<b><font color=red>Testimonials/News</b></font> > ADS SHOP, Anxiety Depression Solutions, SAD, Insomnia, Sleep Disorder, Depression.SAD, Depression, Insomnia, SAD, S.A.D, Lightbox, Light, Lightboxes, Lamp, S.A.D Lamps, Daylight Alarm Clock, Anxiety, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Winter Blues

We have included some testimonials from our customers, and further down the page you will find news snippets supporting light therapy does effectively treat depressive mood and sleep disorders.

Hi Eva,
(ADS SHOP our email....)
How are you, have you now got your bluewave light from us?

If so could you kindly give us some feedback on your symptoms and how it has helped?

I hope you have found it has improved your health.

Regards
ADS Team

REPLY EVA, Sweden....
I'm so glad you wrote. I have had a major computer disaster here and lost all e-mails and addresses and browser bookmarks. :-(
Fortunately I had all my work backed up.

Anyhow, we got the light and am using it daily, both of us. I fell my ... how is it called ... 24 hr rythm(?) has become better. I have had problems not becoming sleepy until 4 - 5 am but now it is getting closer to 1-2 am which is a great improvement.
The outside light is going away fast now. We hardly get *real* daylight at this time of year. It will be interesting to see if we can keep a more alert mood this winter using the Golight.

I will send more "reports" on how we get along with the lamp later on.

Hope everything is fine with you :-)

Take care,
Eva

You know, I am already feeling much better and have been recovering faster after activities. Last Saturday I was away on an event with my husband. It took 7 hours which usually have me in bed for a week before recovering. But now I only got a little bit worse but didn't have to stay in bed. It has to be the lamp since this time of year always is my worst and I haven't changed anything else in my routines. And I have been able to have longer periods of activities between rests! It is wonderful I think I may get my life back.

This light, when I first bought it I thought would just cut my time down on light usage. I have a white producing SAD light and it sort of takes the edge off my symptoms. However, after a couple of days of the BLUEWAVE light, my energy came back like I was in my 20's. My numbness and heavy headaches I used to get if I didnt have my regular naps stopped. I used to have to sleep every few hours as I had a cronic case of SAD, even with usage of the white sad light I have. These symptoms seemed to get worse with each year as I got older.

This year I was really upset as I was wondering how I would cope with this for the rest of my life each winter, I literally live only six month a year. This light has simply changed my life and made me a different person.

The bluewave go-lite gives out a blue light instead of a white light and it targets the part of our brain / or receptors to stop the sleepy drug that goes on and off (in me) all day. All SAD suffers need to change from the white light to the blue light. You will be 20 yrs old again, with energy, no mood swings and my anxiety has dropped. You will be happier seeing your friends again and dealing with life will be a joy not an effort like most tasks are for SAD sufferers!

I first used this light for 15 mins but it didnt do anything, I have to use it for an hour a day, (the golite), but my white light I had to use for one and a half hours a day and then have it as much as I could but further away in distance.

As I said I am a cronic suffer. Dawn C - York.

Here is some feedback I am happy for you to use from me. Sorry it's a bit long - I got carried away. I don't want my email address on the site but if you notice I have put a note on the end so you could pass my email on if requested specifically. I haven't really got time to answer many queries or give support etc, but I would happily verify that this is the feedback of a genuine customer.

Also - I do think it might be useful if you put a few more details on your site like, how to get replacement bulbs, the size of the light, weight etc.

"Having suffered from clinical depression for almost 15 years and becoming concerned about my reliance on prescription drugs such as prozac, seroxat etc, I had been thinking about buying a sad lamp for quite a while. When I finally decided to buy one I read up on all the different types available, and soon noticed that the latest development with sad lamps was that scientists had discovered that it is the blue part of the light spectrum which most affects melatonin production. I decided that if I was going to invest in something which could potentially be life-saving, I would go for the best light available, and decided to order the blue wave go-lite.

