Red Light Therapy, Lights, Supplemental Lighting

[biggirlkisss]

How can you get D from incandescence lights they produce no uvb?

 

[Gabriel]

I've read through the entire thread and I'm still confused and wondering what lamp to buy. Halogen, incandescent or infrared? My impression is go for either incandescent or halogen?

Can anybody recommend a product available in Europe?

Should I go for a Heatbulb 500W Extreme as recommended earlier (http://www.heatbulbs.eu)?

 

[Dan W]

Gabriel, I'm not sure there's really a consensus. For what it's worth, I'm happy with 3 x 300 watt incandescents.

 

[jyb]

I've read through the entire thread and I'm still confused and wondering what lamp to buy. Halogen, incandescent or infrared? My impression is go for either incandescent or halogen?

Can anybody recommend a product available in Europe?

Should I go for a Heatbulb 500W Extreme as recommended earlier (http://www.heatbulbs.eu)?

Incadescent is my preferred light, but it's difficult to find a frame for it (I didn't find any) in the UK. I have a 500W.

I can easily find halogen with everything needed to set it up, and it's not very expensive. Can order industrial flood lights even at high power (2 or 3 * 500W).

Ideally, in terms of spectrum and bulb quality, I prefer incandescent, but since this is for use at high wattage, one get a lot of the red spectrum with halogen so I'm not sure if the difference in spectrum matters.

 

[Ari]

Finally got my bulb and clamp lamp in - smelled like burning plastic as soon as I turned it on and gave me a headache - turns out I accidentally ordered a bulb with a 'tuff coating'. Just ordered a completely clear one to fix the issue.

Just something to be careful about for anyone else ordering bulbs.

 

[Capt]

Would something like this to read by at night do any good?

http://www.amazon.com/Bulbrite-106740-4 ... =red+light

 

[aquaman]

Just got my beginner lighting setup ...

300 watt incandescant which i'm sitting under now, so warming, feels amazing, also has definitely increased my energy and i feel awesome, no background anxiety/stress.

I also have a 250 watt infrared heatlamp from amazon, this feels great too.. i'm alternating between them at the moment.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/175w-Infrared-B ... _ce_text_y

 

[aquaman]

Gabriel, I'm not sure there's really a consensus. For what it's worth, I'm happy with 3 x 300 watt incandescents.

Damn! 900 watts blasting you.

Do you use them all day? And stop before a certain time?

It's 7.30 pm in UK and dark, and I have my 300W still going, I feel super awake.

Ordered some blue-blocking glasses, could I use the 300w until say 9pm with the glasses on?

 

[Dan W]

Damn! 900 watts blasting you.

900 watts actually makes me a lightweight (heh), there's at least one person using 1800 watts.

Do you use them all day? And stop before a certain time?

It's 7.30 pm in UK and dark, and I have my 300W still going, I feel super awake.

I had that problem too, but it faded with time, so I use them right up until sleep when possible. I wonder if part of it is psychological, where I gradually stopped associating bright light with being midday.

Ordered some blue-blocking glasses, could I use the 300w until say 9pm with the glasses on?

You can experiment, but I think there's not enough blue light in the incandescents to matter long-term, at least from my experience.

 

[aquaman]

Dan are you in UK?

What bulbs do you buy? Can you link to them?

I have just seen that my 300 watts are apparently INfraRed... where do you get 300w incandescants from?

 

[jyb]

To get an idea, it'd be interesting to compare the amount of blue light you get from your computer screen (without f.lux) and that from a 300W incandescent. Because its generally said that computer screen is enough to cause sleep disruption for insomnia prone individuals.

 

[j.]

To get an idea, it'd be interesting to compare the amount of blue light you get from your computer screen (without f.lux) and that from a 300W incandescent. Because its generally said that computer screen is enough to cause sleep disruption for insomnia prone individuals.

Maybe it's not just the amount of blue what matters, but the ratio of red and blue.

