Bright light improves vitality and alleviates distress in healthy people.
BACKGROUND
The relative shortage of light during the decreasing photoperiod may compromise well-being. Earlier studies suggest that bright-light exposure may be of help to alleviate winter-bound symptoms.


METHODS
We carried out a field study with exposure to bright light on office employees during winter.


RESULTS
Repeated bright-light exposure improved vitality and reduced depressive symptoms. The benefit was observed not only in healthy subjects with season-dependent symptoms but also in those not having the seasonal variation.


CONCLUSIONS
Bright-light exposure during winter appears to be effective at improving the health-related quality of life and alleviating distress in healthy subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
Administration of bright light is a useful option to improve vitality and mood among subjects working indoors in wintertime. LIMITATIONS OF STUDY: Our field setting used self-reports, not interviews, for the assessment of outcome.
Partonen
T
T
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. timo.partonen@ktl.fi
Lönnqvist
J
J
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010789:Phototherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016574:Seasonal Affective Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome