# Light therapy for morning waking



## Hellbore (Jul 20, 2010)

Hey guys, I'm somewhat of a flashaholic and have been enjoying these forums for some years now.

I have also had terrible problems sleeping all my life. I finally saw a sleep specialist and I was diagnosed with something called DSPS or Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. It's sort of like having jet lag all your life.

What it boils down to is, for most people, if they make themselves wake up early in the morning, the sleep deprivation will cause their body to adjust its sleep clock and allow them to fall asleep earlier in the evening, shifting their sleep schedule, and in this way they can become accustomed to going to sleep earlier and waking up earlier. When you have DSPS, however, your body doesn't adjust to this sleep deprivation. You simply wake up early, feel tired, then when night comes, you still can't fall asleep until your body's set sleep time, which is often very late, such as 2 to 4 AM. When you finally do fall asleep, you sleep soundly, and if allowed to stay asleep, you can sleep a full 8 hours and get a good night's sleep, but unfortunately most people's life schedules don't allow for sleeping in until noon every day! So, unless they can work an afternoon or night shift, most people with DSPS go through life forcing themselves to wake at a normal hour in the morning, then can't sleep until late, and consequently never get enough sleep.

One theory that has been successful for some people is that you can get some results from using light to influence your brain's sleep schedule. Where sleep deprivation failed to reset your brain's sleep schedule, perhaps light therapy will prove more successful. Now we get to my question for CPF! I am interested in building a device for light therapy. Basically it needs to be a very bright light to simulate sunlight, which will shine on me while I'm in bed, and will turn itself on in the morning when it's time to wake up. The exposure to bright light is supposed to help convince the brain to adjust its sleep clock. I was thinking perhaps a panel with multiple high-powered LED's might be suitable for this purpose. 

What do you think? Has anyone done this before? Would LED's be a good choice or would the cost for such a large-scale lighting device be prohibitive? It's supposed to simulate sunlight, would LED's provide a wide enough spectrum of light?

Alas, simply opening a window isn't an option for me, I live in an apartment complex with unpleasant neighbors and frequent crime, so I can't be exposing my sleeping self like that


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## purduephotog (Jul 20, 2010)

Most of that is based on blue light.... which you can find a number of sources for. A couple of blue LEDs, who knows- the research out there is interesting but I haven't seen much other than the recent studies about students not getting enough blue light in the morning to help reset their cycles.


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## blasterman (Jul 20, 2010)

For the record, I've suffered from DSPS since highschool, and now that I'm older find it getting more than annoying and a productivity killer. I don't recall the last time I ever got to bed before midnight, and if I did, I woke up a few hours later since my body thought it was a nap, and then I'm totally screwed for the next few days. It gets worse in the winter, which might lend some evidence to the light argument.

To add to what Purduephotog said, most of the quasi research I've seen on this points to intense blue light being the 'reset' trigger and it needs to be exposed to either the eyes or thinner skin regions of the body (bak of legs), or both. Depends on what study you read. I have no real opinion on if it's true or not due to lack of evidence. However, there's nothing I've seen to convince me you need 'wide spectrum' light, which is also an excuse for some web-sites to sell rather pricey high CRI bulbs.

If blue light is indeed the trigger, and this seems to a common factor in much of the research, then it's easy to generate. Pretty much any cheap daylight CFL is blazing in blue light spectrum, and all you'd need is a timer. A couple 27watt daylight CFLs popping on at 7am would likely make me grumpier though. Who knows - maybe it would work if you put them on torche' style lamps and bounced them off the ceiling to emulate the sky.

If indeed blue spectrum is the factor here, then I can think of more advanced and less abrupt way to work this. That would be to build an array of royal and white LEDs, and have it gradually brighten over a period of perhaps 15 minutes to full intensity in the morning. The array would be easy because this is the same config we use on reef tanks, but the auto-fader is a bit beyond my scope. Years ago I had a script on my computer that would gradually fade in some music to wake me in the morning, and I rather liked it.


