I just bought and for the first time, used a Bright Light Therapy Lamp to counter my sometimes sinking moods during the darkest days of the year. It cost $49.99, and mine is called the Circadian Optics Bright Light Therapy Lamp.

I was impressed by the nearly 461  customer reviews, 70 percent of them five stars.

The shrinks call it Seasonal Affective Disorder, which the Mayo Clinic describes as a type of depression that typically occurs each year during fall and winter.

I’ve never been diagnosed with this disorder – and it has, in recent years, been updated to a full-blown disease – but I’ve experienced the symptoms. And I have several friends who have sought treatment for it.

If you talk to any farmer or his or her family up here, you will hear talk of  SAD without knowing it, people who feel “low” in the dark days, the weeks before the Winter Solstice, when the days begin to get longer again.

Here, there are no bright city lights and few places to go out at night.

We danced a week ago at a local brewery, and we were shocked at how good that felt in the middle of a dark day. The place was full of color and light, and we felt wonderful.

Up here, some farmers have committed suicide in the dark days; they are also creatures of color and light. And this time of year, the darkness is longer than the light.

Nobody here needs a doctor to warm of dark moods and depression in November and December. Almost everyone feels it, even the animals, I think.

By January, it’s just cold and snowy, which is challenging, but not necessarily depressing. There’s a lot of light around here in January and beyond, the days are getting longer every day. And snow can be its therapy lamp. I’ve always found the deep winter quite beautiful.

November and December, not so much.

I am very much affected by the absence of color and light, especially in the dark days like now when it’s pitch black, cold, and icy around 4 p.m. That is sometimes hard on me. Tonight, we had to cancel going to the Mansion because the roads were so slippery.

I feel guilty about that. And low.

The author Roberston Davies wrote that these were the days when the “Black Dog” came to visit him and hang around for weeks, if not months. I know he felt. He suffered greatly from depression.

For some time now, people have turned to “therapy lamps,” specially made light therapy boxes to help get through their SAD and celestial funkiness. My daughter sent me one several years ago, but I forgot about it over one summer.

I just ordered a new one from Circadian Optics, and I put it under my old desk lap above and turned it on. It is square – about 8 inches per side –  and powerful.

I can’t be sure yet, but what I felt after a few minutes was a sharper focus, a rise in energy, and a small but apparent rise in mood. This might be wishful thinking; I have to try it out over a more extended period.

The science on these lamps is a bit fuzzy. The shrinks say they are most effective when combined with other SAD treatments, like antidepressants or psychotherapy. I do remember my therapist recommending that I get a lamp, she said they were often beneficial.

There is some common sense here for me. I like light so that a bright light will lift my spirits at almost any time of the year. But the need for light like this is more pronounced during the dark days.

The science says that bright light sets the rhythm of our bodies and minds. Light is the biggest external factor that controls our body clock.

It is said to influence our mood, energy, and activity throughout the day by controlling the release of hormones such as melatonin, which makes us tired, and cortisol, which affects our alertness and mental acuity.

Human bodies are said to be genetically programmed to run in sync with the natural light cycle of the sun, something I learned when I worked the overnight shift as a police reporter. I never felt quite right, physically, or mentally.

As a test of these theories, I thought the lamp would be an easy and effective way to see what exposure to bright light indoors would do to my mood and focus, two things I am susceptible to as a writer.

The lamp uses LEDs to produce bright light while filtering out sometimes dangerous UV rays. The makers of the lamp say it is most effective in the morning, but I am using it in the late afternoon and early evening when I work – it’s 6 p.m. right now. Using it close to bedtime, the literature warns, can disrupt sleep.

The Mayo Clinic supports the use of light therapy and has researched its effects. “A light therapy box,” says a clinic report, “mimics outdoor light.

Researchers believe this type of light causes a chemical change in the brain that lifts your mood and eases other symptoms of SAD.”

The clinic also suggests using the light within the first hour of waking up in the morning, for about 20 to 30 minutes, at a distance of 16 to 24 inches from the face. They warn against looking directly into it.

Today is the first time I’ve used the therapy lamp, and I do feel it has lifted me a bit and sharpened my focus — no hint of late afternoon drowsiness, which I sometimes get at this time of year.

There are three different degrees of light, control by a button at the bottom of the lampstand.

The lamp is simple to set up and operate.

I’ll keep working on it and report what I find. I like the idea and feel of it, but I’ll let you know how it works for me, one way or the other.