Colour therapy for mental health

What Is Color Therapy?

Color therapy, also known as chromotherapy, is a form of therapy that uses color and light to treat certain mental and physical health conditions.

We can trace this form of therapy back to the ancient Egyptians. They made use of sun-filled rooms with colored glasses for therapeutic purposes.

Although color therapy has gained some popularity over the years, it’s still not a widely accepted form of therapy in Western medicine. Many medical experts consider it to be pseudoscience or quackery.

While color psychology is the study of how different colors can influence human behavior and perception, color therapy is different. It is based upon the unproven assumption that certain colors can impact people’s “energy” and impact health outcomes.

At some point, we’ve all experienced the ways in which color can affect us. For some people, seeing the green in nature on their daily run is an instant mood booster or they instantly feel a little better wearing a favorite yellow dress. The practice of color therapy can be traced to Indian ayurvedic medicine, which claims that the application of certain colors can correct imbalances in our body’s chakras.

Types of Color Therapy

In color therapy, it is believed that different colors are able to impact the body differently.

Red: Red is used to energize or invigorate a person who might be feeling tired or down. However, red may also trigger people who might already be tense.
Blue: Chromatherapists use blue to try and influence depression and pain. Darker shades of blue are also thought to have sedative properties and may be tried for people who experience insomnia or other sleeping disorders.
Green: Green is the color of nature, and according to chromatherapists, it can help relieve stress and relax a person.
Yellow: Yellow can be used to improve your mood and make you more happy and optimistic.
Orange: Orange, much like yellow, can be used to elicit happy emotions from people. The bright warm color is also thought to be able to stimulate appetite and mental activity.

Techniques of Color Therapy

There are two major techniques of color therapy. It can either be done through sight, that is, by looking at a particular color in hopes that it elicits the desired response in your body, or by directly reflecting certain colors on parts of the body.

Color therapists believe that color can enter our bodies either through our eyes or skin. Each color we can see has its wavelength and unique frequency. Each unique frequency has a different effect on people and is used for different purposes. Warm colors are typically used for stimulating effects, while cool colors are used for calming effects.

What Color Therapy Can Help With

Chromotherapy is considered a type of alternative medicine treatment. It has been purported to help with a variety of conditions, including:

Stress
Depression
Aggression
High blood pressure
Sleep disorders
Anxiety
Certain cancers
Skin infections

It is important to note that there is no significant evidence that color therapy is effective for any medical condition. According to the American Cancer Society, available scientific evidence does not support any claims that use of light or color therapy are effective in treating cancer or any other illnesses.

There is currently no research to support that color therapy can solely be used as an effective treatment for any of these conditions.

Benefits of Color Therapy

Over the decades, color therapy has been purported to provide several benefits ranging from physical to mental, including:

Stress relief: Certain colors like blue and green are thought to have soothing effects on people who are stressed or anxious.
Boost your appetite: Warm and stimulating colors are thought to boost your appetite when you struggle with having a desire for food.
Seasonal affective disorder: People mainly suffer from seasonal affective disorder during colder weather because of the lack of sunlight. Certain types of bright light therapy have been shown to be of benefit for this mood disorder. Color therapy also suggests the unproven idea that warm colors like yellow and orange could also help with this.
To boost your energy: Colors such as red and yellow are believed to boost your energy and make you more motivated.

The Best Online Therapy Programs

We’ve tried, tested and written unbiased reviews of the best online therapy programs including Talkspace, Betterhelp, and Regain.

Things to Consider

While the premise of color therapy is that certain colors elicit specific emotions from most people, this isn’t always the case. Human beings are unique. The effects of certain colors on people may range from person to person. Colors most people might find calming or soothing might be anxiety-inducing or depressing to others.

How to Get Started

While the science behind color therapy is still largely unsubstantiated, it’s completely harmless to practice certain aspects of color therapy on your own. Here are some ways you can get started with experimenting with color therapy:

Get rid of blue lights at nighttime for better sleep. Research has shown that the blue light in your laptops, phones, and televisions can affect your circadian rhythm, which affects your sleep quality. Wearing anti-blue light glasses or turning the settings on your gadgets to warmer yellow tones has been found to help.
Bask in nature. The greens of leaves and grass we get in abundance in nature can positively relax us.
Be intentional about color choices. When picking colors for anything, from the color of the walls in your room to the color of clothes you wear, choose colors that you find stimulating or elicit positive emotions.

It’s important to reiterate that color therapy doesn’t serve as a definitive treatment for any mental or physical health conditions. If you are experiencing a condition such as depression, it’s important to speak to your doctor about it.

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What is color therapy?

Also known as chromotherapy, color therapy is based on the idea that color and colored lights can help treat physical or mental health. According to this idea, they cause subtle changes in our moods and biology.

Color therapy has a long history. Records indicate that color and light therapy were once practiced in ancient Egypt, Greece, China, and India.

“Our relationship with color has evolved alongside our cultures, religions, and lives,” says color therapy expert Walaa Al Muhaiteeb.

“Color as the manifestation of light held divine status to many. Egyptian healers wore breastplates of blue to mark their sacredness. In Greece, Athena wore a golden robe to signify her wisdom and holiness,” says Al Muhaiteeb.

Today, color therapy is largely seen as a complementary or alternative medicine therapy.

For example, spas such as Sunlighten offer chromotherapy saunas and claim they provide benefits to their clients.

