Light therapy facts for kids

The brightness and color temperature of light from a light box are quite similar to daylight.

Light therapy is a treatment where the patient is exposed to light. Depression, sleeping problems, and many skin disorders are treated with this therapy. The therapy consists of exposing the patient to a light source. The light source usually emits the full spectrum of light. Sometimes, this has to be done at a specific time of day.

Images for kids

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  A newborn infant in neonatal care placed under blue light (420–470 nm) phototherapy lamp without clothes or just wearing a diaper to treat newborn jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia).

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  High-intensity blue light (425 nm) used for the attempted treatment of acne.

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  Child patients with external forms of tuberculosis, especially of the bones and joints, laying on beds on a terrace outside Treloar Hospital in Alton, Hampshire, England, in sunlight as part of their light therapy, ca. first half of the 20th century