The best time of day to use your light box...

I've been using a light box since 2005 to help initially with depression, but more recently with seasonally-related insomnia. Even though this is now my seventh winter of using the light box, I've always had this nagging feeling that I'm not using it correctly -- I'm not getting the most out of it. Specifically, I never quite feel that I'm using it for the right length of time at the right time(s) of day.

I never usually have a problem falling asleep - I go to bed between 10.00-10.30pm and nod off within 40 minutes or so. My huge bugbear is that I wake up, all guns blazing currently at 2.00am (although this goes through phases -- sometimes it can be 3.00am, but it's always before 4.00am) and struggle to go back to sleep. Even when I eventually drift off again, it's rubbish half-sleep. I rise in the morning feeling drained, forgetful and de-motivated.

Whilst sitting on my light box after breakfast this morning I suddenly had this Eureka! moment. Because I put in a half-hour session so early in the day, (i.e. 8.30-9.00am) am I 'front-loading' my circadian clock, so everything happens too early in my day / night cycle? The 'natural' way of receiving light in the summer months is gradually throughout the day, not all shoved into a half-hour burst after breakfast. Is my light box use doing more harm than good in terms of my sleep pattern? The fact that my time of usage is so rigid and I wake up at exactly the same time every night makes me wonder if there is a connection. I often put in a shorter (10 mins) afternoon session on the light box between 4.00-6.00 (again, I've never quite settled on the right time to do this), but maybe the fact that I do one long session so early in the day over-rides everything else and makes my brain think that daybreak is 2.00am.

AS a result, I'm going to try splitting my morning session into a short (10 minute) session after breakfast, just to get me going, and a longer (20 minute) session around lunchtime. I will report back and let you know if this helps.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this matter? What do you find works best? Have you made any tweaks to your regime and found it helped?

I look forward to your responses.

yours groggily,

wooltonian.

Thanks Linda. In the past it's never even occurred to me that having my main light-box session straight after breakfast might be too early in the day and actually be causing my early wakening problem. I always thought that's when you were 'supposed' to do it. From a circadian point of view, it actually makes perfect theoretical sense to use it around the middle of the day i.e. that time of day when you would naturally be exposed to the most intense daylight.

Anyway, for the next ten days I'm going to shift my main light-box session back four hours from 8.30am to 12.30pm and hope that my 2.00am wakening follows suit!

....will report back.

Just a quick update... For the past few weeks I've tried splitting my light box use into two or three sessions per day with the longest session around lunchtime and a short session in the morning and mid-afternoon. This seems to have gradually altered my sleep pattern so that although I still wake up two or three times during the night I go back to sleep quicker and sleep sounder. I no longer wake up early in the night (around 2.00am) feeling like it's 'time to get up' and unable to re-settle.

Gradually I have settled on the following times of use:
9.30am - 5-10 minute session
12.30pm - 20-25 minute session
4.30pm - 5-10 minute session

All times are approximate and tend to vary a bit in reality depending on other commitments. On a bright, sunny day I slightly shorten the sessions and on a cloudy day I lengthen the sessions as shown above.

Hope this is useful. Using a light box is an imprecise science and involves a lot of trial and error, but I don't think I will ever go back to having just one half-hour morning session again. I shall post again if anything else happens.

Sorry to hear things aren't working out well right now with your light box - and I hope it gets better with further experimentation. If it's any comfort (probably not!) my sleep patterns are all over the place, and I've resorted to sleeping tablets again, hopefully just a temporary measure. One needs to be able to function during the day!

I think I've cracked it! Finally. It took seven years of trial and error with light therapy and a helluva lot of working out and then around a month for my sleep pattern to respond and consistently improve, but I am now regularly sleeping through to between 5.00 and 6.00 am and things are starting to look a lot better. The picture is slightly blurred by the fact that I work too hard (with irregular hours and some night work) during the week and drink too much alcohol at weekends, but I have finally found a pattern of using my light box that stops me waking up at 2.00-3.00 am every morning.

I have finally settled upon the following light box regime:

Ten minutes in the morning, usually around 9.30-10.30am

A ten minute session between 12.30 and 1.30pm.

A ten minute session around 3.00-3.30pm.

A five to ten minute session between 4.30 and 5.00pm.

The 12.30-3.30pm period seems especially crucial in terms of reducing night waking and improving sleep quality in the second half of the night. A couple of ten minute sessions either end of this period seem to work wonders!

....so there 'tis. Moral of the story -- spreading light box sessions out during the day, with particular emphasis on early to mid afternoon does the trick for me. I'm looking forward to using what I've learned from week one come the Autumn. Hopefully it will make a big difference.