Light therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Published on Tue 15 Jun 2010
An ongoing study monitoring soldiers returning to the US with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been presented to the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. The research suggests that light therapy can help reduce the disorder by regulating and improving the soldiers’ sleep patterns.
Exposure to 10,000lux lights for 30 minutes a day, the soldiers have been experiencing significant effects on their disruptive sleep cycles which are one of the problems of PTSD, playing a precipitating and perpetuating role. There have also been beneficial effects on the severity of their PTSD.
Study co-ordinator, Shannon Cornelius, has said "Disturbed sleep is known to interact with depression and anxiety in a vicious cycle. By reducing the severity and occurrence of sleep disturbances, it may be possible to reduce the severity of symptoms such as anxiety and depression in combat-related PTSD…Because bright light therapy is a relatively simple, self-administered, inexpensive treatment with few side effects, these results are an important step to further establish the efficacy of bright light therapy as an alternative or adjunct treatment for combat-related PTSD."
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