Can Really Help You Sleep Better? by Deanne Blackhurst

When it comes to sleeping, Susan and Jay are on complete opposite sides of the bed. Jay finds it hard to settle down each night, often staying up late to watch TV or read. While Susan is ready for bed the moment she gets home from work. It’s not unusual for her to sleep ten or more hours on the weekends, especially in the winter, while Jay is lucky to get five or six.

You’d expect Jay to be tired all the time and Susan fresh and rested, right? But the truth is, sleeping too much and too little leave both Susan and Jay feeling exhausted and cranky much of the time.

Sleeping too little is known in the medical community as while sleeping too much is . Both are considered problematic sleeping conditions and are sometimes symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD for short when they occur more often during the fall and winter months.

These sleep disorders can occur when the body's natural is disrupted. Circadian rhythm is a fancy way of describing how our bodies change and react to the daily cycle of waking up and going back to sleep. This rhythm lets us know when it’s time to get tired and when it’s time to start our day. However, when our rhythms are off, like Susan and Jay’s, our bodies get confused, sleeping either more or less than is healthy.

Studies have shown that disrupted sleep patterns, whether from , adjusting to night time work, or due to insomnia or hypersomnia, can be gradually shifted to a more normal pattern, with the use of light therapy. Also known as phototherapy, light therapy uses a bright light device that helps shift the body’s natural sleep rhythm to a more normal schedule. Bright can be used in the morning to help the body adjust to being awake, while a lower setting can be used at night to help prepare the body for sleep.

Light therapy has been around for over fifty years. As a teenager, I had a friend whose father pioneered the use and sale of light boxes to treat , anxiety and sleep issues. It took a while for this treatment to catch on, but in the last few years, light therapy has begun to gather a following in both the medical community and with people like you and me who are looking for safe alternative sleeping pills

If you search under light therapy boxes on Amazon, you’ll see dozens of styles and prices available. Today’s light boxes are convenient, easy to set up, and can be used almost anywhere. When turned on, your eyes absorb the therapeutic light, which stimulates the cells of the and eventually, the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls the circadian rhythms.

People can use these devices while working on the computer, playing video games, reading or even eating breakfast. It’s really that easy.

Will light therapy help you sleep better? According to sleepfoundation.org, light therapy can be helpful to people who suffer from sleep disorders by regulating their natural body rhythm to a more normal sleep schedule. If that wasn’t enough, light therapy has also been proven to help you feel better about yourself and your life according to the Mayo Clinic. What do you have to lose?