Sunday, September 9, 2007

First week has lead to therapy_light therapy.

Not to be interpreted as "diet therapy" where you spill your soul in 100 calorie increments. No, I mean light as in the sun. It seems that being married, having pets, and having the personal goal of dropping around 100 lbs combine to be being NOT conducive to late night studying, rising late, and barely making it to class on time. This seems to only work if you can either thrive on 4 hours sleep, you never want to see your significant other or, more commonly, you are a single law student. So because I am trying to spend time with DH and the pets, cook some semi-healthy meals, get to the gym on a regular basis, and get all my studying done, I find myself getting up at around 5 AM. I wasn't even sure there was a legal 5 AM, but sure enough it happens. And it doesn't matter that the days are fairly long, it's freakin' dark at 5 AM. I keep hoping the 5 turns into an 8.

So I whined, um explained this to a few people the other day. I love my friends. As an aside, being 40 is awesome because your friends tend to have real careers established. My friend the psychiatrist started going into light therapy and the difference it can make with people, especially those that have Seasonal Affective Disorder or ADHD (me), and need a big boost to their inner clock. So on her advice (I will attempt to stick her with the bill if this doesn't work), I have purchased a Sunset/Sunrise alarm clock, which is exactly what it sounds like. In the evening, you program it to slowly bring down the light and same for am. So by the time my alarm goes off, the light is fully on and I have been exposed to light for about 15-20 minutes. The second thing I purchased is for during the day. It's a small, portable light box. I just sit in front of it for about 15 minutes at a time and it's supposed to really stem those afternoon slumps.

Here's hoping I didn't just flush a bunch of money I don't have down the drain.

4 comments:

Monique said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Monique said...

So will the light on the lightbox not bother your eyes?
(Had a typo in the first post)

Eliza said...

I don't think you look into it, if that makes sense. You just set it next to you and "absorb" the light comin' at ya.

Anastasia said...

Huh, let us know how it works. I'm really mood-responsive to light - but only natural light - eight hours in an office makes me want to hurt myself.