This is the first light I have used but I have been using it for about 4 weeks now. I am only using it fifteen minutes a day, first thing in the morning, and already I have noticed a dramatic improvement. The first thing I noticed was that I was waking up much earlier naturally, and feeling able to get up so much more easily than before. In fact I feel like I wake up alive and can easily get up instead of having to drag myself out of bed, dreading the day ahead. I also seem to get tired earlier and want to go to sleep by about 10pm. That's fine though, I am sleeping well, and like that I am more in tune with daylight hours (I think this is what they call the circadian rhythms).

Other than that, which for me is a major plus point, I just generally seem to feel happier, I noticed myself laughing more, I feel sharper and more awake. It is hard to know how much my mood might have lifted at this point naturally and how much is down to the lamp, but there's no way I'd stop using it now. I am convinced it's made a big change to how I feel in myself, my ability to get out of bed and feel positive about the day ahead, and hence my confidence overall. The lamp cost �160 including postage and when I think what I have spent on prescriptions over the years, and if these changes in me remain though using the lamp, I think this might have been the best investment in myself I have ever made in my life.

I'm planning to experiment long-term with using the lamp for longer each day and seeing whether eventually I can stop taking medication (citalopram at present) altogether. In the past I've tried to stop taking the tablets gradually but my mood has dropped so much I always had to go back on them. I think it'll be very apparent to me then, how the light is affecting my mood.

The light box itself is really small, light and portable, so you could easily take it away on holiday or for a weekend. You can set the light at different intensities, and there are loads of ways you can program the light - I haven't even started looking at these yet. Also, the light is made up of about 80 little bulbs, so if one bulb went, I don't think you wouldn't have to be without your light. Overall, although quite pricey, I think I would recommend this light to anyone who has suffered depression or SAD for a while. The way I Iook at it is it could change your whole life.

I have given my email address to the Sadlamp team so if anyone wants to verify I am a genuine customer - they can forward your email to me, and I'll reply to you directly."

LK, Aylesbury

The Independent.
The town that tired of life in the shadows
Overshadowed by the Alps, the Austrian town of Rattenberg receives no direct sunlight. Now villagers hope giant mirrors will end their eternal gloom
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 26 March 2005
Shivering slightly in the dark shadow that envelopes her bakery from sunrise to sunset, Britta Zelger points an accusing finger at the brooding mountain covered with mist-shrouded pines that looms over her home village. It is midday in the west Austrian village of Rattenberg and bright blue skies tower overhead, but Mrs Zelger and her customers are still squinting in an unworldly twilight.

Shivering slightly in the dark shadow that envelopes her bakery from sunrise to sunset, Britta Zelger points an accusing finger at the brooding mountain covered with mist-shrouded pines that looms over her home village. It is midday in the west Austrian village of Rattenberg and bright blue skies tower overhead, but Mrs Zelger and her customers are still squinting in an unworldly twilight.

The flame-haired baker said: "There it is, the dark mountain. For a quarter of our year it causes sadness in this place. We feel depressed and in shadow. This mountain steals our light." An elderly woman buying bread nods her head in silent agreement.

With its fine 17th-century merchants' houses, a wealthy population sipping coffee in caf�s and a 900-year history that brings monied tourists flocking, there is at first glance little in this handsome Alpine village to provoke such poetic melancholy.

Nestling beside the fast-flowing Inn river in a dramatic setting at the heart of the Alps, near Innsbruck, the community has more jobs than working inhabitants and glows with civic pride at its Renaissance buildings and pristine streets.

But amid the hubbub of the Easter crowds queuing yesterday in the Konditorei, cake shop, for rich chocolate cakes, Rattenberg and its 455 inhabitants are in the grip of a primeval yearning to improve their lives - sunlight. From mid-November to mid-February the village sits permanently in shadow, casting its maze-like streets and myriad medieval court yards into half-light at the height of the day.

The result is an all-pervading seasonal gloom that Rattenberg's leaders argue strikes down its citizens with winter depression and threatens their economic future by driving inhabitants and tourists away.

Franz Wurzenrainer, Rattenberg's avuncular mayor, said: "The sun taunts us in winter. Just across the river, a matter of 500 metres , we can see it shining in its full glory. But here in the village during these months we get no direct sunshine and it takes the pleasure out of life for many people. Some have left and others do not want to come. Let me assure you, it does not feel nice to live in the shadows at the coldest time of the year in the mountains."

