Color Spectrum Hues Have Individual Effects
We have written about Chromo therapy previously but mainly focused on its benefits and how it is becoming more popular as an option in infrared saunas. This article highlights a little more of the individual benefits the various color wavelengths provide.
The effects have earned notoriety and evidence.
What Benefit Does Each Chromotherapy Color Provide?
Red Chromotherapy Light for Energy
Red is vibrant and can increase your energy. It can rejuvenate your body’s energy and improves the ability of infrared to speed up recovery from injury.
Red chromotherapy lights are different than dedicated Red Light Therapy, which is beneficial for producing collagen cells and the skin itself is improved. It is well known in energy medicine as effective for conditions such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and major depressive disorder.
If a person is already agitated, red light can unfortunately further excite that emotion causing even more aggression.
Orange Stimulates Thinking
Orange is similar to red in that it can stimulate thinking and uplifts the emotions. Energy levels are increased and a person’s overall mood can be greatly enhanced.
Orange is a revitalizer. It is warm and inviting and sites between red and the sunny yellow. Looking at this hue is particularly beneficial as an effective relaxation technique. Orange light therapy can even help with some symptoms of mood disorders by providing a reall sense of joy and optimism.
Yellow Light Is Cheerful
Yellow influences more of a person’s outlook. It is often described as cheerful and makes people feel more optimistic. Cheerful is how it is often described.
Ask anyone how it feels to finally see the bright yellow sun outside after periods of cloudy winter days if they are suffering from symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Personally, just watching a sunrise or colorful sunset brings a smile to my face. The vibrant colors of yellow contrasted with purples always amazes me.
Green – A Balancer Color
Green can also be a color of healing. This is the color to use if you are suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). It can provide clearer thinking. This has definitely had an effect on a relative of mine who suffers from SAD. She counts the days after December 21 each year. That day is northern winter solstice and the days begin to become longer each day after that.
Perhaps it is also partly associated with this as green also symbolizes spring, renewal and growth of plants and everything green.
Blue Is The Healer Color
Blue is recognized for its help with dealing with depression as well. It can help in reducing inflammation and also provide antibacterial benefit for the skin. Many times I have seen pictures of blue skies dotted with white clouds in medical settings, presumably for their calming effects.
Blue is cool and serene. many medical people, including a chiropractor I visited many times years ago have shared that staring at a blue sky with contrasting white in the clouds is calming. Many have images of blue skies and clouds on the walls of their waiting rooms.
Blue can help to regulate sheep patterns and calm a person for the night. Interestingly, however, is that any blue light at night in the bedroom can interrupt these sleep patterns (Circadian rhythms) and should be avoided.
Purple Light Color
Purple can actually really help those with things like fibromyalgia. It also adds benefit to white blood cells
Pink Is An Overlooked Chromotherapy Color
Pink is often-overlooked as a beneficial color in chromotherapy. Despite this it does hold significant therapeutic benefits, particularly related to emotional and mental healing. It is often associated with love and compassion and it can be soothing and comforting This makes it helpful for calming the mind. However, extended exposure to pink can negatively affect some people and even result in feelings of aggression.
This versatile color can also help with sleep disorders, although some people simply do not enjoy this part of the color wheel.
Is White Light Chromotherapy Beneficial?
While we may not think of white light being anything unique or special or related to psycho-emotional healing, However, when used in light therapy, it can have significant benefits. It is interesting to note that many state that white is the most common in LED therapy.
White is actually the combination of the full spectrum of all colors, making it unique in its healing capacity. It is stated in the holistic approach to be able to unclutter the mind and stimulate the immune system.
We find it particularly interesting that white light can increase Vitamin D levels. Vitamin D (which is actually a hormone, not a vitamin) is crucial for many bodily functions and hormone production.
We obtain Vitamin D3 when sunlight directly impacts our skin. During winter months or when the sun is below 45 degrees, we create minimal amounts of Vitamin D3 from sunlight.
Color Lights as a Sauna Feature
Many brands including top rated Sunlighten are incorporating chromotherapy as therapeutic lighting into their saunas. The original Clearlight I purchased 12 years ago had these LEDs on the ceiling. Clearlight still has this as part of their chromotherapy sauna essential features.
Personally I did not notice much of a difference in anything when using the chromotherapy versus when I did not. However, I did not use them very many times so I did not have much to compare it against.
As far back as 1987, in a book which became a best seller entitled Color Me Beautiful, author Carol Jackson wrote about color phycology, specifically how various colored clothing would highlight a person’s eyes. Different people had different palates of clothing which could create various images for the same person. This was an early application of phototherapy understanding.
She also wrote about chromotherapy research and how it could enhance a person’s mind and body. Even confidence could be influenced by choosing certain shades of clothing.
Now, decades later, more sauna companies are adding this feature as standard. Some such as Clearlight offer medical grade levels of the feature.