Sauna guests can choose blue light if they want to relax or feel calm. They can choose pink light if they want to detoxify.

Al Muhaiteeb says she uses color therapy to help her clients release anxiety, ease depression, and better connect with themselves through color workshops, color breathing exercises, meditations and one-on-one sessions.

The science behind color therapy

The truth is, science-backed research on color therapy is still pretty limited.

It’s a very new field of research, at least in the medical world. Many researchers told me they’ve faced resistance when trying to get funding for studies involving color therapies.

“I’ve been met with a lot of resistance when I proposed light as a therapeutic approach,” says Mohab Ibrahim, PhD, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson.

“People would say, why not work on drugs? It’ll be easier to get published. And to a certain extent, that’s true,” he says.

Still, Ibrahim is committed to his work.

“Colors have certain biological and psychological effects on people, and I think it’s about time we start taking advantage of it,” he says.

As of right now, medical science can’t confirm whether color or colored lights will treat your physical ailments or help improve your mental health.

However, there’s some evidence to back up the idea that colored lights can have effects on our bodies, our pain levels, and our moods.

For example, light therapy is used to treat seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that typically appears during fall and winter.

Blue light phototherapy is commonly used in hospitals to treat neonatal jaundice, a condition affecting babies. The condition causes high levels of bilirubin in the blood, making the skin and eyes turn yellow.

During treatment, babies are placed under blue halogen or fluorescent lamps while they sleep so that their skin and blood can absorb the light waves. These light waves help them eliminate bilirubin from their systems.

In addition, research suggests that during the day, blue light can improve:

alertness
attention
reaction time
general mood

At night, however, blue light can cause us harm by disrupting our biological clocks, or circadian rhythms. This is because it suppresses melatonin, the hormone that helps our bodies sleep.

There’s also some evidence that viewing blue light at night could possibly raise the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, though this hasn’t been confirmed.

Green light and pain research

Ibrahim has been researching the effects of green light on migraines and fibromyalgia pain.

He began this research when his brother, who suffers from frequent headaches, reported feeling better after spending time in his garden with trees and other greenery.

While Ibrahim’s research isn’t yet published, he claims his results are very encouraging. Participants are reporting fewer migraines per month and less severe fibromyalgia pain after 10 weeks of daily exposure to green LED light, he says.

“So far, many people reported benefits from the green light, and no one has reported any side effects,” he says.

“I doubt that green light therapy will replace typical pain medications, but if we’re able to reduce pain medications by even 10 percent, that’s a big accomplishment,” he says. “It could have strong ramifications [on] the future of pain control.”

Meanwhile, Padma Gulur, MD, professor of anesthesiology and population health at Duke University School of Medicine, has been researching the effect of color-filtering glasses on pain levels.

Her early results suggest that green wavelengths decrease acute and chronic pain.

Considering the opioid epidemic and the side effects of many pain medications, Gulur says there’s an urgent need for non-pharmacological options to help manage pain.

“We’re still in the early stages… but [green light] could mean a reasonably safe and effective alternative to medications that helps patients with their pain,” she explains.

DIY color therapy

While the research is still in process, there’s nothing wrong with using color in small ways to boost your mood or improve your sleep.

Protect your rhythm

To keep your phone or computer’s blue lights from interfering with your circadian rhythm, turn them off several hours before bed.

There’s software that can help, like Flux. Flux changes the color of your computer’s light depending on the time of day, triggering warm colors at night and sunlight colors in the daytime.

You can also try anti-blue light glasses, which protect from light emitted by your computer, smartphone, tablet, and TV screens. Be sure to do your research before buying them to make sure that the glasses you pick actually block blue light.

Shop for anti-blue light glasses online.

Nighttime light

If you need a nightlight, use dim red lights. According to research, red light may affect circadian rhythm less than blue light.

Shop for red light nightlights online.

Outdoor breaks

If you’re having trouble focusing or staying alert, take a walk outside where you can get plenty of natural blue light. Interacting with green plants may also be a natural way to ease stress.

Decorate with colors

You can also do what I did and use color in your home to help boost your mood. After all, interior designers have been recommending that for years.

“In the world of interior paint, color therapy is simply used by selecting a wall color that speaks to you personally, crafting a mood you’re wanting to achieve for the space,” says Sue Kim, color marketing manager for paint company Valspar.

“Colors that bring you calm and balance are great for bathrooms and bedrooms, typical spaces used for relaxation,” says Kim.

“Vibrant, energizing hues are incorporated in kitchens and dining rooms, spaces that are vibrant and used for socialization.”

Experiment

There’s also nothing wrong with visiting spas or getting yourself fun LED lights for your home. Even painting your nails or dyeing your hair can be a kind of color therapy.

Precautions

Ibrahim is quick to emphasize that his research is still very preliminary. He worries that people may use green lights to treat their headaches before consulting a doctor. While he hasn’t seen any side effects, he still has a lot more research to do.

If you have eye problems, he encourages you to check with your ophthalmologist.

Ibrahim also cautions that if you suddenly start getting severe migraines or headaches that you didn’t have before, you should see your doctor to rule out any underlying health conditions.

The bottom line

There’s still a lot we don’t know about how colors and light affect our health, but researchers are uncovering more information.

In the meantime, there’s nothing wrong with using color around your home if that lifts your spirits.

Simone M. Scully is new mom and journalist who writes about health, science and parenting. Find her at simonescully.com or on Facebook and Twitter.