Hi Karoliina,

Answering your last question first, light therapy can be effective in treating the winter blues, as well as other conditions such as depression and sleep disorders. Here's a previous thread which discussed light therapy options.

There are 2 issues here--efficacy and safety:

Light boxes work by emitting full spectrum white light. The intensity of light is measured in "lux" units. In general, the higher the lux measurement, the more effective the therapy. Light boxes for SAD typically are in the 10,000 lux range. If your "lizard lamp" can't generate enough light, then it may not be worth it.

The second question is safety, which mainly has to do with ultraviolet (UV) emissions. Light boxes for SAD are specifically designed to not emit UV radiation, which can damage your skin and eyes. The pet store version may or may not be manufactured to the same standards.

Reference

I live in the UK and bought a "Rio" for £49.99. I turn it on as my alarm goes off and it can be set to gradually get brighter until full, which I find is a good way to wake up. I keep it lighting my room as I get ready for work. Though it can auto-turn off after an hour, the downside is that you have to press the button to turn it on; so you can't attach it to a timer plug in the wall which would have made it a great alarm clock. I found it to be the best value reviewed light on Amazon. Some others are ridiculously expensive.

Does it work? Well personally I find it makes a difference for me, it seems to help my mood which is prone towards depression. I also take Vitamin D3 and try and get out of the office at lunch.

"Rio Low Energy SAD Light Therapy Lamp": http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001PIJF48

some good infoormation on reptile light bulbs here

http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=982

My super cheap dawn simulator helps keep me on track and more chipper when the days get shorter. It isn't full spectrum, but the bright light seems to get me going. I bought a lamp timer ($10), and plug a 300 watt halogen lamp into it. Set it for about 30 minutes before when you want to wake up and you'll feel more refreshed. We have a tall floor standing light for this that we bought many years ago, I don't know if you could get them anymore, but you should be able to find work lights at a hardware store.

I also try to light my house a brightly as possible during the day too if it is too cold to stay out for long. For me at least, I think it is the lack of light to dark and back that messes me up. And whatever you do, stay away from florescent lighting in the winter, it emits a spectrum of light that is crap for mood when you are cooped up indoors, I don't think it is worth the energy savings because I end up paying for fake sun more if I don't have good light in my house.

I also have a similar problem. At least I have the possibility to walk outside while it's still bright out there. Natural light might be quite a good alternative to light boxes, or maybe even better choice: light therapy devices might provide 10000lx while natural daylight might provide tens of thousands lx. But walking outside is sometimes a little bit boring, so it'd be nice to find some cheap and useful device...

Here is one product that could possibly be useful but few people have reviewed it: http://doctorled.com/sad/

Btw as you are from Finland, you might find my essay interesting: http://valtsuhealth.blogspot.com/2011/10/vuorokausirytmi.html

I also made a quick translation of my essay for English people: http://valtsutest.blogspot.com/2011/11/circadian-rhythm.html

EDIT: Two more suggestions

1) Rio Low Energy SAD Light Therapy Lamp http://amzn.to/roKgMw

2) Lifemax Light Pod 107a SAD Portable Simulated Daylight Box http://amzn.to/sXyooy

EDIT2: I ordered Lifemax Light Pod to test whether such a cheap device works or not. It's not a typical bright light. You get much fewer lux to your eyes but it seems to have more blue wavelengths (higher color temperature) so it should compensate a lot. Actually, in one study 750lux of blue-enriched light seemed to be more useful than 10000lux of standard light treatment. (Meesters et al. 2011)

I wouldn't make a consistent habit of doing this as a regular practice but try jumping in a tanning bed for 6-8 minutes, throw on some relaxing music and then take a warm shower afterwards.

you could make one http://lifehacker.com/5122849/make-your-own-sad-light-box

Hi! I hear you on that note... I live up around AK and i'm feeling it already... lol i've only chalked it up to just feeling weary because of all the snow on the ground lol :( but I think it could be beneficial to try getting some full spectrum light bulbs (really, really cheap from whatever store you've got up there that sells lightbulbs) and also I would up my fish oil intake... Fish oil, when taken regularly and in great enough quantities can actually help alleviate minor depressive symptoms as a body that is deficient in omega 3's...I know where i'm at here they sell eggs at the store that have added omega 3s.. I would try to increase intake wherever possible- check out this webpage..Dr. Weil is onto something:

link text

hope this helps!

My Philips GoLite gives out bright blue light (not full spectrum) that is supposed to help with SAD. I suspect it's over your price range though. Another possibility is the Lightphoria Light Therapy pad. That's full spectrum and seems to be a reasonable price.

I don't think 5000IU Vit D3 is nearly enough for north climes in the winter.

The Vitamin D Council says it is vitually impossible to over dose with Vit D3. Cases they have reported on were due to pharmacy compounding errors and patient errors. These involved cases of folks taking 500,000IU daily instead of 50000IU weekly for over a year. None of these folks suffered any adverse effects.

Safe level upper range is around 250mg/ml serum but no more.

I would experiment with 50000IU daily during the winter. At full sun at the equator, half naked sun exposure for a half hour yields skin production of somewhere around 20000IU daily.

Be your own n1 experiment in supplementation.

I just don't think bright lights will do the trick. If you want to spend the money for tanning salon, you can but you do have to be aware of skin cancer. Folks that supplement heavily do not burn at all from natural sunlight.