Sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder respond quickly to light therapy in the fall and winter. Their treatment is usually confined to the home because light boxes are stationary, and head-mounted devices limit visibility. The goal of this new technology is to free those seeking to alleviate their symptoms from such confinement. This will be accomplished by development of embedded fiber optic controlled eyeglasses, providing a light delivery system that adjusts the retinal coverage to maximize visual acuity. This is possible because of dramatic advances in embedding fiber optics, and efficiencies of new shorter wavelength LEDs and sensors. The device, SomnavueTM, will not add any additional magnetic ELF to the brain area as do visor-like devices. The experiment will have 108 subjects, with both a high intensity and a very low intensity SomnavueTM, and a placebo device. This will be used for five weeks, using the HDRS, interviews, personal sleep logs and Actillumes. The subjects will be screened according to the DSM-IV criteria. Some of the sample will have polysomnography to assess sleep, and saliva melatonin assays for circadian cycle change. Three smaller follow-on experiments will investigate the relative effectiveness of sunrise illumination, monochromatic illumination, and spectral segregation.
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