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One of my friends was told to leave their bedroom light on while sleeping to help his depression. Why is that?

Wow. Interesting. I live in the Midwest where there's snow. Lately we've had a lot of cloudy days and I hate it. I'm in a bad mood on cloudy days and I just can't seem to cheer up. But on the days the sun is out ... it's like the best feeling. Weird...

Public Comments

  1. Studies have been performed to show that sunlight improves the mental health of everyone... Artificial light does not work exactly the same way, but it's similar, and is better than darkness if you're depressed.
  2. It would make them feel safer and help them to go tp sleep faster and make them feel like a littel kid so that he feels no depression on him.
  3. Bright light therapy is the recommended treatment for winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD). However, the studies with the best placebo controls have not been able to demonstrate that light treatment has a benefit beyond its placebo effect. People in northern hemisphere are more prone for depression as they r not exposed to sunlight often. so for their depression drs recommend sunlight or artificial lights to stimuate their endocine system and maintain the circadian rhythm of the body
  4. Light does affect people. Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that seems to be brought on by the lower levels of sunlight in the winter in the cold climates. It is true that many people just feel more sluggish in cloudy/rainy/snowy weather, but Seasonal Affective Disorder causes a much more serious disturbance of mood. Now, light therapy is a recognized and effective technique for treating seasonal affective disorder. But, it has to be very bright light. Leaving the light on at night won't cut it. In order to work, the bright light has to shine into the eyes. Another factor is that sleeping with the lights on actually can make sleep worse. Poor sleep also affects people's mood. http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/1400/1484.asp?index=6412 So, your friend was given bad advice that has no scientific evidence that it has a positive effect on depression. In fact, it may make it worse. http://www.mercola.com/1998/archive/body_clock.htm http://www.bio-light.com/lewy.html http://www.bio-light.com/lewy_guidelines.html