September 25-October 1, 2003

cover story

From SAD to Glad

Watt Problem: For many, mood is dictated by light. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

How to light up your space to put a smile on your face.

by Lee Waldron

I’m standing in the lighting aisle of the Home Depot on South Christopher Street, looking for replacement light bulbs for Michael, this 45-year-old doctor client of mine. As it gets near autumn, we go through an annual ritual of winterizing the inside of his home with changes to his lighting.

Part of this ritual relates to his concern with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a problem that affects more than 25 million Americans each year. And, while it's four times more likely to be found in women than men and occurs more with 30-somethings, Michael is increasingly freaky about SAD because he's in the midst of what he calls his transsexual life justification. As he explained to me last year, "My wife, Michelle, and I are having gender difficulties and every winter I'm getting these overwhelming feelings of depression. I can't concentrate when it starts getting cold. I overeat. I can't sleep. My dresses don't fit. I just feel like curling up in ball and hiding from the world. You have got to help me!"

The other reason for annually transforming Michael and Michelle's lighting is due to a change in their home lifestyle throughout the winter season. And, while most of us don't worry about how we look in the mirror while cross-dressing for the Beaux Arts Ball, the way we change our habits when the days begin to shorten does affect most of us. During the summer, our lives are oriented outward. We look beyond the boundaries of windows toward life-enriching sunlight. In the winter, we become physically focused inward to the shelter of our homes. So we look for ways to bring the effects of outside lighting indoors and to extend our sense of daytime.

And, as I stand in Home Depot, faced by rows of bulbs in different wattages, shapes and sizes, Michael's voice resonates in my head, "You realize, Lee, we have got to deal with my pineal gland secretions. It's all so hormonal. The melatonin just seems to ooze out and make me comatose!" So, to deal with Michael's SAD state, I know that choosing the proper lamp is important in dealing with the winter of his discontent. However, the task is made odious by the lack of good information about what really is the right light. And that is why Michael sends me to pick up his bulbs.

It's all about "lightspeak," or the jargon engineers have devised to describe the effects of light and that lamp manufacturers use to confuse us while we scan the shelves at Home Depot. For example, when you read "Researchers have discovered that light of at least 2,500 lux is necessary to suppress melatonin production in humans; most of the bright light therapy (to treat SAD) uses 5,000 lux light (10,000 lux preferred)," you have no way of translating the lightspeak into how many 100-watt incandescent light bulbs it's gonna take to get that light intensity.

By my rough calculations, it could take fifty 100-watt light bulbs, if you sit really close. It would be very bright and you would get really warm. So that's why they invented compact fluorescent lamps, a more efficacious source that gives more light per watt used. Philips makes a three-way compact fluorescent lamp called Marathon, which works like a 60/90/150-watt incandescent and only uses 34 watts. It lasts seven times as long and we use them in table lamps for reading. You'd only need 20 of these for SAD light-treatment therapy.

Of course, they make specially built light boxes for medical treatment. The point is that there are other light sources available for lighting your home. The problem is selecting what product to use and where to use it for best effect. That's why all lamp source references need to relate to a standard 100-watt incandescent bulb, so the homeowner can choose with confidence. You can now ask, how many light bulbs does it take to change a psychiatrist?

I also have discussions with Michael about using fluorescent lamps in certain parts of his house. Having worked in some offices lighted with old-style cool white fluorescents, he was dead set against them: "They made me just frigid and I looked pasty white, no matter how much makeup I use." All that changed when I showed him that the new full-spectrum, high-color-rendering index fluorescent lamps are much better at color enhancement, but are available in both warm color temperatures (2,700 and 3,000 Kelvin (K), which are close to incandescent) and cooler color temperatures (3,500, 4,000 and 5,000 K, which are more like northern light and are often used for treating SAD). Philips used to call them "Ultralume." Now they refer to the "800" series for the best color rendering. It's 830 for full-spectrum warm, and 840 for full-spectrum cool.

And so, when the seasons begin to change, Michael and Michelle switch from cooler fluorescent lamps installed above the kitchen cabinets during the summer months to 3,000 K, 830-type lamps to bring about a warmer environment. In the basement room, we have created a ceiling cove pocket that houses a fluorescent channel strip light. We keep it cool to light the interior wall surface with "daylight," while the rest of the room has narrow-beam, dramatic down lights. Michael swears being down there is "a religious experience."

For me, standing in front of the vast choices of lighting hieroglyphics, I just swear.

Lee Waldron is president of Grenald Waldron Associates, an architectural lighting design firm, and Photon Dawn Productions, a lighting infomediary. Both companies are based in Narberth.