For researchers, these and other clues hint strongly at a major role for serotonin deficiency in winter depression, with bright light preserving serotonin from the greedy hand of darkness. 

Darkness signals our "third eye," the pineal gland, to convert serotonin into melatonin. Bright light tells it to stop. People who don't get enough bright light may therefore get overloaded with melatonin and deficient in serotonin. High daytirne melatonin levels have indeed been documented in people with winter depression, a condition strongly associated with bright light deprivation due to short, cold winter days. The same may prove true for a subgroup of people whose serotonin-related conditions flare up in winter -- people with bulimia, OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] (Jenike, 1997), panic disorder, PMS and recurrent brief depressions. But could it also apply to people who shun bright light any time of year? The fact that SAD-like symptoms afflict light-shy San Diegans in the summer certainly suggests it does (Espiritu et al., 1994). 

Bright light is by no means a selective booster or preserver of serotonin. Its predominant effect is to stimulate -- enough, in high doses, to induce agitation, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, hypomania and mania. This may contraindicate it for some excitable serotonin-shy individuals and recommend it for others. Clinical studies suggest the latter may include people with depression, including the depressive phase of bipolar disorder (use with caution), bulimia and Parkinson's disease. 

Bright light therapy can entail sitting near a powerful commercial light box for 30 minutes to two hours a day. But the great light box in the sky should be at least as effective, and pointing ordinary household lamps at a light surface, like a book or a light tabletop so the bright reflected light floods your field of vision, should also do. For safety's sake, the light should be bright, not blinding. 

Bright light strongly influences daily biorhythms. People who stay up late and/or oversleep in the morning are likely to benefit most from bright light as early in the day as possible. Those who get tired early and/or wake up early usually benefit from bright light closer to bedtime (Baumel, 1995). 
 
 

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Baumel, Syd, Dealing with Depression Naturally (New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing, 1995).
 

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