this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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Light.
Absolutely stupendous quantities of high-quality, full-spectrum light.
Live in a light-box.
There is a circuit which goes from pigmented-ganglia ( black-pigmented nerve-endings ) in our retinas, into our brains.
That sensor-system is rather dull, unlike the rods & cones.
Rig a room's light-switch so that when you flick it, suddenly you're saturated in sufficient light to cross your light-threshold, about 1/2 second later, it's like vital aliveness kicked into your brain.
I've replicated the experiment, and I've gotten others to do it, too.
One non-obvious thing, though:
Because when we're in the dark, we can't remember what it felt-like to have that light-brain circuit activated ( the SAD-treatment lights are intended to cross this threshold: it's the same mechanism ), so therefore, to treat profound, long-term depression, you NEED to get tons of lights onto a timer, & use that as your "alarm clock".
It works.
It'd save many lives, if doctors would admit it is actual, evidence-based medicine, but that'd gut billions of dollars of psychiatric-industry, so .. that won't ever happen.
( dad was a medical-researcher & doctor: I remember the grudge/hatred when the Australian researcher violated psychiatry's established "ulcers are a psychiatric illness" dogma, with evidence showing that ulcers are created by pylorii bacteria.
Paychiatry won't ever do the experiment, they won't admit it works, they won't tolerate anybody claiming it works, etc.
Religion is religion, and my autistic-empiricism has no validity in their reality.
Do the experiment, though, & you'll see that it actually tests to be true. )
I took psych 101 as an elective and I remember the professor talking about this or something closely related to it. Bright light does have an effect on the brain, he said.
Also it's probably part of why looking at your smart phone right before bed is kind of bad for you.