It is great to see additional research documenting safer and more natural ways to overcome Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), including dawn simulation and light therapy.

I believe that the ideal is not to require the use of any alarm and to have enough flexibility in your schedule where you can wake up at any time. It took me a number of years to get to this place, and I now routinely wake up around 4:30 a.m. without any alarm at all. If I am really tired or go to bed later I might sleep in till 6, but either way doesn't harm my schedule.

Prior to developing this pattern I did rely on an alarm, and there is no question in my mind that the sun alarm that causes your lights to come on very slowly (thus representing a normal sunrise) is far easier on your adrenals than music or an alarm.

Differing amounts of light trigger your body to produce hormones that control when you fall asleep and when you wake up. When your eyes detect an increased level of light, a signal is sent to your brain's pineal gland.

Your pineal then triggers the production of the hormone serotonin, which causes you to slowly awaken. This natural method of waking leaves you feeling refreshed and energized. At the other end of the circadian scale, in response to darkness, your pineal gland triggers the production of the hormone melatonin.

People with seasonal affective disorder instinctively shift their melatonin levels with the seasons, paralleling the hibernation patterns of mammals. In people with SAD, the duration of melatonin secretion becomes longer in winter and shorter in summer, just as it occurs in other mammals -- controlling the changes that occur in people when they get depressed in the winter.

Synthetic and natural supplements of melatonin are readily available in this country and may be purchased as a dietary supplement without prescription. However, there is much debate about its safety. Supplemental melatonin should be used with great caution irrespective of the dose until more is known of its safety and efficacy. I recommend limiting its use to jet lag only.

However, artificially produced serotonin cannot be utilized by your body and is ineffective. Your brain's blood barrier does not allow synthetically or naturally produced substitutes for the hormone serotonin to enter or be utilized by our brains. But sunrise simulation can cause your brain to produce it naturally.

In addition to being good for SAD, dawn simulators also help prevent cancer. According to recent studies, circadian rhythms have been demonstrated to have an effect on who may get cancer, when medical treatments are best administered, as well as who will get pregnant and when.

It is also important to sleep in complete darkness as even small amounts of light leaking into your bedroom can decrease your melatonin levels and increase your risk of cancer.

On Vital Votes, reader Patrick from Tucson, Arizona notes the benefits of sleeping in total darkness:

"I sleep best when it's pitch, or near pitch, dark in the room.  I feel totally rested, and just bounce out of the rack.  It's little effort to retract the curtains and blinds.  Very worth it."

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