S.a.d.

Hi,

Is there a particular Procyon session you would recommend for S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder)?

Thanks!

Perhaps this thread will help?

Thanks, I will have a look at it. :)

Blue light in the morning and beta sessions are going to be the best for SAD.

Thanks, I will try that. Horrible weather where I am after coming back from holiday. I am feeling the difference!

I have found the use of a dawn simulator to be very helpful for seasonal affective disorder. The light gradually brightens to simulate the sunrise as a more natural alarm clock (but would advise an audio alarm as a backup, just in case). When you still don't feel like getting up in the morning, or for symptoms during the day, exposure to a full spectrum light is the standard, but blue light therapy has become increasingly popular (I've tried this when my symptoms were really bad while living up North and it made me a believer). Although I have not tried it, I would think the blue light (or possibly the combination of colors to produce a bright white light) from an AVS machine like the Procyon could be beneficial. When all else fails, you could consider moving to a warmer, brighter climate.

You can read David Siever's paper on AVS and S.A.D. here. The effective frequency tested was white light pulses at 20hz. On Procyon, this would be simulated by firing all the LEDs together.

White light Ganzframes from MindPlace are sold here.

Thanks for the new replies and advice. :) (Andy, your link is invalid though.)
PS: I live close to the beach and the weather used to be gorgeous here, but global weather changes seem to affect my area too. :( Maybe I am a bit spoiled too, I don't know... But I really like warm weather!

Setting the Procyon (or Kasina, or Proteus with blue glasses, or...) to ganz blue and using it in conjunction with a xenon strobe set to 20Hz, as suggested by Brewmasher, will provide pure blue stimulus plus full spectrum white. A suitable party strobe can be obtained quite cheaply, but it does have to be a xenon discharge type rather than the now common LED type.

In use just put the glasses on and sit in front of the strobe - plenty of strobe light gets in, and if not, rearrange the glasses and/or strobe. Many xenon strobes include an external trigger input - it's not too difficult to dream up some electronics to use the AVS device to trigger the strobe at AVS controlled rates, otherwise just set up the AVS device to 20Hz and adjust the strobe until it looks the same before setting it back to ganz - a couple of Hertz either way isn't going to make a lot of difference.

As pretty as they look, white LEDs, whether as individual RGB or integrated phosphor, aren't white, nor do they correspond particularly closely to the RGB sensitivity of the retina. Mostly this matters not in the slightest - but when full spectrum light is needed...

Also suitable for other applications that benefit from short pulses of white light (altered states).

Cheers,
Craig

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Originally Posted by HighVisions

(Andy, your link is invalid though.)

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Yeah, sorry about that! Got rid of that thread which had some confusing info in it!

Thanks, Craig. I will have a look if I can find a xenon strobe light on eBay... :)