Light Therapy

Yoga · Post by **Yoga** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 5:05 pm

Has anyone tried light therapy for help in getting to sleep? If so, what was your experience.

chrisp · Post by **chrisp** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 5:06 pm

There was a post about a month ago . Do a search maybe it will show up.

chrisp · Post by **chrisp** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 5:11 pm

Golite p-1 $142.99 at costco

SleepyGuy · Post by **SleepyGuy** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:50 pm

Before discovering I had sleep apnea, I had tried light therapy with some success. I have a lightbox that I use in the winter. I find actual sunlight is far preferable to lightboxes.

I try to get 90 minutes of sunlight exposure in the morning. You can include your commute in this. I also try to get outside for 45 minutes at lunch.

I have found this is not as necessary now that I am on the CPAP. Also, I have found vitamin D helps. Vitamin D is created when sunlight strikes the body. Today we get a fraction of what our ancestors got. But for some reason it is difficult to raise the dose quickly. I take purified vitamin D by TwinLab. (I'm allergic to fish oil tablets.) I started at 800 units and added 400 units per MONTH until I got to 2000.

rock and roll · Post by **rock and roll** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:35 pm

YES, it was I and I have had great luck with the GoLite. But I am backwards. I saw I could always sleep in the daytime but not at night. So I use it at bedtime and I SLEEP GREAT NOW! I was on 20 mg. of Ambian and having trouble then. I am off totally now and have been for two months. It works! And I live in S. Texas, we are not sun deprived.

Yoga · Post by **Yoga** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:07 am

Thanks to everyone who replied. We are going to give the Prolite a try. We are hoping it will work for us.

sharonokc · Post by **sharonokc** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:02 pm

I need to get back to using light therapy. One can use it to reset when your body thinks it needs to get up and go to sleep. Unfortunately one must use it when one wants to be getting up. For example if you want to wake up at 6 am you need to use the light at 6 am. If you use it at 9 am your body thinks you want to get up at 9 am.

I tend to be a night owl and when I don't use my light gradually start rising later and going to bed later. Most of the community here does not function that way however so using the light helps bothe rise and shine and go to sleep before midnight.

I do not know about reinbursement by insurance companies for this, does anyone else know?

snamvar · Post by **snamvar** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 3:11 pm

Apollo has a questionaire on their website as to what your sleep pattern is and when you want to wakeup, and it tells you about how much light and when to use it.
I am also a night owl and would like to get in sync with the rest of the world. It seems that when I try to wake up earlier, I am less alert and can't think clearly for the rest of the day. I have also read that using the light therapy at the wrong time could make insomnia and owl syndrome worst.
I am also taking Ambien and would like to cut down. It seems that this is one of the problems (like OSA) which we patients are left in the dark to figure out ourselves. Any forums on light therapy?