Bijou questionette: SAD lamps

[davidgillon]

I'm thinking of getting myself a SAD lamp for Christmas (well, technically I'll be getting it on behalf of my mother, who'll be getting it for me, but that simplifies nicely to it never actually passing through her hands).

I'm not sure that I technically need one currently on medical grounds (there has been some occasional historical wonkiness in my vitamin D levels), but I tend to see very little direct sunshine in the winter given my body and cold have a longrunning disagreement, so a SAD lamp might not be a bad idea.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain I've heard one or two people around here mention using one, so simple question: Are there any features I should particularly be looking for? Or avoiding, for that matter? 

Any and all input gratefully received.

Comments

[tylik]

So, a couple of thoughts -

If you have enough light fixtures to do it, you might consider picking up full spectrum bulbs. The reason for needing a lot of light fixtures is that you want to use them in the morning and much of the day, but then turn them off and use dimmer warmer light for the rest of the day. This isn't the same protocol as you see with SAD lamps, but it's a lot cheaper, cheering, and doesn't have the annoying bright light right in your face aspect.

Most of the research has been done on a few different panels - you can probably pull the specifics off of pubmed. They're pretty expensive for the amount and type of light they offer, last I looked.

[davidgillon]

Ooh, thanks. That's a pretty good point, though I'm not sure I have the lighting fixtures to do it.

[cesy]

Seconding the virtues of ordinary lights that are "cool white" or high number of K in colour temperature, often marketed to photographers and/or weed growers.

For SAD lights, they all say 10k lux in their marketing as that's what the original study used, but check at what distance - 10k lux at 5cm is not much use if you're sitting 30cm away as it drops off exponentially with distance. 10k lux at 20cm or more is better.

Generally bigger is better, but it needs to fit in your space and be usable.

[davidgillon]

Another good point!

Most of the arrangements with current room setups I can envisage would put the lamp about 30-60cm to my side, so I clearly need to dig deeper into the tech-specs of the lamps I'm considering.