I’m one of the friends mentioned. Here’s some more anecdata, most importantly including what I think is the current easiest way to try a lumenator (requiring only one fixture instead of huge numbers of bulbs):
I don’t have seasonal depression, but after spending a winter in a tropical country, it was extremely noticeable that it’s harder for me to focus and I have less willpower when it’s dark out (which now starts at 4:15). I bought an extremely bright light and put it right next to my desk, in my peripheral vision while I work. It was an immediate and very noticeable improvement; I estimate it buys me 30-120 minutes of focus per day, depending on how overcast it is.
You can see a before-and-after here, although my phone camera’s dynamic range is not good enough to really capture the difference.
Everyone who has visited my house since I got the lightbulb has remarked on how nice it feels, which I was initially surprised by since the bulb is 5600k and not particularly high-CRI.
My current setup is honestly kinda crappy (but still amazing). I’m working on a much nicer DIY version, but in the mean time, here’s the stuff I bought:
the clamp is too weak to hold the bulb, but you can jerry-rig a support by embedding the socket into the styrofoam packaging that the light comes in :P
Also if you use this you’ll need to turn it off and on by unplugging as there is no switch on the fixture.
If it just needs to be brightness in the field of vision rather than brightness in the room, well, most of the time there’s a (very large) screen dominating my field of vision.
I have now set my screen brightness in uncomfortable ranges. Having difficulty adjusting but feeling very awake. Will report back in a week, I guess.
I was considering projecting bright light onto the wall behind the screen (this would allow the light to be defused a lot, and it would be very easy to deploy, wouldn’t even need to hang the thing, let alone make a power socket), but it occurred to me that having the backdrop be brighter than your screen tends to cause headaches.
I think this is likely to be orders of magnitude away from the kinds of things which have been effective for others (see e.g. this rough calculation on reddit)
I am frequently afflicted with the kinds of drowsy depressive states that I would associate with a state of dormancy in a deep winter. I think I heard that brighter lights generally increase alertness and productivity. My current model is.. the mechanisms for determining whether the human is indoors and (therefore?) about to sleep are just very very crude. The model is also trying to account for the the CO2 concentration thing, which, last I heard we didn’t have any other plausible evolutionary accounts for.
I’m one of the friends mentioned. Here’s some more anecdata, most importantly including what I think is the current easiest way to try a lumenator (requiring only one fixture instead of huge numbers of bulbs):
I don’t have seasonal depression, but after spending a winter in a tropical country, it was extremely noticeable that it’s harder for me to focus and I have less willpower when it’s dark out (which now starts at 4:15). I bought an extremely bright light and put it right next to my desk, in my peripheral vision while I work. It was an immediate and very noticeable improvement; I estimate it buys me 30-120 minutes of focus per day, depending on how overcast it is.
You can see a before-and-after here, although my phone camera’s dynamic range is not good enough to really capture the difference.
Everyone who has visited my house since I got the lightbulb has remarked on how nice it feels, which I was initially surprised by since the bulb is 5600k and not particularly high-CRI.
My current setup is honestly kinda crappy (but still amazing). I’m working on a much nicer DIY version, but in the mean time, here’s the stuff I bought:
250-watt corn bulb (~= 40 60w-equivalent bulbs; $100)
This bulb has a pretty loud fan (~50db at close range); if you don’t like noise, you can buy two of the 120-watt version.
this E39 fixture ($15)
the clamp is too weak to hold the bulb, but you can jerry-rig a support by embedding the socket into the styrofoam packaging that the light comes in :P
Also if you use this you’ll need to turn it off and on by unplugging as there is no switch on the fixture.
these E39 to E26 adapters ($10 for 4)
buy if you want to put in an overhead light or traditional lamp
note that the bulb does not fit well in many fixtures because it is very large and heavy
(Amazon links are affiliate so I can see whether they are useful to people)
More discussion: https://www.benkuhn.net/lux https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21660718
What if we just had brighter screens?
If it just needs to be brightness in the field of vision rather than brightness in the room, well, most of the time there’s a (very large) screen dominating my field of vision.
I have now set my screen brightness in uncomfortable ranges. Having difficulty adjusting but feeling very awake. Will report back in a week, I guess.
I was considering projecting bright light onto the wall behind the screen (this would allow the light to be defused a lot, and it would be very easy to deploy, wouldn’t even need to hang the thing, let alone make a power socket), but it occurred to me that having the backdrop be brighter than your screen tends to cause headaches.
I think this is likely to be orders of magnitude away from the kinds of things which have been effective for others (see e.g. this rough calculation on reddit)
Do you currently have SAD?
No and it’s summer in my hemisphere anyway (but I spend a lot of time indoors)
What are you testing, then?
I am frequently afflicted with the kinds of drowsy depressive states that I would associate with a state of dormancy in a deep winter. I think I heard that brighter lights generally increase alertness and productivity. My current model is.. the mechanisms for determining whether the human is indoors and (therefore?) about to sleep are just very very crude. The model is also trying to account for the the CO2 concentration thing, which, last I heard we didn’t have any other plausible evolutionary accounts for.