Fight the gloom! (Or “how to brighten up your winter”)

Well, if there’s one thing the West Coast is famous for, it’s non-stop rain and gloom. Come the winter months we get socked in and might not see sunshine for weeks at a time. This can be pretty hard on your spirits. I suffer from mild SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) when winter comes around so I went looking for a way to combat this.

Bright Light Therapy is a technique endorsed by groups such as the American Psychological Association and there are plenty of products on the market to help.

I decided to go a different route. I also believe in the benefits of having plants in your environment, so I created a way to accomplish three goals:

1. Wake me up gently in the morning and make it easier to get out of bed
2. Fight my SAD symptoms and give me more energy in winter
3. Grow plants in my home and give me a spot to start my seedings for spring

I present to you, the results of several early attempts, my new and improved “Bedroom Garden”. Rather than spend $150 on one SAD lamp and have to sit by it each morning, I invested the money into the following:

• 3 @ 48″ hanging fluorescent shop lights from Home Depot ($48)
• 2 @ 48″ fluorescent grow bulbs ($20)
• 2 @ 48″ fluorescent ‘daylight’ (6500K) bulbs ($11)
• 2 @ 48″ fluorescent ‘warm white’ (3000K) bulbs ($10)
• Power strip with timer ($20) *I got mine for $12 at Wal-mart but can’t seem to find any more
• Second smaller timer ($12)
• Various fasteners, chains etc ($14)

All told the project was about $135+tax plus too much of my own work… A few notes:

• I went with fluorescent bulbs because it was easier to pick the color spectrum I wanted, plus they were cheaper. I’ve also read about possible phototoxicity of LED lights so I went with the tried and true.
• I used 2 timers so that I could have the daylight bulbs come on first and shut off first. This gives me more blue light early in the day and more amber (warm white) light later in the day, similar to natural light patterns.

• The plant/aquarium bulb is really just for the plants but puts out a slightly pinkish/amber light so I consider it to be fine for the evening.

I used some leftover wooden trim scraps I had and screwed them into the drywall above my dresser. This allowed me to put the screws into the studs to take the weight of the lights (which honestly wasn’t that much, but I had visions of me accidentally tugging on them and ripping them out of the ceiling. These strips allowed me to put in hooks for the chains to hang the lights right where I needed them, even though there were no studs above there.

I used lamp chains so that I could raise and lower the lights to match the height of the plants as they grow and get moved around. This is important as you need to have the light VERY close to the plants, just hovering above them. I also learned to tilt the lamps away, towards the wall, slightly, to keep them from shining directly into my eyes.

Every morning at 6am, the first light comes on and I simply find myself awake, with no alarm clock beeping and no grogginess. It’s fantastic. By the time I’ve showered, the rest of the lights are on and I get dressed in a bright, sunny environment no matter how miserable it is outside.

I have to say, I’m very pleased with the results and hope my research and experimentation can help other folks fight the gloom and keep their spirits up in the winter season.