Bright Light Therapy For Insomnia

Light therapy is a treatment used for people who suffer from circadian rhythm sleep disorders.

Bright light therapy for insomnia.

People with this disorder have a problem with their body s sleep clock such that they have a difficult time falling asleep until much later in the evening or night than they wish and therefore. This clock is located in the brain just above an area where the nerves travel to the eyes. The light from this box mimics outdoor light which is important for regulating your body s sleeping and waking cycles. In light therapy you sit near a special light box for a certain amount of time each day.

Exposure to this bright light helps to adjust your circadian rhythm physical mental and behavioral changes that follow a roughly. Light therapy for insomnia and other sleep problems. With light being responsible for keeping our daily rhythm aligned with the day and night it is natural that bright light therapy also treats poor sleep. Bright light therapy is also recommended for people with seasonal affective disorder or sad that causes depression insomnia weight gain from food cravings and difficulty concentrating during the winter months.

This area is called the scn. Your body has an internal clock that tells it when it is time to be asleep and when it is time to be awake. During the basic and most common form of light therapy patients sit near a special lamp that emits bright light for a set amount of time on a daily schedule. Morning bright light therapy is also indicated for the related problem of delayed sleep phase disorder.

Light therapy is thought to affect brain chemicals linked to mood and sleep easing sad symptoms. The light is dispersed evenly over a flat screen and the lamp can sit on your desk or while you sit beside it. Bright light therapy timed in the morning after arising can advance or time circadian rhythms earlier and thus would be indicated for sleep onset or initial insomnia. Again psychotherapy with bright light is better than single therapy on its own.

Light therapy is a form of all natural therapy that is changing lives around the world. Insomnia as we ve learned is not an illness unto itself but a set of symptoms usually secondary to other maladies including poor sleep hygiene medical conditions medications and social and psychological problems like depression and anxiety disorders. Light therapy is also known as bright light therapy or phototherapy.