Red Light Therapy For PTSD: A Promising Method?

Updated August 29 2026

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been increasingly well understood in the last few decades. PTSD is a response to a traumatic event that has both a physical and mental basis. Treatment options have become far better in the last decade or so, especially with some new psychedelic and non-psychedelic options for countering it (1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8).

Today I'll take a slightly different perspective. I'll first explain what causes PTDS and why it develops. Then I'll explore the promising light therapy for PTSD options. Most of the research has been carried out on animals here, and I'll explore the implications for humans.

After the summary below, let's start with the basics though:

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Summary: In this blog post, I explore the potential of red light therapy for managing PTSD. I venture into the causes and complexities of PTSD, current science-backed treatment options, and the promising effects of red light therapy based on animal studies.

Red and near-infrared light, here, are primarily focused on preventing or reducing PTSD symptoms post-trauma. Human studies to validate these findings are needed.

Other light therapy applications, such as blue light for regulating circadian rhythms, already support existing PTSD treatment and are best used in the morning.

The Causes And Complexity Of PTSD

PTSD is getting more and more attention nowadays. And the causes and complexity of PTSD are extensively studied (9; 10; 11; 12; 13). In the past, such as with the soldiers fighting on the front lines of World War I, what is now called "PTSD" was called "shell shock" and was generally considered a form of weakness.

Nowadays, PTSD is considered a response to trauma that can happen to anyone. Still, there's disagreement about the classification of PTSD and what exactly causes it. The reason for that difficulty is that different people can respond differently to the exact same event (9).

For instance, after a devastating car crash, one person may develop PTSD while the other may not. The same is true for sexual abuse, violence, extremely chronically stressful situations, wars, accidents, and other life-changing events.

The result of PTSD is often a great psychological, economic, and other burden to both the individual and society in general. Structural changes occur, such as in brain physiology (10). Pharmaceutical interventions also play a major role in managing PTSD. Researchers write:

"Problems which are needed to be considered in case of PTSD like ongoing trauma, abusive or bad relationships. Various drugs which are used for the treatment of PTSD include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (citalopram, fluvoxamine, fluoxetine, etc.); tricyclic antidepressants (amitriptyline and isocarboxazid); mood stabilizers (Divalproex and lamotrigine); atypical antipsychotics (aripiprazole and quetiapine), etc. " (11).

Often, PTSD leads to re-experiencing the traumatic event or period over and over again. Also, people with PTSD often engage in avoidant behavior to avoid triggering their emotional and thought patterns associated with the trauma. Nightmares and dissociation from yourself and your thoughts are other possibilities. Depression and anxiety - obviously - are almost always present. Daily life is subsequently affected because problems such as

"sleep and concentration, irritability, increased reactivity, increased startle response, hypervigilance" (13).

Many more people are affected by PTSD than you'd think (14; 15; 16; 17). During COVID - a stressful period for many - over 17% were affected in both COVID patients and the professionals helping them (14). Depending on your definition, 3-26% of people are affected in their lifetime in the USA (15). Worldwide, 3-11% of people are affected at any moment of time (16; 17).

So even if you're not affected by PTSD yourself, someone you know definitely is. Being able to counter PTSD and resolve it is therefore extremely important:

Current Treatment Options For PTSD

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people get more rational control of the interactions between their emotions, thoughts, and behavior (9). An estimated two-third of people with PTSD eventually resolve their issues with CBT. CBT is carried out in supervision with a therapist, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Nevertheless, most people on this planet don't have access to CBT because of the training for aid workers and costs involved (9). Other therapies can aid in countering PTSD as well - here's what researchers write about the topic:

"Evidence-based psychotherapies are the first-line treatment of PTSD, with cognitive behavioral therapies, such as prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing having the largest body and highest quality of evidence." (12)

Nevertheless, the psychedelic and non-psychedelic drugs I started this blog post with - under strict medical supervision and paired with psychotherapy - offer a great profile for resolving PTSD (1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8). More research is needed there, though, although emerging research is extremely promising!

Different treatment options for PTSD can work (18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25). There's no easy answer here as not everyone responds to treatments the same way. And not every PTSD case is the same, either! Simple exercise therapy may work really well, for instance, even up to lots of exercise to support other PTSD treatments (18).

Fortunately, many evidence-based interventions for PTSD exist (19). So the main issue is to get treatment. Early intervention after trauma is important as it may lessen or prevent the development of PTSD - a topic I'll come back to soon (19).

For instance, Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (EMDR) can give the thoughts and feelings a different meaning (20). Even though the science isn't fully supportive of EMDR, I've seen very good results in family and acquaintances with this intervention (26; 27).