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## jtr1962 (Jul 20, 2010)

You're basically a night person. I'm not even sure if it's possible to feel "normal" trying to follow a day schedule. I tried for years and no matter what I did, nothing worked. It didn't matter one bit if I managed to somehow fall asleep early enough so I would get a full measure of sleep. End result was always the same-I dragged until mid-afternoon. Bottom line is that lack of ability to fall asleep early is only part of it. When I'm up before about 1 or 2 PM, my body basically tells me I should be sleeping now, _regardless_ of how much sleep I had. I might feel a little better if I'm up early after getting 7 hours sleep instead of 4, but it's not a huge difference.

What I finally did after getting laid off in 1990 was to just go into business for myself. After going through 16 years of school, plus several years of work, I was sick and tired of having no life outside of school or work on account of simply be too tired out trying to follow the same schedule as the rest of the world. Now I get to set my own hours, but the downside is I don't make much money. My only suggestion is to either find or make work where you have a bit more control over your schedule. DSPS seems to be one of those things society has yet to recognize. It's a shame because a good percentage of the workforce is either performing at suboptimal levels, or perhaps even unable to work at all, on account of the schedule inflexibility of much of the business world. We should really test for DSPS prior to school, and have some schedule flexibility for those who have it. I did notice in my younger years it wasn't as extreme. Just moving the school start time from 9 AM to perhaps 11 AM would have been enough.


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## blasterman (Jul 21, 2010)

> Just moving the school start time from 9 AM to perhaps 11 AM would have been enough.


 
FYI - I just heard on NPR the other day about a significant study in school children that found moving their start time from 8am to 9am produced a very significant improvement in learning ability. So, the biological clock thing affects even kids.

I detest the 8am corporate rule, and find the only people who like it are the execs that like to skate out at 4'ish. Coffee growing lobbyists must be responsible for this one.


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## Hellbore (Jul 21, 2010)

Well I have tried conventional sleep medication before without good results. For example it would knock me out by 11 PM then I would be awake again around 2 or 3 AM (maybe my body thought I was just taking a nap, like someone else mentioned)

However, last night I tried Melatonin for the first time (along with dark therapy). What I did was severely limit my exposure to artificial light, starting at around 8:30 PM, and took the melatonin at 9:30 PM with a target bedtime of 11 PM.

Much to my surprise, I actually felt drowsy by 11 PM and was able to fall asleep, and stayed asleep the whole night! I was amazed when I woke the next morning at 7 AM feeling, well, pretty darn normal!

So we'll see, my case might be mild enough that melatonin + dark therapy and light therapy might actually work... I hope this wasn't just a 1-time thing! I'll try it again tonight.

I really want to buy or rig up a lighted alarm clock though, I think this is a good idea. My room is very dark in the morning.


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## blasterman (Jul 21, 2010)

I think we're on to something with the 'illumination' alarm clock. I have a pair of 20watt blue emitters that wold certainly handle the blue spectrum side of this.

Just a warning, Melatonin = dreaming in IMAX.


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## Hellbore (Jul 21, 2010)

blasterman said:


> I think we're on to something with the 'illumination' alarm clock. I have a pair of 20watt blue emitters that wold certainly handle the blue spectrum side of this.
> 
> Just a warning, Melatonin = dreaming in IMAX.



LOL not sure what you mean... but...

Usually I don't dream. I think maybe it's because I usually don't get enough sleep, so I probably spend most, if not all, of my sleep time in deep sleep, and don't get around to REM sleep where dreaming occurs.

Well, last night, after taking melatonin, I got the best night's sleep I have gotten in some time. I also had the first vivid dream I have had in quite some time. 

I can't go into details about what I was doing in the dream though, because this is a family forum...