The cause is the Stadtberg - literally "mountain of the city" - a 2,650ft limestone mountain covered in dense pine forest that stands to the immediate south of the village and completely blocks the low winter sun as it tracks from east to west along the length of the village. Dawn in January is described by one inhabitant as "purple, then red, then grey, grey, grey, grey - a permanent disappointment".

Even on a Good Friday at the end of March, the effects of the Stadtberg's shadow can still be felt, casting parts of the village, including Britta Zelger's bakery, into lingering half-light. But just as the obstacle that blights Rattenberg is a force of nature, so too is the solution which, after nine centuries of shadow, the village has chosen: to harness the power of the sun to create one of its very own. For 370 years, Rattenberg has built its reputation and much of its wealth on the production of crystal glass. The village motto is: "Glass is the fortune and the pride of the earth." Now it is hoped another type of glass will banish forever the winter twilight and once more revive Rattenberg's pride and fortune - mirrors.

To be precise, 30 computer-controlled 8ft-square reflectors, or "heliostats", which will be placed half a mile to the north of the village in the sun-kissed neighbouring commune of Kramsach. The hi-tech mirrors, precision engineered to ensure they are completely flat and thus reflect light accurately, will then bounce the sun rays back to another array of reflectors fixed to the remains of a 17th-century fort overlooking Rattenberg from the slopes of the Stadtberg.

This second set of mirrors will direct the sunshine down into the village at a dozen strategic points, bathing benighted courtyards and magnificent fa�ades in winter sunshine for the first time since it started life as a silver and copper mine in the 1100s.

It is a shackling of celestial forces with its roots placed equally in the sun worshipping temples of the Aztecs and the annals of science fiction. But the inventors of the �2m (�1.4m) project insist with perhaps unaccustomed Teutonic excitement that it is at heart a simple means to literally cast new light on Austria's smallest "city" - a title relating to its medieval status as a strategic outpost of the duchy of Bavaria.

Helmar Zangerl, the joint managing director of the Bartenbach Light Laboratory, a private academy specialising in illumination allied to the University of Innsbruck, can barely contain his fervour for his brainchild. He said: "The principle is very simple - to take the sunshine from where it is plentiful into a place where it is not using a material we have had for millennia.

"Of course, the practice is more difficult, but this project will have a massive psychological benefit by giving people sunshine when they have learnt not to expect it.

"At the moment, people are moving away from Rattenberg because they can no longer stand the winter shadow. They complain of depressive illness and the tourists do not want to come in winter.

"This project has the potential to change all that. I can see bus loads of Japanese tourists queuing to see the sun in the city where there is no sun." The scheme was drawn up after Rattenberg's leaders conducted a survey in 2003 asking what improvements could be made to village life.

But rather than expected tally of municipal grumbles about rubbish collection or local taxation, the predominant issue, placed top by nearly 60 per cent of the population, was the lack of winter sun. One in five of Rattenberg's inhabitants suffers from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), the syndrome created by a shortage of sunlight that provokes anything from a bad mood to full-blown depression. Opinion on the Sudtiroler Strasse, Rattenberg's impressive main street dominated by five-storey mercantile houses, yesterday confirmed the pervading sense of solar deprivation. Manfred Kohler, 47, who has two children and works in one of the crystal glass studios, said: "I think it is a brilliant idea. It is ironic that we rely on this magic of light and glass for our living but we spend a large part of the year longing to see sunlight. Now we can use this same magic to solve that problem."

According to Mr Wurzenrainer and his officials, the need to overcome the sunshine problem and reinvigorate the economic life of the village is increasingly urgent. While up to 3,000 tourists a day flow through Rattenberg in high season, the number falls to almost zero during the winter, creating a knock-on effect for the shops reliant on their thirst for crystal knick-knacks.

