Picking The Right Color (LED Light Therapy)
May 12, 2023Everyone knows that LED Lights can look great and add that extra special something to any home or room, but did you know that they can also have benefits on your mood and health? That’s right, certain colors of LED lights can cause changes to your mood and improve your health! Light therapy can be used to help deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and other ailments and, if you use certain colors or color changing bulbs you can improve your mood when you’re feeling down, stressed, or even angry! Setting up your own bulbs or strings to accomplish this really isn’t as hard as you would think, as long as you have a little bit of know-how and the right lights. Lucky for you we are here with a guide on how to design and implement your own therapy lights:
Picking the Right Lights
There are a lot of things to take into consideration when you are first looking to buy your LED light therapy bulbs. First you need to know what exactly you are trying to accomplish with your lighting:
- Soaring Serotonin
Within our brains we have biochemicals, like serotonin, that affect the way our bodies operate and feel that are affected by bright light (or the lack thereof), which is what causes SAD to occur in the darker months of the year. Bright LED lights can help raise the serotonin levels in your brain and counteract the negative effects of SAD, helping you to feel more positive and happier throughout the year. The best option for lighting to achieve this is going to be something bright and white in order to get you the amount of light to raise the biochemical levels enough to help during those cold, dark months.
- Baby Blues
Quite the opposite of the bright white lights that can help with SAD, warm white or blue lights can help to alleviate any depressive symptoms and help you sleep better at night when you are exposed to them in short periods. Exposure to blue light between 30-60 minutes a day has been shown to improve depressive symptoms and raise melatonin levels at a rate that is similar to those taking antidepressants. An increase in melatonin can improve your sleep cycle and lower your stress levels on a daily basis. The best place for lights of this kind would be your bedroom, where you can have your lights on either in the morning when you wake up or at night before you go to bed.
Warm, Welcoming Colors
When you are feeling angry, stressed, or just have had a really hard day at work; to help ease the tension of your day, try looking for warmer, brighter colors.. Warm reds, oranges, and even yellow are the perfect colors to help relax even the most anxious person just by taking a seat and letting the soft glow wash over and soothe you.
So to beat the winter blues, get a more restful sleep, or to decompress from a strenuous day, consider changing up the color of your lighting. This will allow you to change your ambiance to fit your mood or to gain whatever benefits you most need whenever you feel you need it most.
Hopefully with this new knowledge of LED light therapy and all of its benefits to your mental and physical health and wellness, you can alleviate the symptoms of SAD and elevate your mood throughout the year with the simple flick of a switch! For more LED ideas, projects and products visit our website for all your LED Holiday Lighting needs and more.