if their fatigue is due in part to disruption of the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin.
- 'Baby Blues' & Postpartum depression - As research has linked this condition to disrputed sleep and stress which can create an imbalance in serotonin, light therapy has been proposed as a safe non-drug treatment to help address this imbalance in new breastfeeding mothers.
Is light therapy also effective for depression that is not seasonal?
If your depression is due to low serotnonin levels, light therpay could be tried as an alternative to SSRI medication or when SSRI drugs produce unwanted side effects and cannot be tolerated. However, those suffering from Bi-polar disorder on antidepressant medication should only use light therapy under careful medical supervision as it may trigger mania.
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