Side Effects Of Light Therapy
It’s rare for people using light therapy to have side effects. However, some people may experience:
- agitation or irritability
- sleeping problems
- changes to your sight, including blurred vision
These side effects are usually mild and short-lived, but you should visit a GP if you experience any particularly troublesome side effects while using light therapy.
Side Effects And Evaluation
Participants spontaneously reported some side effects. 9 % of the participants in the BLT condition reported headaches, 9 % experienced headaches and nausea, and 9 % had headaches and felt hyper during the treatment. In the BLUE condition 8 % of the participants reported headaches, 4 % experienced headaches and nausea and another 4 % reported headaches and palpitations during the treatment. Also, in the BLUE condition, 4 % reported dry eyes and yet another 4 % reported diarrhoea during treatment. No statistically significant difference in the number of side effects between the conditions was found, though.
Participants seem to equally like the colours white or blue. Participants in the conditions would also like to get the same treatment the following year, as well as the remaining part of the season. The participants who received blue light were a little happier with the treatment than those receiving white light. However, there are no significant differences between the two conditions.
Is Light Therapy Safe
Light therapy is generally considered very safe. Although, some patients experience side effects Trusted SourceNational Library of Medicine, Biotech InformationThe National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.See Full Reference when performing light therapy, including eye strain, headache, nausea, hyperactivity, and skin irritation. Sometimes, the side effects go away on their own after a few days Trusted SourceNational Library of Medicine, Biotech InformationThe National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.See Full Reference. If they continue, consult your doctor. They may recommend changes to your light therapy sessions, such as changing the length, time of day, product, or how close you sit next to the light box.
Some people may be more likely to experience side effects, including individuals with bipolar disorder Trusted SourceEliserverEliserver is a publishing company that aims to help researchers and health care professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society.See Full Reference, or who have skin or eye conditions that make them more sensitive to sunlight.
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Another Good Light Therapy Lamp
If you dislike the flat, rectangular light surfaces of most SAD lamps: Consider the cylindrical Bright Health 24-Inch Light Therapy Lamp. It emits the same 10,000 lux of 4,000 Kelvin light at a distance of 12 inches and is covered by the same five-year warranty as the Carex Day-Light Classic Plus. Yet it has a smaller overall footprint and feels far less clunky in our living space. While most devices have a broader surface to reduce glare and increase comfort, the main issue is whether people will use it routinely, said Dr. Jamie M. Zeitzer, a co-director at Stanford Universitys Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences. Some users may find the cylindrical design difficult to look at or to position in a way to get the enhanced light, but if the cylindrical design makes the user feel better about having it out in the abode, then thats great.
Alcohol Tobacco And Other Drugs
The misuse and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and prescription medications affect the health and well-being of millions of Americans. SAMHSAs 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that approximately 19.3 million people aged 18 or older had a substance use disorder in the past year.
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Counselling And Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Counselling is another type of talking therapy that involves talking to a trained counsellor about your worries and problems.
During psychodynamic psychotherapy you discuss how you feel about yourself and others and talk about experiences in your past. The aim of the sessions is to find out whether anything in your past is affecting how you feel today.
It’s not clear exactly how effective these 2 therapies are in treating depression.
Light Therapy Benefits For Depression
Its clear that the benefits of light therapies specifically for depression require more clinical research to understand. There havent been enough large-scale, randomized human trials to make any definitive determinations.
However, exposure to bright light is known to cause certain effects that might be beneficial to people who are dealing with depression. Lets take a closer look at the pros and cons of light treatment in general.
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Blue Light To Alleviate Depression
Blue light may be able to do even more. A 2006 study looked at how blue light affected seasonal affective disorder and showed that blue light exposure significantly improved depression scores and also suppressed melatonin that could add to depressive symptoms during the winter, or during periods of low light. Knowing what we know about blue light and melatonin suppression, this makes sense.
Other studies have shown that blue light therapy has potential as a treatment for depression in general, and conversely, that blue light deprivation can be a trigger for depression. However, using blue light at night could have the opposite effect, not only interfering with sleep and circadian rhythm but possibly increasing the risk of depression. If you want to try blue light as a depression or SAD therapy, do it in the morning, when your brain expects blue light, rather than at night, when it expects to see red.
You can buy inexpensive handheld blue light devices for acne, and blue light boxes or bulbs to see if they lift your mood. Let me know if this works for you!
Why Might Light Therapies Help
Circadian rhythms, our natural 24-hour clocks, are disrupted in bipolar disorder. In addition, people with bipolar disorder seem to be more sensitive to light.
One way of treating bipolar disorder is to manipulate the circadian rhythm. This can be achieved with bright light therapy, dark therapy, sleep deprivation, and certain types of psychotherapy.
