Wake Up Lights & SAD Lamps
Sliced Bread
BBC
4.6 • 695 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With shorter days, longer nights, and bad weather leading to the winter blues for many, and for some the more severe Seasonal Affective Disorder, Sliced Bread investigates whether specially designed lights can really help improve how we feel.
Listener Ross got in touch on WhatsApp after he’d read claims Wake Up Lights and SAD Lamps can boost our mood, and wanted to know what “medically certified” means when accredited to them, and if it’s worth paying extra for it?
Greg Foot finds out by speaking to a leading expert in light therapy, as well as by visiting a manufacturer of these lights, to ask them to explain their claims, and whether they’re medically recognised in the UK.
This series, we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.
PRESENTER: Greg Foot PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.1 | My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC. |
| 0:08.7 | It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, |
| 0:13.5 | moments and movements, stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous. |
| 0:19.1 | And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music |
| 0:21.7 | means we can tell those stories like no one else. |
| 0:24.5 | We were, are and always will be right there at the centre of the narrative. |
| 0:28.6 | So whether you want an insightful take on music right now |
| 0:31.3 | or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music, |
| 0:36.1 | check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.9 | Hello, I'm Marianna Spring, the BBC's disinformation and social media correspondent. |
| 0:45.6 | I want to tell you about disaster trolls, my Radio 4 podcast where I investigate how the victims |
| 0:51.0 | of UK terror attacks are being targeted by conspiracy theorists. |
| 0:55.6 | Keep listening after this podcast episode to hear a little bit of the show, |
| 0:59.3 | or search for disaster trolls on BBC Sounds to hear the whole thing. |
| 1:04.6 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 1:14.3 | Hello. Hello, I'm Greg Foote, and welcome to the show that investigates your suggested wonder products. |
| 1:20.0 | If you have spotted something claiming to make you happier, healthier or greener, let me know. |
| 1:25.1 | I will run it through the evidence mill and find out if it is indeed |
| 1:28.2 | the best thing since sliced bread or just marketing BS. Send your suggestions over on email to |
| 1:34.2 | sliced.bred at bbc.com.com. Or as a voice note on WhatsApp to 07543 306-807. And that is just what Ross Wintel in Swindon did. |
| 1:48.0 | Hi Greg. Winter is coming and the day is getting shorter and gloomier. And lots of people |
... |
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