Back in January we noticed a clever little device which claimed to ease seasonal depression – sometimes known as Seasonal Affected Disorder or SAD. The Finnish Valkee is Sci-Fi style device which literally shines light into your ear canals. Your wear it like a set of headphones on a music player.
Since then however, they’ve now been backed up by scientific research by the University of Oulu, Finland, that suggests the brain may be photosensitive [PDF of research]. The University’s research suggests the brain gets more stimulation from light delivered through our ears (remember this is bright light via this device, not normal daylight) than light delivered through our eyes. Sounds pretty odd but there you go.
Bright light is known to have mood-elevating effects broadly from light and seasonal mood swings to severe depression. That’s where Valkee started, with Antti Aunio asking his childhood friend Juuso Nissilä if he had any tips to improve his mood during the winter months. “You don’t need bright light in your house. You need to light up your brain – that’s where your mood lives” From this, Juuso introduced Antti to his observations about the human brain being photosensitive. Aunio went...
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