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What Is Colour Therapy Used To Treat
Colour therapy can be used to help people suffering from a variety of mental health conditions, from depression to anxiety. Vanessa Volpe of Colour for Wellbeing uses colour therapy techniques to manage symptoms of anxiety and boost your confidence, as well as treating problems such as insomnia and physical pain.
Who Should Get This
Therapeutic light boxes are not the only available treatment for seasonal affective disorder . If you think youre among the roughly 6% in the United States who suffer from SAD, talk to your doctor to figure out your best course of treatment .
For most people with only mild seasonal mood disorders , the risk of using a therapy light is relatively minimal eyestrain and headaches are the most commonly reported side effects. However, as New York Magazine reported in its 2016 article on SAD lamps, people with a history of clinical depression or bipolar disorder may suffer an exaggerated response while using a light box and should consider this therapy only in close consultation with a physician.
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How Blue Light Therapy Treats Rosacea
A study on combining blue and red light treatments showed remarkable outcomes in two patients with rosacea. Conventional treatment for rosacea includes tetracycline, which can have long-term side effects. Photodynamic therapy combined red and blue light with methyl ester aminolevulinate.
The first patient received ten sessions of 480nm blue and 650nm red light for 15 minutes at each wavelength, following a variety of other treatments that had been unsuccessful. The second patient received the same sequential blue and red light treatment along with topical azelaic acid this also followed a series of unsuccessful treatments. Both patients experienced a reduction in erythema and itching after the LED treatments.
The studys authors concluded that these case reports show the efficacy and safety of blue and red LED therapy for patients with rosacea.
Blue Light Therapy At Home
Blue light therapy is beneficial in normal therapeutic doses and is considered a safer therapeutic option for skin care than UV light therapy or bright light therapy.
For the best results, you’ll need a high quality LED therapy device that emits blue, red, and NIR wavelengths. This device should have strong light energy output to ensure maximum absorption.
Harness the many varied benefits of blue light including skin health, mental sharpness, and energy by taking your treatment early in the day. Charge your batteries with energizing blue light! instead of starting the day stressed out and in a rush. A soothing blue and red light therapy session is a great way to jump-start your well being first thing in the morning.
Learn more about how red and NIR light therapy works as well as some of its most common applications: skin health, joint health, and much more.
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What Is Samhsa’s National Helpline
SAMHSAs National Helpline, , or TTY: is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations.
Also visit the online treatment locator, or send your zip code via text message: 435748 to find help near you. Read more about the HELP4U text messaging service.
Potential Risks And Complications
Blue light therapy on its own, without the photosensitivity drugs added, is safe and has very few risks. The biggest risk is for a potential skin infection if any post-treatment blisters occur and are popped or not cared for.
You shouldnt have blue light therapy if you have a rare condition called porphyria, which is a disorder of the blood that leads to heightened light sensitivity, or if you have allergies to porphyrins. You also shouldnt use this therapy if you have lupus.
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What The Research Says
Most recently, a 2022 meta-analysis reviewed the results of several studies looking at how blue light therapy helps with depression. It notes that the evidence is currently lacking to support its use for depression.
However, they did note that additional, longer, and larger studies may help to prove its effectiveness for use in depression.
Early studies were generally more positive. A of blue light use for subsyndromal SAD finds that blue light is just as effective as bright light. Subsyndromal means that a person has symptoms that are not severe enough to meet the diagnostic criteria for a disorder.
Older studies also show some positive results. In a 2009 study , researchers study the effects of blue light on people with SAD for 3 weeks. They note that it worked better than red light therapy. In this study, blue light also worked as well as bright light therapy in previous studies.
People interested in blue light therapy may want to approach its use with caution. A person should not discontinue current treatments to try the therapy. They should also discuss their interest with a doctor before trying the therapy.
A person should follow all instructions from the manufacturer and their doctor when using light therapy devices at home.
Studies that the therapy is most effective in the morning. Similarly, people should avoid nighttime use. Up to 20 minutes of exposure for 5 days may improve symptoms of sub-syndromal SAD.
The length of treatment may vary between people.
The Link Between Light And Mood
There are both direct and indirect connections between light and mood. When one of our three types of photoreceptors, ipRGCs, directly respond to light, their projections reach certain brain regions that affect emotion. However, it is the indirect connection to certain systems that, when disrupted, are believed to contribute to mood disorders.
The systems that are indirectly connected to light and linked to mood disorders include disruption of sleep, brain plasticity, neurotransmission, hormone secretion, and gene expression.
In fact, studies have shown structural changes to the brain in patients with severe circadian disruption, such as international flight attendants. Likewise, monoamine is made up of some of the most important neurotransmitters targeted by modern medicine in the treatment of depression. These include serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine Disruption to the expression of these neurotransmitters is believed to lead to depressed mood.
