Dark therapy

Dark therapy was said to be founded by a German anthropologist by the name of Holger Kalweit. A form of dark therapy is to block blue wavelength lights to stop the disintegration of melatonin.

This dark therapy concept was originated back in 1998 from a research which suggested that systematic exposure to darkness might alter people's mood. Original studies enforced 14 hours of darkness to bipolar patients for three nights straight. This study showed a decrease of manic episodes in the patients. Participation in this study became unrealistic, as patients did not want to participate in treatment of total darkness from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. More recently, with the discovery of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, it has been hypothesized that similar results could be achieved by blocking blue light, as a potential treatment for bipolar disorder. Moreover, researchers exploring blue-blocking glasses have so far considered dark therapy only as an add-on treatment to be used together with psychotherapy, rather than a replacement for other therapies.

Another study consisting of healthy females and males suggested that a single exposure to blue light after being kept in a dim setting could reduce sleepiness. Contrary to the original claim that decreasing the amount of blue light could help with insomnia, this study suggested improvement with blue light exposure.