Treatment options are often suboptimal simply because guidelines aren't up to date with the state-of-the-art PTSD treatment:

Most guidelines consider both psychological and pharmacological therapies as first-line in PTSD. All but one guideline recommended cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as first-line psychological treatment, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as first-line pharmacological treatment. Most guidelines do not mention the targeted treatment of nightmares as a symptom of PTSD. Prazosin is discussed in several guidelines for the treatment of nightmares, but recommendations vary widely (21).

Simpler pharmaceutical interventions such as plain cannabis or oxytocin may work too though (22). Such interventions may prevent the fear memory from being formed. Combining therapies, such as psychotherapy and pharmaceuticals, nevertheless works best according to the latest evidence (25).

And, the good news is that red light therapy may be added to that mix of therapies, perhaps eventually when more research on humans is carried out:

Red And Near Infrared Light Effects On PTSD

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The section below is AI-generated. We use this for collecting all of the data and implications of that on a topic, and then, later on, give you recommendations that are fully humanly-written

Most human studies used near-infrared light around 810–870 nm, sometimes combined with red light at 633 nm. Treatment generally targeted the forehead and other scalp regions; some protocols added intranasal light. However, no wavelength or treatment area has been established as best for PTSD (29) (31) (33) (34).

A common pattern was two to three sessions weekly for six to eight weeks, often lasting 20–30 minutes. Some studies used shorter sessions or treatment every other day. Both continuous and pulsed light were investigated, without an established clinical advantage for either mode (28) (29) (33) (34).

The main limitation is evidence quality: small, uncontrolled studies reported improvements, while controlled trials did not establish clear overall PTSD benefits over sham. Dose reporting was sometimes unclear, and surface doses do not equal doses reaching the brain. These patterns describe experimental protocols, not a validated treatment recommendation; optimal dosing and lasting benefits remain uncertain (28) (33) (34).

Red light therapy for PTSD is still an early area of research. Some studies report improvements in PTSD symptoms, but much of the human evidence comes from small studies involving people with traumatic brain injuries or other conditions alongside those symptoms. Several studies also lacked a sham treatment for comparison (28) (29) (31) (34).

That distinction matters. Feeling better after treatment does not, by itself, show that the light caused the improvement. In one 2025 trial, PTSD symptoms improved compared with the participants’ starting scores, but the difference between active and sham treatment was not statistically significant (28).

Here, “red light therapy” includes both red and near-infrared light. The tables separate human research from animal studies and explain the treatment settings alongside the results.

A few terms help when comparing the studies:

Output power, measured in W or mW, describes the light output of a device, cluster or individual emitter.
Power density, also called irradiance, is power per unit area: mW/cm².
Energy dose, expressed in J/cm², describes the energy delivered per unit area over the treatment period.
PCL scores measure PTSD symptom severity. Lower scores indicate fewer symptoms.

Unless stated otherwise, doses below refer to each illuminated treatment location, rather than the entire head or a whole day. Estimates of light reaching the brain are identified separately from measurements at the treatment surface.

The human studies are listed below, newest first.

