I vote you ditch the lights and get some of that wonderful november seattle sunshine instead! I lived west of the mountains for over a decade, I know how therapeutic and uplifting the winter months are over there. Just moved to ellensburg this year, and its only a tad better. Good luck with your trials bud, and don't forget a seat cushion or two!

It's a very interesting hypothesis -- one that I may consider trying myself as I too have the luxury of working at home on my deck.

In fact, I'm curious as to why no one else has really given this a proper shot and reported back on their results by now.

However, there is one difficulty: Once it gets freezing cold during the winter months, staying outdoors for the required length of time will no longer be as feasible.

As you're looking into the possibility of artificial lighting, I'm curious what your thoughts are on lamps designed to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder? I ask on the offhand knowledge that they presumably are designed to replicate daylight to the best of their capabilities. considering what they're supposed to treat.

After some cursory research, they appear to be full spectrum, and have an intensity of 10,000 lux. Would that be something to look into, especially come winter?

The problem with SAD lights is they seem to be insanely expensive (my DIY solution provides a LOT of light for $100 -- that's 6 4-foot bulbs), and none of the ones I've looked at offered any detailed spectrum information. "full spectrum" is an adjective applied to a wide range of bulbs, some of which have little energy in sweet spot (viz a viz the intensity-sensitive retinal ganglion cells) of the blue spectrum.

A problem with all artificial lights for depressing melatonin is the square law effect. The more power you can put in them, the further away you can position them and the bigger range of distance you can put your eyes at and still get the effect. So, some SAD lights are pretty small and intense and need you to get your eyes pretty darn close (e.g. 1-2 feet). That makes the distance between successful melatonin suppression and retinal damage potentially a little to thin for my tastes.

MY DIY solution certainly seems to alter digestion in the same manner as sunlight, so long as I put the hours in in front of it. It seems to be not as highly effective at suppressing acne. Whether that's due to a difference of intensity, spectrum, or "other" (diet, exercise, etc.), I don't know.

So you've been experiencing a recurrence of acne since trying your DIY solution? Is it only mild?

How long have you been trying this artificial alternative thus far?

To be specific, if I have a supersize Coke for both lunch and dinner (instead of just for lunch), then I started getting an initial outbreak. By cutting out the evening fructose/caffeine and planting myself in front of the lights all day, I was able to fairly immediately (within 48 hours) stop it.

Since evolving the theory that acne is prevented by having a normalized melatonin cycle + enough zinc (and how that is co-influenced by carbs/light), it's been pretty rare that I have any unexpected acne. Sometimes I don't get acne when I expect it, but it's gotten to be pretty infrequent that I have an outbreak that I didn't predict would be coming. This degree of control has made me cynical about topicals, and "toxins" and diets that "you have to give it a few months to see results", etc. My experience is, a new acne lesion is pretty much the result of what happened (or didn't happen, in the case of the nocturnal melatonin surge) in the last 48 hours.


Seems like I had a 2-bulb light for a couple of weeks and went to 6 bulbs about a week ago.

Apropos of nothing, just a couple days ago I started a lycopene experiment, based on wondering if the particular "yams" the acne-free Trobriand Islanders eat (which they eat even more often than I eat at McDonald's!) might not happen to be particularly concentrated with lycopene. Lycopene appears able to elevate superoxide dismutase levels like melatonin can, though I have no idea if it's as large an effect or not (or appears when/where needed to prevent acne). So, I'm trying to eat a can (about 2 cups) of tomato sauce several nights a week (however much I can stand!) plus 50mg zinc. If no ill effects, then I'll see if that lets me back off the light exposure and stay acne-free. Since I have highly reliable acne (I can always get it back anytime with about 48-hours of "misbehaving"), it's easier for me to experiment than for some.

I wish you luck in your experimentation, especially if it may lead to being able to back off on the light exposure. At least that way, your findings may translate into something immensely more practical for others. While the correlation of light that you've noticed is very interesting, I don't see how adopting such a routine is remotely realistic for the vast majority of people. It demands a complete lifestyle shift that the average person cannot (rather than simply will not) accomplish. But I'm sure you're already well aware of that.