Your Early Morning Energy Trigger

This is the fourth article in the Bright Light series.

There’s good news and there’s bad news. Our brains have a window of time in the morning during which they are particularly sensitive to bright light stimulus.

The good news is that you can get your bright light early and be on your way. Most people won’t need to see their light box again until the next morning.

It’s all in the timing

The bad news, if you’re not a morning person,  is that you have to get your light early, very early. For most people that means within an hour after waking up.

For some, depending on how far out of whack your circadian rhythms have shifted, you may have to get up earlier to swing yourself back into a normal rhythm.

But it’s sooo worth it

After a few days of feeling off-kilter because you’ve changed your daily routine, you should begin to feel the effect of the light therapy. Your normal energy and zest should start to return. You’ll find yourself laughing more easily, even spontaneously.

You won’t droop like an unwatered plant in the afternoon. You’ll be sleeping better. If you go out after work, you won’t be dragging yourself out the door. Sex will sound like fun again.

Put your creative cap on

There’s no fudging on this part of your plan. With a little creative brainstorming and flexibility you’ll be able to come up with a half-dozen ways to wiggle 15-30 minutes of light into your morning schedule.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• While you eat your breakfast
• While you fix breakfast or lunch for your family
• While you shave or apply makeup
• While you read the paper or a book
• While you write in a journal
• While you sketch in a sketchbook
• While you plan the day in your planner or PDA
• While you check email
• While you workout on the treadmill or elliptical trainer

If this all sounds like way too much work and way too much juggling and way too much commitment, take a breath. You don’t have to do it all at once and you don’t have to do it perfectly. Make a small commitment – to try it for two weeks and then evaluate how you feel.

The first two weeks are critical

Most people respond to light therapy within two weeks. Some will take closer to a month and some will respond within a few days. Promise yourself you’ll give it a fair chance and commit to a two-week trial. If you feel better after two weeks, give it another two weeks. If you buy from a reputable light manufacturer, you have 30-60 days to try it. Relax.

By that point, you’ll have an excellent sense of whether light therapy works for you and you’ll have had enough time to play with the timing of your morning bright light session and whether you need to extend the time.

More good news: It gets easier

The longer you do it, the easier it gets to get up and get your light. Chances are you’ll start looking forward to this brief respite to yourself, especially when you’re able to get up a bit earlier than the rest of your family.

I have a stack of library books I’m working my way through with my morning light time. Or if something’s on my mind, I grab my journal and write for those 15 minutes while I eat my breakfast. I spent weeks one winter intricately drawing a dried leaf in pencil in my sketchbook.

If you’re already into a seasonal droop or depression, the idea of getting up early, or earlier, may sound like an impossible task. If it does, just slide the light in front of your face for as long as you have time – even 5 or 10 minutes. It will make a difference. Baby steps, baby steps – you don’t have to push yourself.

How long the light?

I can hear the echoes – how long do I have to sit in front of the light box? The short answer is, it depends. It depends on the kind of light box you buy, which is dependent on how you want to use the light and how much time you have.

There are two broad categories of light boxes, fluorescent lights and LED lights. The fluorescent lights emit a light intensity of 2,500-10,000 lux. At the standard treatment of 10,000 lux, most people require a 30-minute session, although that time may decrease as a person becomes accustomed to the treatment and gets their system back in sync.

The LED lights are a different technology based on the wavelength of light. LED lights are much smaller and more portable. Most people typically only need a 15-minute session, although that can vary, too.

The eyes have it

The distance your eyes have to be from the light, the treatment field, is the second thing to consider. If you will be exercising on a machine and you have to set the light a distance away, you may want a larger, fluorescent light that has a wider and deeper exposure field.

If you’ll be sitting at your computer or dining room table reading, you’ll be able to use an LED light with a shorter treatment field.

Lotsa possibilities.

Think about this: Write down four ways you can use a light box in the morning.

Tell us in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy the rest of the Bright Light series:

• Overview: How light therapy helps seasonal depression
• Article 1 : Cloudy with a chance of depression
• Article 2: Most of us are light deprived
• Article 3: Why you need a daily hit of bright light
• Article 4: Your early morning energy trigger
• Article 5: 6 tips for determining the light box you need
• Article 6: White, Blue, Green? Which light is best?

Ready to go shopping for a light box? Ready to take charge of your winters? Click here to get the Light Therapy Lamp Guide to help you shop by brand and the winter guide, Your 8 Step Plan to Stopping the Winter Blues, a 37-page ebook that lays out the pieces of the winter blues puzzle.

Tagged as: 10000 lux, circadian rhythms, LED lightboxes, Light Therapy, LightBox