The permanent population has fallen by 10 per cent in recent years with people moving to neighbouring communes in search of the sun. As a result, many of the palatial apartments on the upper floors of the village's buildings lie empty. At present there are 5,000 square metres (1.25 acres) of vacant accommodation, equivalent to 50 homes.

With an ageing population and a birth rate of just five babies a year, the authorities are desperate to attract young families.

Josef Wurzer, Rattenberg's head of planning, said: "Of course you can say that Rattenberg has lived with this shadow for many centuries, so what is the urgency? The problem is that as well as bringing tourists we also need to maintain the permanent population, which is not happening.

"So, if we have the opportunity to solve what our people tell is us the main problem with living here and at the same time create a reason for people to visit in winter, then we should make it happen."

While most are overwhelmingly in favour of the idea, the citizens of Rattenberg are not quite so enthusiastic about thought of financing their glittering dream. The �2m cost of the mirrors is equivalent to the village's entire annual budget and the additional financial burden would push it into bankruptcy. Instead, the village and Bartenbach have formed a partnership with Italian scientists and a German manufacturer to qualify for European Union funding aimed at scientific research.

The scientists at Bartenbach, who hitherto have specialised in using hi-tech mirrors to maximise natural light in buildings, expect to install the first prototype heliostats by the end of this year. If all goes to plan, the full scheme should be in place for 2007.

But the people of Rattenberg are already learning that all is not sunshine and light when it comes to creating their own solar centrepiece. Concerns have been raised that the glare from the powerful mirrors, which will be turned away from the sun in the spring and summer months, will blind motorists travelling along the motorway standing between the reflectors and Rattenberg, as well as dazzling villagers.

The designers reject the concerns, insisting the effect of looking at the mirrors would be no more than looking at the winter sun itself and naturally averting the eyes.

There is also controversy about the effect of placing the large bank of secondary mirrors on the sides of the fort, a historic monument. But perhaps the greatest difficulties are technical. The scientists have been at pains to underline that their heliostats, which will be moved by computer-controlled motors to track the sun and maximise the capture of rays, will by no means bathe the entire village in light. To do so would require mirrors covering a space four times the size of Rattenberg, forcing the designers to select strategic "pinpoints" to light up. Mr Zangerl admitted his team could still not be sure it will work. He said: "No one has tried to do this before. We dreamt up all sorts of outlandish ideas - using a satellite or raising a balloon with mirrors but we settled on this idea.

"In order to make a difference, the intensity of light has to be two or three times that already existing in the winter in Rattenberg and we have to send that over a distance of 700 metres. We believe we can do it but the mirrors will have to be engineered to an extremely high specification." Others suggest that the village itself may have been dazzled by the grandiose notion of touching the sun.

Dr Peter Erhard, Rattenberg's GP, said that while he deals with patients suffering from SAD, he believes the rate is no higher than in Austria's major cities. He said: "Of course it would be nice to have a little more light in our city - it has a lot of dark corners. People complain of the lack of sun but I cannot see the justification for the project on medical grounds." The doctor added that other issues, such as a plan to shut down a regional court house, which provides 50 jobs, were likely to have a more detrimental effect on Rattenberg's sense of well being. "There is nothing wrong with this dream of mirrors. But there are other problems here we need to deal with. It feels like a continuation of an old joke that if we wanted to get more sunshine, all we have to do is move the mountain."

Back amid the courtyards and glassblowing workshops, however, the sense of excitement that the Austrian Alps will soon be adding its own star to the cosmos is palpable. In one cake shop, staff had created a pastry spiegel or mirror which they said had been outselling Easter eggs.

Mr Wurzenrainer said: "It has captured our imagination and that of a lot of people elsewhere. I have had calls from Australia to Canada. It might sound very technical but this is really about making a romantic idea real. After all, how many places on earth can claim to have their own second sun?"

b>Why the Sun seems to be 'dimming' BBC Website.
By David Sington
Scientists have been studying solar measurements for decades
We are all seeing rather less of the Sun, according to scientists who have been looking at five decades of sunlight measurements.
They have reached the disturbing conclusion that the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface has been gradually falling.

Paradoxically, the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far greater threat to society than previously thought.

