"The brighter the light, the shorter the time you use it."
Like Kristin, therapy users sit in front of a bright white (usually fluorescent) light for two 20- to 30-minute sessions daily. While you don't need a prescription, light boxes sell for $150 to $300, so it's better to get a formal diagnosis and prescription from a mental health professional. Drug plans may not reimburse you without a prescription.
"The brighter the light, the shorter the time you use it," says Michael Young, a psychologist from the Illinois Institute of Technology and past-president of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms.
That brief exposure to light kick-starts a process in our brain, reducing and regulating melatonin levels to help you wake up and get or stay energized, and starts a chemical production of serotonin, which affects mood and energy. By controlling these levels with light, you can feel less depressed, more energetic, less reliant on the need to turn to comfort carbs (a winter habit!) and, hopefully, more awake.
Dawn simulation therapy
A new therapy technique might be easier to deliver than standard methods. While dawn simulation therapy primarily relieves SAD symptoms, it's also used to treat sleep disorders caused by a disconnect between the internal body clock and the external day-night clock.
"The idea for this treatment started with the theory that if we can recreate a dawn that is like summer, we might be able to train the internal rhythms to believe it's summer and prevent the depression that occurs in winter," says Dr. Anthony Levitt, psychiatrist-in-chief at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Women's College Hospital in Toronto.
So lights controlled by computerized chips turn on in a dawnlike fashion in your room as if it were, say, June 21. Like bright light therapy, it's best to have a health-care provider monitor your treatment. The lights sell for about $80 to $200.
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