A light in the dark
New MOCA art installation offers light therapy to combat winter blues
So, we made it through another Blue Monday — the most depressing day of the year, according to “science.” Well, not science science, the kind done by actual scientists. The Blue Monday thing was, in fact, invented by marketers trying to sell people winter vacations.
Still, they were on to something, since, now, real scientists agree the evidence suggests that going to work in the dark and coming home in twilight can lead to seasonal depression. And, no question, we’ve still got plenty of dark winter days to get through before the earth’s axis tilts back in our favour.
While we wait for that, though, some will opt to at least get a quick fix of brightness by stepping into the “Light Therapy” exhibit at Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Located in MOCA’s “Art in Use” area, it’s essentially a very well-lit, all-white room with seating for about 10. The museum provides visitors with white lab coats, slippers and reading material, so visitors can relax and read or quietly chat in the tranquil space designed by Apolonija Sustersic, an architect and visual artist currently based in Oslo, Norway.
Oslo, by the way, is a city with an even worse lighting problems than our own. On Monday, Toronto finally surpasses the 10 hours of daylight mark, whereas Oslo is still stuck at eight hours, 15 minutes. That’s less than we get on the shortest day of the year. It follows, then, that Scandinavians ought to know a thing or two about beating SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), a condition that affects up to one-third of Canadians — with 4 per cent experiencing severely debilitating problems that include reduced energy, concentration lapses, feelings of hopelessness and even suicidal thoughts.
But does “light therapy” work? The answer actually seems to be a qualified “yes.”
“We did a big study here in Canada and we know that light therapy and medication work just about exactly the same in terms of treating SAD,” says Dr. Robert
Levitan, who holds the Cameron Parker Holcombe Wilson Chair in Depression Studies at CAMH and University of Toronto. “So it really is a matter of personal preference and most people try light first, because it’s a natural thing, but, it’s still powerful and needs to be used properly.”
Which is complicated, given all the new products on the market that now offer light therapy as a solution for everything from acne to dementia. Celebrities post selfies with creepy, glowing masks; spas offer red light, blue light and “intense pulsed light” therapies; people are mega-dosing on Vitamin D; and every online retailer now offers a huge and confusing selection of light units for home use.
Some of these products may have other applications but, when it comes to curing SAD, only the light therapy units work, since the key to its effectiveness is that the light has to be “absorbed” (for lack of a better word), through the eyes. Levitan recommends investing a little money for a good, 10,000-lux unit (lux = light intensity within a specific area) and, most importantly, making sure it has a proper UV filter, since the retina can be damaged very quickly by UV rays. That’s why, with the exception of one very ridiculous American president, people don’t look directly at solar eclipses.
Finally, be prepared to commit. Light therapy only seems to work when people do it for 30 minutes per day — every morning. If you were asking yourself why everybody doesn’t use light therapy over SSRI drugs (since they have the same effectiveness and antidepressants often come with side effects and withdrawal symptoms), well … many simply lack the time and/or discipline to sit, alone, by a light every day. Winter, after all, is also very isolating for a lot of us.
Perhaps, though, this could be solved if there were more places like the one at MOCA, which provide communal light therapy experiences. It’s currently being used by members and neighbours for a range of different purposes — some for book clubs or meetings; others, for meditation. There are even a few neighbours who spend time hanging out and working there pretty much every day.
“A lot of the light therapy people are used to it at places like the Toronto libraries, where you have to go under one lamp and read a book individually,” says November Paynter, MOCA’s artistic director. “This is really meant to be communal and also about cognitive thinking. You know, it’s not only that it’s good for SAD, it also helps people come to conclusions, so groups come in to have meetings in the daylight and hopefully come out with a more fruitful idea.”
Sounds like the Scandinavians are on to something. And since it’s pay-what-you-can for the next little bit, there’s no reason not to try it out. It might just get us through the last of the darkness — and, by the time it closes, on April 30, we won’t need it anymore, since we’ll be up to 14 hours of sunlight per day.
Blue Monday will be nothing but a faint memory by then. That’s just science.
Light Therapy is on at MOCA, 158 Sterling Rd. until April 30. Admission to the museum is paywhat-you-can for the next week (up to and including Feb.13). Starting on Feb. 24, admission will be free from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for one Sunday per month as part of its TD Community Sundays program.