Gather around and let me tell you a story about the dark sky that makes mid-afternoon feel like midnight, and the source of light that makes it bearable. Once a year, winter appears with a rapid cooling of the ears and a sudden craving for a vat of hot chocolate. He brings everything beautiful: Christmas lights, white blankets of snow in the park, and thoughtful gifts. But it also invites cold and abundant darkness. I grew up in upstate New York, where the sunlight disappears at four-thirty in the afternoon throughout December and January. That is to say, this is not a new phenomenon for me, but that doesn’t make it any less painful. In fact, it has caused a sense of dread that begins to appear in late September.
But when I moved to Scotland, 4:30 p.m. became almost 3 p.m. and the sun didn’t fully rise until well after I woke up. Even in London, where I currently live, it’s easily dark by 4 p.m. on the shortest days. Like most people, the darkness leaves me exhausted and takes a serious toll on my mental health.
Now let’s move on to the hero of this story: my SAD lamp. SAD means seasonal affective disordera depressive disorder triggered by the changing of the seasons (usually the darkest days, although some people experience it in summer). You do not need to be diagnosed with SAD to use a SAD Lamplight therapy lamp or wake-up lamp – all names for the same thing.
I bought Lumie’s Vitamin L light therapy lamp a few years ago before my first Scottish winter and I’ve used it every year since. The Vitamin L lamp is a thin rectangle that provides 5,000 lux at a foot distance or 2,500 lux at about an arm’s length. The latter is the recommended distance of use and more or less the distance which separates it from me. It measures just under eight inches wide, 11 inches long, and just over three inches deep. It can also be placed in portrait or landscape orientation, although I find it doesn’t balance very well in the latter. The light makes up the entire front panel and has a simple power button on the back.
The lamp sits on the floor next to my kitchen table, where I will place it most mornings as I eat breakfast or start work. As a big fan of sleeping in, I rarely use it on the weekends unless I get up early to run somewhere and usually forget or am busy in the morning at least one day of work. But when I wear it, I let it shine at an angle for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time I have.
This lamp is far from being an extra table lamp to add a little glow. It’s a very — I repeat for good measure — very bright light. And yet, even though it’s practically an imitation of sunlight, there’s no need to worry about UV rays. It really wakes me up with the brightness and daily routine adds a nice structure to cold, busy mornings.
I have never been diagnosed with SAD, but I suffer from a panic disorder that causes anxiety and bouts of depression, the latter being more prominent during these cold, dark days. I’m not sure how much of it is the lamp and how much of it is a placebo, but it definitely helps keep my negative feelings at bay and makes the dark days – a little – more bearable.
Overall, if you dread the darkness of the winter months as much as I do, I highly recommend giving this Lumie light a try or exploring one of the other options available on the market. Just the habit of turning it on most of the time makes me feel like I’m doing something to combat the gloom. Plus, it’s really hard to be tired when there’s a bright light shining near you.
