Light therapy

One of the unexpected Christmas gifts I received this past holiday was a light box--a therapy lamp. It's hard for me to get up in the morning. Actually, hard isn't the right word. Waking up is like clawing my way up a sheer rock face of total gravity that pulls me down, down, down into Sleepyland. This proves to be somewhat problematic when I want to get up early to get light therapy so I won't be sleepy and depressed.

While perusing the instructions for the therapy light, I saw that I could also use it as a wake-up light--similar to a dawn simulator. My husband rummaged around in the basement and found an automatic light timer. We put the lamp next to the bed and at exactly 5:24 a.m., the light comes on, the clock radio does its thing, and I am able to achieve a decent level of consciousness.

In the past, when the alarm went off, my kitty would appear next to my head and she would lick me relentlessly until I got up. I refer to this as the tongue alarm. Now that the therapy light is set up, the tongue alarm has stopped working. Turns out, the cat likes light therapy. Who knew? She gets between me and the lamp, squints into the light, purrs, and takes in the photons until the light timer switches off. The cat is old and sweet and, I presume, not depressed.