By the Dawn’s Early Light — or Negative Ions — You Might Feel Less Depressed

Early-morning bright light and post-awakening high-density negative ions have each been associated with symptomatic improvements in depression associated with seasonal affective disorder. These researchers assessed 99 patients with a winter-seasonal pattern of major depression who had been randomized to one of five treatments: (1) gradually increasing light that mimicked dawn on May 5th at a specific northern latitude; (2) a 13-minute pulse of dawn light before usual wake-up; (3) 30 minutes of bright light within 10 minutes of rising; (4) 93 minutes of a precise high-density dose of negative ions before awakening; and, as a control, (5) very-low-dose negative ions, which were previously shown to be ineffective. Treatments lasted 3 weeks dur…