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Disruption To Our Natural Rhythm
Before the invention of the light bulb, our circadian rhythms were well in sync with the sun, because nighttime light disruption was minimal.
Today, artificial lighting is abundant in many parts of the world. For example, street lights help us see and increase security, and overhead lights help hospitals function around the clock. We also have TVs, laptops, and cell phones and many of use them simultaneously.
Lighting intensity is measured in lux units . A look into the level of lux emitted from different light sources, reveals that digital screens have caused an exponential increase in nighttime light intensity. In fact, a laptop alone emits over 33,000% more lux than a full moon.
It is this correlation between the increase in nighttime lighting and the increase in mood disorders that we are only now beginning to understand.
Additional Approaches To Changing Circadian Rhythms
Psychotherapy techniques can help people adjust dysregulated sleep patterns. Indeed, for typical insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy, not medication, is the treatment of choice. Therapy works by controlling or eliminating negative thoughts and actions that keep one awake.
- Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy. This therapy is centered around the observation that a switch to depression or mania is often associated with a relationship difficulty that results in sleep deprivation. The therapist helps the patient work on regulating routine as well as the interpersonal problem.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy. Originally designed to treat major depression, this therapy aims to mitigate stressful life events that interact with negative cognitive styles to precipitate mania and depression.
These treatments can be combined with each other and used with medications, such as mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs. This may allow a person to take a lower dose of an antipsychotic drug than would otherwise be needed to manage symptoms. There are no absolute contraindications to bright light or dark therapies. However, using bright light therapy in the evening may worsen insomnia, and dark therapy should not be used in depression. Sleep deprivation is only used during the depressive phase because it can provoke manic symptoms or worsen them.
About the Author
Elizabeth Liebson, MD, Contributor
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More Light Therapy Boxes To Consider
Carex Day-Light Light Therapy Lamp: While our tester felt significantly more energy while using this lamp, it definitely had a few downsides. This lamp is bulky and heavy, plus our tester noted that it heats up quickly during use.
Aura Day Light Lamp: Our tester loved the programmable timer feature on this lamp but thought that at its expensive price point, it wasnt worth the cost compared to other similar lamps. They also noted that it was quite bright, meaning they had to point it at a wall and use it indirectly.
Blue Light Is The Light That Matters
Your eyes are for seeing the world, right? True but theyre also used for one other thing: allowing your brain to know whether its day or night out there! Turns out this is not done with the same parts of your eye youre using to read these words right now. Instead theres a special part of your eye that senses light, just light, to know day from night. Only one color of light matters to this part of your eye: blue light. Really.
So, if youre going to be careful with light, as my essay on light and dark in bipolar disorder suggests, your have to be most careful with blue light.
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Major Or Persistent Depressive Disorder
One study showed bright light therapy to be effective and well-tolerated in adults with nonseasonal major depressive disorder. The most dramatic results occurred with the use of light therapy alone or in conjunction with the medication fluoxetine.
Another study revealed that light therapy decreased depressive symptoms and helped to regulate the circadian rhythms of cancer survivors. Symptoms of depression are common in cancer survivors, even many years after their treatments end, so this is a significant discovery.
Is Blue Light Good For Depression
Research indicates that blue light is superior to other lights in the spectrum for treating depression. Studies show that blue light can be used at a specific wavelength and frequency at less intensity than full spectrum bright light to achieve the same kind of effects.
The success with bright light in mood improvement spurred research on the efficacy of other lights in the spectrum, in improving symptoms of depression. The effects of green light have also been studied, but green light has not shown evidence of having any antidepressant effects.
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Blue Light Therapy: Uses Benefits And Side Effects
Blue light therapy is one area of light therapy that is quickly gaining recognition for some of its amazing benefits and especially when used in conjunction with red and NIR light therapy.
In this article, well explore the uses, treatment benefits, and side effects of blue light therapy.
We hope this will help educate some of the benefits of blue light treatment when used alongside proven and highly effective red light treatment.
First and foremost, a clear distinction should be drawn between blue light when being used for human therapy purposes vs. the blue light in cell phones, computer screens, etc.
Recently, it has come to light that the practice of staring at phone or computer screens for many hours on end can help disrupt sleep patterns due to the blue light emitted from these devices alongside using them at late hours in the day. This is due to the fact that when you are using these devices, you are directly staring into them for an extended amount of time in order to use them – at times hours on end.
This is not the same application or methodology in any way when blue light is used in therapeutic applications and you cannot equate the two!
This very clear difference in application must be kept in mind as you learn about the amazing benefits of this type of therapy!