Bright Light Treatment Insomnia

Light therapy is thought to affect brain chemicals linked to mood and sleep easing sad symptoms.

Bright light treatment insomnia.

Bright light therapy might be an alternative treatment with potential advantages over melatonin treatment. Light therapy is a treatment used for people who suffer from circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Using a light therapy box may also help with other types of depression sleep disorders and other conditions. Figure e39 2 illustrated is the use of morning bright light treatment and stimulus control ther apy for sleep onset insomnia.

The box gives off bright light that mimics natural outdoor light. The light usually mimics natural sunlight but there can be variations. Theoretically decreased daytime light intensity can also increase the length of the circadian period. Light therapy can help some sufferers of insomnia.

Living with insomnia if you have been diagnosed with insomnia follow your treatment plan and make healthy lifestyle and sleep changes. In this case wake up time needed to be advanced by 2 5 hours over. Melatonin treatment is known to be effective in treating these sleep problems. 24 in cases in which the amplitude of the clock is low properly timed light exposure can elicit a recovery in amplitude.

Chronic sleep onset insomnia with late melatonin onset is prevalent in childhood and has negative daytime consequences. Your body has an internal clock that tells it when it is time to be asleep and when it is time to be awake. 25 only a few of the previous studies that examined the utility of bright light for treatment of insomnia examined. The current study sought to evaluate the efficacy of bright light exposure in the treatment of sleep maintenance insomnia.

The standard output of a light box is between. Some individuals with sleep onset insomnia experience difficulty falling asleep at a normal time but no difficulty maintaining sleep once it is initiated. Following baseline sleep and circadian rhythms assessment subjects with sleep maintenance insomnia were treated with timed exposure to either bright white light or dim red light for 12 consecutive days. A unit of measure called a lux gauges the amount of light used in a treatment.

Bright light therapy in the evening before sleep would be indicated for this type of insomnia as well as for the more extreme version advanced sleep phase disorder.