Rise and shine: how light therapy treatments can keep Seasonal Affective Disorder at bay

From sunshine apps to bright-light treatments, Katie Strick has a guide to banishing your SAD for good this January
Sleeping beauty: silk eye mask, £15, Lazy Oaf

Winter’s bite can bring general feelings of malaise. No wonder: it’s dark, it’s cold and we’re wanting for Vitamin D. For some people it’s diagnosable: it’s estimated that six per cent of the UK population suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD). Either way, few of us are immune to the darkness of mood that sets in around November.

The best remedy is to migrate south for the winter and set up on a beach. But if reality precludes a sunny sabbatical, there are other ways: treatments, classes and technology are picking up where the sun has set to keep us cheerful all the way to spring.

Start by getting out of bed on the right side. Dragging yourself up is even harder when there’s no light streaming through your curtains — technology can change that. Lumie’s lights smooth the seasonal transition: its Bodyclock Luxe 750D is the latest model and is designed to beat those winter blues into next year by mimicking a natural sunrise. When you open your eyes you feel fully awake and refreshed, boosting your mood and productivity during the day (£199, lumie.com).

To get the effect without the kit and caboodle, Light Alarm is a Lumie-like app that fades light into your room slowly via your phone and plays increasingly loud sounds of summer such as birdsong or crickets (free, seligmanventures.com), and Blue Light Therapy wakes you up using blue light to stimulate your brain (£1.99, luciddreamingapp.com).

You can also put yourself in healing hands. At K West Spa’s Sun Meadow Room, beauticians use light therapy to tackle the symptoms of SAD: each session in front of the lamps takes just 20 minutes and is said to improve mood, boost focus and stimulate Vitamin D. It’s also good for your skin and bones, and is a recommended pre-holiday treatment to prepare your body for a tan (£20, k-west.co.uk).

Light therapy products - in pictures

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Exercise, too, can help remedy the symptoms of seasonal misery. Light therapy is a central part of the new Vitamin Me class that will be rolled out across David Lloyd clubs after Christmas. The 30-minute mood-boosting workout is all about tackling SAD, and sounds a bit like a holiday: stretch out on a sun lounger and dip your feet in the sand before tackling some gentle stretches to the sound of waves lapping. Then spend 15 minutes in front of a light therapy lamp, before finishing with a high-intensity cardio session. To refuel afterwards, swap your coffee for a Plenish Kick juice (£9.90, plenishcleanse.com): the spicy concoction is fired up with fresh-pressed red chillies for an afternoon boost and it will cleanse you with a healthy shot of Vitamin C to keep your immune system firing and spirits high. Don’t worry — be happy.

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