Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that typically occurs each year during fall and winter. Light therapy boxes can offer effective treatment for SAD. Light box therapy may be effective on its own or may be more effective when it's combined with another SAD treatment, such as an antidepressant medication or psychological counselling.
Light therapy boxes for SAD treatment are also known as SAD light boxes, SAD lamps, or SAD lights, and phototherapy boxes. A SAD lamp mimics outdoor light. Researchers believe this type of light causes a chemical change in the brain that lifts your mood and eases other symptoms of SAD. Most people use light boxes for a minimum of 30 minutes each morning. We are talking about feeling slightly off on a cold winters Monday morning when none of us likes to get out of bed, but about those people for whom SAD is a painful part of life and which requires regular treatment.
SAD Lamps are available in different sizes and styles and they often have different features. They have been proved to be beneficial if used correctly and you can buy SAD lights which are of different intensities, depending on your needs and the severity of your condition. Treatment consists simply of sitting close to the light box, with lights on and eyes open. Looking at the lights is not recommended; rather, people are free to engage in such activities as reading and writing, or eating meals. What is important is to orient the head and body toward the lights, concentrating on activities on the surfaces illuminated by the lights, and not on the lights themselves. Treatment sessions can last from 15 minutes to three hours, once or twice a day, depending on individual needs and equipment used.
Another type of lamp which is used in the medical field is the infrared heat lamp, to give warmth to a particular area of the body which may be experiencing localised pain. Infrared heating uses infrared lamps, commonly called heat lamps to transmit infrared radiation to the body that is being heated. When large bodies or bodies with a large surface area need to be heated, infrared lamps are often used in banks. Infrared heat lamps are commonly incandescent bulbs which are able to produce infrared radiation.
Infrared heat lamps have many industrial applications including curing coatings and preparing plastic for forming, commercial applications such as cooking and browning food, and personal applications such as providing heat (especially in bathrooms and for pets).one of the most popular places for their use is in a hatchery.