Dark therapy is the practice of keeping people in complete darkness for extended periods of time in an attempt to treat

psychological condition A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

s. The human body produces the melatonin hormone, which is responsible for supporting the

circadian rhythms A circadian rhythm (), or circadian cycle, is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours. It can refer to any process that originates within an organism (i.e., endogenous) and responds to ...

. Darkness seems to help keep these circadian rhythms stable. Dark therapy was said to be founded by a German anthropologist by the name of Holger Kalweit. A form of dark therapy is to block blue wavelength lights to stop the disintegration of melatonin. Some studies have shown this process improves the health of the human body, such as by minimizing headaches, chronic fatigue syndrome, and

insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...

. The idea originated in 1998 from research which suggested that systematic exposure to darkness might alter people's mood. Original studies enforced 14 hours of darkness to bipolar patients for three nights straight. This study showed a decrease of manic episodes in the patients. Participation in this study became unrealistic, as patients did not want to participate in treatment of total darkness from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. More recently, with the discovery of

intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), also called photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGC), or melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs), are a type of neuron in the retina of the mammalian eye. The presence ...

, it has been hypothesized that similar results could be achieved by blocking blue light, as a potential treatment for

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

. Researchers exploring blue-blocking glasses have so far considered dark therapy only as an add-on treatment to be used together with psychotherapy, rather than a replacement for other therapies. Another study consisting of healthy females and males suggested that a single exposure to blue light after being kept in a dim setting could improve health and reduce sleepiness. Contrary to the original claim that decreasing the amount of blue light could help with insomnia, this study suggested improvement with blue light exposure.

References

Circadian rhythm Light therapy Treatment of bipolar disorder {{treatment-stub

See also

References