The effect was first spotted by Gerry Stanhill, an English scientist working in Israel.

Cloud changes

Comparing Israeli sunlight records from the 1950s with current ones, Dr Stanhill was astonished to find a large fall in solar radiation.

"There was a staggering 22% drop in the sunlight, and that really amazed me." Intrigued, he searched records from all around the world, and found the same story almost everywhere he looked.

Sunlight was falling by 10% over the USA, nearly 30% in parts of the former Soviet Union, and even by 16% in parts of the British Isles.

Although the effect varied greatly from place to place, overall the decline amounted to one to two per cent globally every decade between the 1950s and the 1990s.

Dr Stanhill called it "global dimming", but his research, published in 2001, met a sceptical response from other scientists.

It was only recently, when his conclusions were confirmed by Australian scientists using a completely different method to estimate solar radiation, that climate scientists at last woke up to the reality of global dimming.

My main concern is global dimming is also having a detrimental impact on the Asian monsoon ... We are talking about billions of people

Professor Veerhabhadran Ramanathan
Dimming appears to be caused by air pollution.

Burning coal, oil and wood, whether in cars, power stations or cooking fires, produces not only invisible carbon dioxide - the principal greenhouse gas responsible for global warming - but also tiny airborne particles of soot, ash, sulphur compounds and other pollutants.

This visible air pollution reflects sunlight back into space, preventing it reaching the surface. But the pollution also changes the optical properties of clouds.

Because the particles seed the formation of water droplets, polluted clouds contain a larger number of droplets than unpolluted clouds.

Recent research shows that this makes them more reflective than they would otherwise be, again reflecting the Sun's rays back into space.

Scientists are now worried that dimming, by shielding the oceans from the full power of the Sun, may be disrupting the pattern of the world's rainfall.

There are suggestions that dimming was behind the droughts in sub-Saharan Africa which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the 1970s and 80s.

There are disturbing hints the same thing may be happening today in Asia, home to half the world's population.

"My main concern is global dimming is also having a detrimental impact on the Asian monsoon," says Professor Veerhabhadran Ramanathan, professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at the University of California, San Diego. "We are talking about billions of people."

Alarming energy

But perhaps the most alarming aspect of global dimming is that it may have led scientists to underestimate the true power of the greenhouse effect.

They know how much extra energy is being trapped in the Earth's atmosphere by the extra carbon dioxide we have placed there.

What has been surprising is that this extra energy has so far resulted in a temperature rise of just 0.6 degree Celsius.

This has led many scientists to conclude that the present-day climate is less sensitive to the effects of carbon dioxide than it was, say, during the ice age, when a similar rise in CO2 led to a temperature rise of six degrees Celsius.

But it now appears the warming from greenhouse gases has been offset by a strong cooling effect from dimming - in effect two of our pollutants have been cancelling each other out.

This means that the climate may in fact be more sensitive to the greenhouse effect than previously thought.

If so, then this is bad news, according to Dr Peter Cox, one of the world's leading climate modellers.

As things stand, CO2 levels are projected to rise strongly over coming decades, whereas there are encouraging signs that particle pollution is at last being brought under control.

"We're going to be in a situation unless we act where the cooling pollutant is dropping off while the warming pollutant is going up.

"That means we'll get reducing cooling and increased heating at the same time and that's a problem for us," says Dr Cox.

Even the most pessimistic forecasts of global warming may now have to be drastically revised upwards.

That means a temperature rise of 10 degrees Celsius by 2100 could be on the cards, giving the UK a climate like that of North Africa, and rendering many parts of the world uninhabitable.

That is unless we act urgently to curb our emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Lancet, 7 December 2002

Researchers in Australia have found that the turnover of serotonin by the brain is lowest in the winter. More specifically, the rate of production of serotonin is directly related to the duration and intensity of sunlight. The brain�s response to this sunlight was immediate; serotonin levels correlated with sunlight on the morning that blood samples were taken rather than sunlight on the previous day. The authors concluded that �the prevailing amount of sunlight affects brain serotonergic activity, and thus underlies mood seasonality and seasonal affective disorder�.