Study population and design	Wavelength, dose and schedule	Device and application	Laser or LED	Results and limitations
2025 — Lee et al. (28) 23 adults enrolled; 17 completed. Chronic mild traumatic brain injury; PTSD symptoms assessed. Randomized, sham-controlled crossover trial; one-week washout between courses.	810 nm. Output power: not reported. Irradiance: 30 mW/cm². Reported 21.6 J/cm² and 324 J per session, with an important dosing qualification below.* 12-minute sessions using one-minute activation blocks. 18 sessions over six weeks for each active/sham course.	Custom system with 81 LEDs in nine clusters; approximately 1 cm² per LED. Frontal, temporal and parietal head locations. Clusters activated sequentially. Manufacturer, model and skin distance: not reported.	LED; continuous light.	PCL-5 scores averaged 20.7 at baseline, 17.3 after sham and 14.1 after active treatment. Active treatment improved scores versus baseline, but not significantly versus sham: p = 0.24. No longer-term follow-up after the courses. Usual treatments allowed. Small sample, six withdrawals and an unblinded outcome assessor.
2025 — Tate et al. (29) 16 male firefighters; 13 completed. Single-arm, open-label pilot study; no sham group. A PTSD diagnosis was not required.	810 nm. Total output: not reported. Reported head irradiance: 75–100 mW/cm²; nasal: 25 mW/cm². Reported dose per location: 45 J/cm² anterior head, 60 J/cm² at each other head emitter, 15 J/cm² nasal. 20 minutes every other day for eight weeks; median 27 sessions.	Vielight Neuro Alpha v1, as named in the paper. Four head emitters plus one intranasal emitter. Reported illuminated areas: 2.5 cm² per head emitter, 1 cm² nasal. Contact application described; reporting inconsistencies noted below.†	LED; pulsed. Paper reports 40 Hz and 50% duty cycle, but its pulse specifications contain inconsistencies.†	Average PCL-5 score fell from 23.6 to 13.9. The average starting score was below a commonly used probable-PTSD threshold. Assessed at eight weeks; no later follow-up. Other treatments: not reported. No control group; missing outcomes were imputed for three participants.
2025 — Mahajan et al. (30) One 28-year-old man with traumatic brain injury, PTSD and other psychiatric conditions. Case report; no comparison group. Light added during a personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation course.	Actual treatment wavelength, output, irradiance and energy dose: not reported. Light sessions lasted 15 minutes daily once introduced around the middle of the ten-week combined treatment course. Time per location and total number of light sessions: not reported.	Manufacturer, model, specific head locations, illuminated area and contact/distance: not reported.	Laser or LED: not reported. Continuous light described.	PCL-5 fell from 51 initially to 27 before/around the addition of light, then to 16 at the end. Magnetic stimulation settings also changed around that time, so the contribution of light cannot be separated. Other medication details and longer follow-up: not reported.
2023 — Naeser et al. (31) Four former American football players with traumatic encephalopathy syndrome and possible chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Uncontrolled case series; treatment protocols differed between participants.	Office protocols included 810, 850 or 870 nm, depending on the setup; red light was also used, but all corresponding wavelengths could not be verified. Reported 26 J/cm² per treated location; 22–40 minutes/session, three times weekly, 18 sessions over six weeks. Output, irradiance and exact time/location: could not verify. Two participants subsequently used home treatment for 12 weeks: head treatment 20 minutes, three times/week; separate red nasal treatment 25 minutes, six times/week.	Office treatment used MedX clusters or THOR helmets, depending on the participant. MedX clusters were approximately 2 inches across; full illuminated areas and skin distances could not be verified. Home treatment included Vielight Neuro Gamma and a separate red intranasal device.	LED. Home Neuro Gamma treatment: 40 Hz. Duty cycle and complete pulse settings for the other configurations: could not verify.	PTSD and several other symptom scores improved at approximately one month; some benefits declined by two months. Home treatment was associated with further improvements in two participants. Main follow-up: approximately one week, one month and two months. One participant stopped two opioid medications. Very small sample, differing protocols and no sham comparison.
2021 results — NCT03209882 (32) 10 participants with PTSD enrolled; nine completed. Pilot study with randomized ordering of initial active/sham sessions. Each participant received six active sessions and one sham session.	1064 nm; 3.4 W output. Eight minutes per active session at the right forehead. Weekly treatment across seven weeks. Irradiance and J/cm²: not reported.	Applied to the right forehead. Manufacturer, model, illuminated area and contact/distance: not reported.	Laser; continuous light.	Posted results concern brain metabolism, blood-flow-related measurements and cognition; they do not establish improvement in PTSD symptoms. Assessments extended approximately seven to eight weeks. Other treatments: not reported. This is a trial registry results record, rather than a peer-reviewed treatment paper.
2021 online; 2020 journal volume — Martin et al. (33) 48 Gulf War illness participants completed: 25 active, 23 sham. Randomized, blinded trial. 32 had elevated PTSD questionnaire scores at baseline.	Main helmet: 830 nm; 626 mW/cluster, 29 mW/cm², 26 J/cm²/location. Alternative helmet: 850 nm; approximately 1.075–1.266 W/cluster, 35–41 mW/cm², 26 J/cm²/location, approximately 10.7–12.6 minutes/location. Ears: 870 nm; 90 mW/cluster, 4 mW/cm², four minutes, approximately 1 J/cm². Nose: 633 nm, 8 mW, 8 mW/cm², 12 J/cm²; and 810 nm, 14.2 mW, 14.2 mW/cm², 10.65 J/cm²; 25 minutes. Approximately 30 minutes/session, twice weekly, 15 sessions; planned 7.5 weeks, approximately eight weeks in practice.	Photomedex helmet: 21.6 cm²/cluster; alternative THOR helmet: reported 28.3 cm²/cluster. MedX ear clusters: 22.48 cm² each. Vielight nasal emitters: 1 cm² each. Helmet liner, ear application and nasal clips; exact skin distances not reported. Main helmet exposure lasted about 28 minutes; exact time at each helmet location could not be verified.	LED. Continuous light, except the 810 nm nasal device: 10 Hz, 50% duty cycle.	No significant overall active-versus-sham PTSD effect: p = 0.43. An exploratory subgroup with elevated starting PTSD scores showed a more favorable improvement pattern. Follow-up: one week and one month. Participants were encouraged to keep medications stable. Underpowered, heterogeneous sample; subgroup findings require confirmation.
2014 — Naeser et al. (34) 11 adults with chronic mild traumatic brain injury; four had elevated PTSD scores. Open-protocol study; no sham group.	633 + 870 nm. 500 mW/cluster; 22.2 mW/cm². Approximately 13 J/cm² per ten-minute placement. Six clusters used simultaneously in two sets: 20 minutes/session. Three sessions/week; 18 sessions over six weeks. Estimated cortical dose: approximately 0.4 J/cm², assuming 3% transmission; not measured in the living brain.	MedX Model 1100 clusters. Cluster diameter 5.35 cm; area 22.48 cm². Contact application at 11 frontal, temporal, parietal and midline head locations.	LED; continuous light.	All four participants with elevated PTSD scores improved. Improvement persisted to two months in the three with available follow-up; the fourth had only one-week data. Medication stability was requested. Small, uncontrolled study; PTSD findings came from a subgroup of four.
2011 — Naeser et al. (45) Two women with chronic traumatic brain injury. PTSD-related findings concerned case 2. Case reports; no comparison group.	PTSD case: 633 + 870 nm; 500 mW/cluster, 22.2 mW/cm². Exposure increased from seven to ten minutes/location: approximately 9.3–13.3 J/cm²/location. Nightly treatment over approximately nine months. Total session duration and session count: not reported. Estimated brain dose: 0.28–0.4 J/cm², based on assumed transmission.	Circular clusters: 5.35 cm diameter, 22.48 cm². Contact treatment at several forehead and other head locations; a foot acupuncture point was also treated. Manufacturer/model for this case: could not verify.	LED; continuous light.	Reported improvements in anger, irritability, sleep and emotional regulation during ongoing treatment. No standardized PTSD score was reported. Medication and supplement changes included starting methylphenidate and stopping escitalopram. Approximately nine months of observation; light’s contribution cannot be isolated.
2009 — Schiffer et al. (46) 10 adults with major depression; three also had PTSD. Active and sham exposures given in randomized order during one visit. No separate sham group for the subsequent clinical follow-up.	810 nm; 250 mW/cm². Total output: not reported. Four minutes at each of two forehead locations: 60 J/cm²/location. Eight minutes of active light; 16 minutes including sham exposures. One treatment visit. Authors estimated approximately 2.1 J/cm² reaching the brain; not directly measured.	Marubeni America LED array. Left and right forehead locations, F3 and F4. Positioned approximately 4 mm from the skin. Model and illuminated area: not reported.	LED; continuous light.	Depression and anxiety improved at two weeks, but PTSD-specific treatment outcomes were not reported. Follow-up: two and four weeks. Usual psychiatric care continued. Small sample; the results cannot establish a PTSD benefit.

