SAD Light Therapy - How does it actually work? Skin exposure? Retina exposure?

Obsessive_ADD · Mar 08, 2017 at 07:04 PM

I've had a tough time finding much information on how exactly light therapy works for things like SAD (they simply state what worked but not really how or the specifics)

Is it simply the retina being exposed to bright light indirectly or is it also the skin on one's entire body that must be exposed? Simply the face? Ideally one would expose their entire body to a 10,000 lux light source but that is not really practical when trying to accomplish this at home indoors on a daily basis. I have tested a couple of light therapy units and in order to achieve therapeutic levels of 10,000 lux, it requires the unit to be 6-9 inches (depending on unit) from my face. In order to get full body exposure, I might need a dozen or more of these $200 units and a custom built fixture to mount them all...not to mention it being unwieldy for every day use.