# A Wearable Morning Light Treatment for Postpartum Depression: Confirming Efficacy and Mechanisms

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2022 · $543,005

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
As one of the most common pregnancy complications, nearly 600,000 women in the United States suffer from
postpartum depression annually. Consequences of postpartum depression are far-reaching and include
maternal suicide, functional impairment, and impaired development and psychiatric illness in offspring. Despite
the high prevalence and significant consequences, under current treatment paradigms less than 16% of
women with postpartum depression receive treatment and only 3.2% in total achieve remission. Treatment
uptake in this population is influenced by concerns regarding pharmacotherapy during lactation and caregiving
demands for a newborn. Novel treatments that remove the significant obstacles to accessing care inherent to
the postpartum period, such as non-pharmacological therapies delivered in-home, are urgently needed. Within
the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) domain of arousal/regulatory systems, the circadian timing system and
its alignment with the sleep-wake cycle—called the phase angle difference—represents a promising novel
treatment target. Morning bright light therapy advances circadian timing, and is an effective antidepressant for
seasonal and non-seasonal depression. Importantly, bright light therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention
that is administered in-home. However, its efficacy in postpartum depression, and mechanism of action, have
not been confirmed. Further, traditional light therapy delivered via light box has limited utility for postpartum
women, as the user must remain stationary during the treatment and it may expose the infant to light. Through
recent technological innovations, wearable bright light therapy devices (i.e., Re-Timer®) are now available;
advantages for postpartum women include freedom of movement during treatment and targeted light exposure
limited to the user’s ocular area, so infants are not exposed to the light. The proposed study is a randomized
controlled trial of Re-Timer® bright light therapy relative to dim (credible and biologically inactive) placebo light
for postpartum depression with the following specific aims: AIM 1: Establish the effect of a wearable morning
bright light therapy (n = 60) vs. dim light placebo (n = 60) on clinician-rated postpartum depression symptoms.
AIM 2: Establish changes in phase angle difference (relationship between sleep and circadian timing) as a
predictor of improvement in postpartum depression. AIM 3: Test the effect of morning bright light therapy on
secondary outcomes (self-reported depression and maternal functioning). Treatment adherence will be
objectively assessed, and objective assessment of sleep and circadian timing will allow for mechanistic testing.
This project will be the first to test the efficacy of wearable bright light therapy for postpartum depression and to
establish sleep-circadian alignment as a mechanism of treatment. It will lay the foundation for integration of
morning bright light therapy into standard care for postpar...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10330019
- **Project number:** 5R01MH121531-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Leslie M Swanson
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $543,005
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-02-01 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10330019

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10330019, A Wearable Morning Light Treatment for Postpartum Depression: Confirming Efficacy and Mechanisms (5R01MH121531-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10330019. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*