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## Bobyn (Jul 21, 2010)

I didn’t have a chance to read the whole thread (I’m pretending to work…!) but last year for Christmas I bought myself a timer (Linked below) to turn my bedroom lights on and off. I set it about fifteen minutes before my alarm clock and found that I woke up much happier. The alarm clock was much less of a startling wake. Before I did this I had a heck of a time getting up early during the winter months (and we have plenty of those up here…:duh2 simply due to the lack of light. I run CFLs at home, if that makes a difference…

I can say for sure that it made someone without DSPS much happier! I hope that you find something that helps you. The only complaint I have is that it makes turning the lights on and off in a hurry someone difficult...

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/...artial&Ntx=mode+matchall&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber


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## alpg88 (Jul 21, 2010)

water therapy works a lot better, my father practiced that when i was a kid, dozen times of bucket full of water in the morning, you learn to wake up on time for the rest of your life.


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## bshanahan14rulz (Jul 22, 2010)

I'm watching this thread. It almost sounds like I signed up with another username and posted my problem. Mirror image! Plus, whenever I work up a good number of spare random LEDs, I'd like to convert my 300W halogen floor lamp to LED. Might as well make it a wake-up aid too.


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## jason 77 (Jul 22, 2010)

blasterman said:


> Just a warning, Melatonin = dreaming in IMAX.



LOL I am on sertraline "generic Zoloft" and I get the "IMAX" dreams as well....

Actually most of the time they are quite interesting dreams and not at all bad.. I love the ones where I can fly! HAHA...

As far as a slow ramp up in LED brightness goes... I would think you might be able to do that with some sort of capacitor circuit where as the capacitor is charging the LED slowly increases in brightness?


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## joeparker54 (Jul 22, 2010)

In the winter I use two up-lights with daylight cfl's plugged into a timer that comes on around 8AM. They actually worked quite well in combating my morning grogginess. The other nice thing was that they were too bright for me to fall back asleep once my alarm woke me. In the summer time, around 10AM on clear days the sun beats down on me from my back window and acts as a natural alarm clock. If its overcast or rainy, I could sleep until 2PM.

It really is comforting to see that their are this many "sun-slaves" beside myself in this forum.

BTW, tried melatonin in the past and results were inconsistent. I'm one of those people who fights off the drowsiness until I can't see straight anymore. I just can't fall asleep unless I'm absolutely exhausted.


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## alpg88 (Jul 22, 2010)

blasterman said:


> Just a warning, Melatonin = dreaming in IMAX.


 :thumbsup: thanks


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## yellow (Jul 23, 2010)

In winter I also use a desk lamp, housing a 100 W blue "daylight" bulb (there are no lower wattage ones)
+ a timer like Bobyn's, set 15 mins be4 I have to get up.
Works well!

the one "problem" I have with the setup is, that the light gets on full power instantly.
What I would like, and what would be much better, were an additional device that starts low and raises output over some mins.
That would be much better, imho.


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## tikitime (Jul 27, 2010)

I wonder if my lagophthalmos is something you have as well. That's sleeping with your eyes open. Only thing that seems ot help th esleep cycle part is complete darkness. the least amount of light wakes me up. I would prefer to wake up to a gradually lightening "blue sky" ceiling as well.


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## Dave_H (Jul 30, 2010)

I think what is being described is similar to (if not) a SAD (Seasonal
Affective Disorder) light, used for depression sometimes related to shorter
sunlight hours during the winter at some latitudes. Surprised nobody
has mentioned the term so far.

Coincidentally I just picked up a used SAD light which was being
dumped at a very low price. It runs from 12vdc and someone stuck
on a 10v adapter with not enough current capacity, so it was not
working. It consists of an array of 12x7 10mm cool white LEDs,
with a timer and some sort of brightness ramp-up/down. It uses a symbolic
keypad and LCD display. There were no instructions, I've managed
to figure out some of its operation so far.

