Sadd lights anyone?

Anybody had success with using the light boxes and if so which one. Anybody experience mood swings they attribute to it.

Meta

I use a light box, and it helps. Especially with dark, cloudy days (which I don't deal with very well). But I have heard it can trigger mania. I've only been hypomanic once, and that took a large overdose of St. John's Wort for about a week.

But there is also dark therapy, which is very effective with bipolar disorder. Check these links out for more information:
http://www.psycheducation.org/depres...4HrCycling.htm
http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/LightDark.htm
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi...8.2004.00166.x
http://www.brightenyourlife.info/

Thanks Rapunzel. I will check out the sites. Somehow fall brings on a tendency for me to want to sleep about 12-14 hours a day, and a lot of the time those hours are daytime for some reason.. I feel like a vampire.

Meta

That's how I am too - could sleep most of the day and it wouldn't be enough. I also tend to be nocturnal. If I had my way I would stay up until 1 or 2 a.m., sleep until around 10 a.m., and take a nap from about 1-4 p.m. I also lose a couple of hours each day, so the next night I'd feel like staying up until 3 or 4 a.m., sleeping til noon, etc. I struggle to leave for work by 9 most days, and it's really hard on the days I have to be there early. I take a day off once a week to sleep and catch up on things. But I'm not sure I'll be able to do that anymore now that I need a day off for practicum.

My sleep/wake pattern is "delayed circadian rhythm disorder." It is related to seasonal affective disorder (can cause it), as there is a connection between getting the early morning light and serotonin production, which we need to regulate mood. Too much serotonin can trigger mania though. We need dark at the right times and for long enough to signal the brain to stop making serotonin and make melatonin, which slows us down for sleep.

Not everyone believes in circadian rhythm or in seasonal affective disorder, even though they are in the DSM. One of my professors said that there is no SAD - it's really bipolar I. So by his definition I guess I'm actually bipolar I, although without mania. I can see where there is a connection though. It doesn't matter what you call it - I think it's all parts of the same thing one way or another.

oops, I meant bpII, not I. But only because that one professor said SAD is really BPII.