What is the relationship between light and your mental health?

Light plays a huge role in our well-being and mental health. That’s why many of us tend to feel more positive in the spring and summer. So what’s the connection between light and mental health?

According to the scientific website "Science Alert", bright light sends "timing signals" to the brain and the body's biological clock, which regulates our daily rhythms and controls when we sleep and when we wake up.

This bright light is beneficial during the day. At night, however, it disrupts the biological clock rhythm and causes it to be disturbed. When this disturbance occurs, it increases the risk of developing certain mental disorders, including: bipolar disorder and atypical depression.

Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder in which the patient moves from one extreme stage to the exact opposite, with extreme intensity, in a short period, and sometimes in the same period; that is, the person may sometimes be afflicted with bouts of sadness, lethargy, and loss of desire to do anything (like normal depression) and then shortly after that he is afflicted with bouts of happiness, excessive activity, and readiness to undertake several tasks.

Atypical depression is a type of depression in which the person sleeps for a long time and suffers from problems with his energy and metabolism.

Light may also affect circuits in the brain that control mood, animal studies show.

There is evidence that this happens in humans. A study that scanned the brains of a number of people showed that exposure to bright light during the day can positively change the activity of the brain region involved in mood and alertness.

One explanation for what happens in the brain when exposed to light has to do with the neurotransmitters: serotonin and dopamine.

Serotonin helps regulate mood and is the target of many antidepressants. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in reward, motivation, and movement and is also the target of some antidepressants.

But people vary widely in their sensitivity to light. While this is still just a hypothesis, people who are more sensitive to light may be more susceptible to circadian disruption caused by bright light at night, which in turn increases their risk of mental health problems.

Experts say healthy behaviors related to light exposure—avoiding light at night and increasing exposure during the day—are beneficial for everyone, but they may be especially helpful for people at risk for mental health problems.

These include people with a family history of mental health problems, or people who sleep late and wake up late, who are more likely to have circadian rhythm disturbances.

(The Middle East)