I don't suffer any of the above disorders, although sometimes sleep
patterns get a bit screwed up mostly due to poor habits like drinking
coffee at the wrong times etc. I'd fall asleep at 9pm, wake up at 1-2am
and not be tired enough to get back to sleep, but needed to get up on
weekdays around 7am. The SAD light would probably not help with
this.

I am going to keep the light for experimentation. The colour could be
altered by partial or complete change-out of the LEDs, but I don't have
the need to at this point. Only problem is one cluster of three LEDs is
acting up. Bought new, I think these specialty devices are quite
expensive, hundreds of dollars. I have a friend who used/uses one and
will ask him about them.

As far as slow light ramp-up, reminds me of these CFLs I got cheap,
which took about 2-3 minutes to reach full brightness, and started out
with a weird pinkish tint. Combined with a timer this might work but
might not be quite gradual enough for the application.

Dave

Update: Amazing what a web search can do. First site I clicked on was
the unit I acquired, PDF instructions and all.

http://www.sadlight.com/mr-srs-320.htm


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## Roger Bannister (Jul 31, 2010)

Found this programmable dimmer on Amazon:

Carlon Dimmer

Interestingly, it's not listed on Carlon's website. Appears to have up to 96 programmable settings. I wonder if you could program it to increase the light intensity every minute or so by a few %; that would be the next best thing to a continuous ramp-up.
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I find not sleeping at night to be more a function of stress and not being able to 'turn the brain off' than anything else. Too many thoughts rolling around in your head. If you've got money, health, or relationship issues, that all fuels the chatterbox of negative information we get fed on a daily basis in addition to work and a fear-based news media. More a symptom of overall imbalance for the majority of folks than anything strictly chemical. The mind runs the body, after all...

A regular exercise regime, followed by consistent meditation for 15-20 min right before bedtime (even simple stuff like 'following the breath'), will get most folks sleeping regular hours again in short order. Used to be a chronic insomniac, and now I sleep much more normally after eliminating many stress factors and doing the above. Try it for a few weeks and see! Good luck...

Cheers,

Roger


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## Dave_H (Aug 1, 2010)

Dave_H said:


> I am going to keep the light for experimentation. The colour could be
> altered by partial or complete change-out of the LEDs, but I don't have
> the need to at this point. Only problem is one cluster of three LEDs is
> acting up.
> Dave


 
One thing I notice is at low (dimmed) levels, the brightness matching
of the LEDs is not very good. Not only that, there's a weird mix of tints
including pale aqua and purplish. Given what they charge for these
things you'd think they could do better, but maybe it's just reality
with older/cheap LEDs. I wonder if this colouration might have an
effect on the user i.e. being not really white or even bluish; something
to keep in mind if someone were building an array.

Dave


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## victory (Aug 1, 2010)

I do all kinds of crazy alternating shift work. Melatonin works. It's basically the same chemical you're trying to fool your brain into making with light tricks.


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## Jumi (Aug 6, 2010)

We bought a used one like this. http://www.trilight-therapy.co.uk/p...tml?osCsid=646c594a66596c2ebaa572acfa483a19It had 100W soft white bulb in it, as a energy save option I bought 70W halogen from IKEA(made by Osram) 
I tried some dimmerable CFL. s but they do not work in this lamp since they need higher starting voltage before they light up. 
It it on table GF.s side of the bed so it won't wake me at all, I quess we have to buy another one or I'll wire slave lamp on my side of bed as there is atleast 30W reserve now.


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## arisyap (Aug 7, 2010)

Hellbore said:


> Hey guys, I'm somewhat of a flashaholic and have been enjoying these forums for some years now.
> 
> I have also had terrible problems sleeping all my life. I finally saw a sleep specialist and I was diagnosed with something called DSPS or Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. It's sort of like having jet lag all your life.
> 
> ...



Have you heard about full spectrum lights? It produces _____ that has certain desirable qualities that make it similar to natural sunlight. And according to study, it has some health benefits like stimulating the pineal gland that regulates the normal sleep pattern. So maybe that could help you, although I haven't tried those.


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