To help his sister who suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder, Boris Legradic of Letters from Lausanne blog made her a DIY lightbox:
My sister suffers from seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter depression. A commonly prescribed therapy is light therapy - about thirty minutes of bright light in the morning. Bright in this context means more than 10 000 Lumens. You can of course buy commercial light-boxes, but I wanted to construct one by myself...
Go workout at the local gym and that will help cure two ills in the winter.
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aren't light boxes traditionally full spectrum light bulbs, which are a touch different than fluorescent? am i wrong? i have a light box which works amazingly well, but i know it takes special bulbs and has a crazy reflective surface to reflect more light back at the user.
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The light spectrum from most fluorescents is very poor. Compact fluorescents are even worse. The best I have seen is normally about 82 CFI- and these are expensive special order items intended for video production. There are some expensive tubes for photo and video in the low 90s, like the Kino Flo tubes. Based upon my understanding, its very unlikely that anything less than the very best of these video lights will help seasonal affective disorder.
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I believe light boxes to treat SAD actually need some UV output, like full spectrum lights. The UV triggers the skin to produce vitamin D, which in turn improves mood. In the winter natural UV from the sun diminishes, triggering the SAD.
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Or maby he could get the pillow alarm clock with the leds in it previosly on neatorama.
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Another way to combat SAD is to walk at work using a treadmill desk. It has been shown to increase levels of dopamine and serotonin and improve mood. You can read more about it at http://www.trekdesk.com/Treadmill_Desk_Info/SAD.html.
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