Light in the darkness?

I'm sure most of us have heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It frequently afflicts those living in the Polar regions, where daylight doesn't exist (or lasts only a very short time) for long periods of the year.

In that light (you should pardon the expression!), I'm intrigued by an experiment being conducted by Philips AG in the Polar town of Longyearbyen (which we last encountered in 2008, when I wrote about a visa-less Iranian refugee who's opened the world's northernmost kebab kiosk up there). According to a Swedish report:

Philips travels to Longyearbyen, Norway, where winter lasts for four months and the sun doesn't rise at all in this period. A town where the local people look with dread to the winter months: a time of little enjoyment and confusion. A period when, without the differentiation of day and night, time itself is without meaning.

Enter Philips and the wake-up light with a simple mission: to restore residents Longyearbyen's daily routine and help them combat the negative impact of living without natural light for four months.

The wake-up light simulates sunrise, allowing users to, perhaps not surprisingly, wake up in an environment similar to a bright summer's day. The theory behind the experiment is that this will combat the negative effects of waking, living and then going to sleep in darkness and should help the user readjust to a more natural cycle.

The full footage for the experiment will be released in November. Will it work? Wait and see.

There's more at the link, and also at a special page for the experiment at Philips' Web site. Here's a quasi-advertising video report from Philips.

Here's blogger Mark Salzman demonstrating the Wake-Up Light for Sync.

That looks interesting not only for those affected by S.A.D., but also those who must work night shifts or other hours that interrupt their normal sleep cycle. I spent several years in my youth doing night work, and sleeping during the day with heavy drapes to block out the sunlight. I'm thinking something like this might have made waking up rather easier and less traumatic.

I'll be interested to learn how the residents of Longyearbyen rate the Wake-Up Light at the end of the experiment.

Peter