 

[jyb]

To get an idea, it'd be interesting to compare the amount of blue light you get from your computer screen (without f.lux) and that from a 300W incandescent. Because its generally said that computer screen is enough to cause sleep disruption for insomnia prone individuals.

Maybe it's not just the amount of blue what matters, but the ratio of red and blue.

My understanding is that the blue light affects the melatonin irrespective of the ratio. Because the melatonin gets affected say by sun rays in the morning, and sun has ample red. But if you're staring at both red and blue, maybe the fact that the red is anti-stress means you're still in good preparation for sleep, and thus you can go to sleep more quickly than after staring at a computer screen?

 

[j.]

Don't disagree with any of what you said, I don't know much about it really, but I want to point out that the sun has a red blue ratio much more favorable to blue than incandescent lights. The color temperature is one way to measure the ratio of red to blue. The lower the number, the redder. The sun has a color temperature of 5700K, I think, while incandescent light's color temperature is only 2700K, which means is a lot more red in relation to the blue it has than the sun.

 

[aquaman]

Dan are you in UK?

What bulbs do you buy? Can you link to them?

I have just seen that my 300 watts are apparently INfraRed... where do you get 300w incandescants from?

Hi Dan

Did you see this?

 

[sara n.]

Anybody have any guess or info on how the blue blocking cataract replacement lenses affect things? When I had my cataract surgery I chose the blue blocker lenses. Maybe this means I don't need to use the orange glasses or worry about blue light from fluorescents, computer monitor or TV screen?
sara n.

 

[Dan W]

Dan are you in UK?

What bulbs do you buy? Can you link to them?

I have just seen that my 300 watts are apparently INfraRed... where do you get 300w incandescants from?

I'm actually in the US and was able to buy them locally. Have you seen this string of posts from UK residents?
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=482&start=40#p16839

If that's too much hassle, it's my understanding that 2 150 watt bulbs are just as beneficial as 1 300 watt, though I guess more work to set up.

Anybody have any guess or info on how the blue blocking cataract replacement lenses affect things? When I had my cataract surgery I chose the blue blocker lenses. Maybe this means I don't need to use the orange glasses or worry about blue light from fluorescents, computer monitor or TV screen?
sara n.

I wonder if you'd still benefit from some additional blue-blocking based on the quote from this page: "Blue-blocking IOLs eliminate half of a pseudophake’s [artificial lens patient's] violet and blue light."

 

[sara n.]

Thanks for finding that Dan!
Half is good, LOL. I have a lot of confusion about when and how long to wear the orange glasses. I'll look for a thread about them.
sara n.

Anybody have any guess or info on how the blue blocking cataract replacement lenses affect things? When I had my cataract surgery I chose the blue blocker lenses. Maybe this means I don't need to use the orange glasses or worry about blue light from fluorescents, computer monitor or TV screen?
sara n.

I wonder if you'd still benefit from some additional blue-blocking based on the quote from this page: "Blue-blocking IOLs eliminate half of a pseudophake’s [artificial lens patient's] violet and blue light."[/quote]

 

[charlie]

Very pertinent to discussion:

 

[jyb]

Experimenting with light so far over the year...halogen seems to be at least as good as incandescent (I tested a 400w halogen and a 500w incandescent). Maybe its due to the fact that I don't have a proper set up for the incandescent and some of light pointing backwards is wasted. If halogen is as safe as incandescent (that's assuming the UV from halogen is filtered by the glass of the set up), then it might not matter that much which type of bulb is used as long as its high wattage.

I tend to use it at morning and afternoon or evening, a total of maybe 30-60mins per day. I remember a quote of RP about the fact that a short time (I think a few minutes) exposure occasionally is enough for most of the benefits as long as wattage is high enough. If one can only afford to use light say twice a day, a few minutes in the morning before going to work to wake up, and one when coming back, then I'm not sure what's a high enough wattage, 500 or 750? I'm reluctant to use more than 400-500 unless there's a real advantage of 750.