In the Lee study, the reported 21.6 J/cm² corresponds to 30 mW/cm² applied for the full 12 minutes. However, clusters were activated sequentially. That figure should therefore not be assumed to represent the dose received at every head location. The paper also reports 324 J as the session’s total energy (28).

†The firefighter paper names a Neuro Alpha device but reports 40 Hz, 50% duty cycle and a 25-millisecond pulse duration. Those timing figures do not agree: at 40 Hz, an entire cycle lasts 25 milliseconds, so a 50% duty cycle would require 12.5 milliseconds of light per cycle. The table preserves the reported settings while flagging the inconsistency (29).

The animal studies provide a different type of evidence. Researchers can examine fear learning, memory and biological changes under controlled conditions, but these outcomes are not equivalent to recovery from diagnosed PTSD in a person. Several experiments also started treatment immediately after a stressful event, making them more relevant to early intervention than to longstanding PTSD (47) (49) (50).

Study population and design	Wavelength, dose and schedule	Device and application	Laser or LED	Results and limitations
2023 — Zhao et al. (47) 24 male rats; six/group. Trauma model involving severe stress and shocks. Control, stressed sham, continuous-light and pulsed-light groups.	810 nm; 25 mW/cm² at the scalp. A 2 W source is described, but actual delivered total power could not be reconciled with the scalp settings. One 30-minute treatment immediately after trauma. Continuous-light dose: 45 J/cm², calculated. Pulsed-light dose: could not verify. Transmission testing outside the living animal suggested approximately 5 mW/cm² beyond scalp and skull.	HOP100 system, LHH Medical, Beijing, with Medlight fibre/lens delivery. Shaved scalp; reported illuminated area 3 cm². Contact/distance: not reported.	Laser. Continuous light compared with 10 Hz pulsed light. Pulse duty cycle: not reported.	Both settings affected some fear-related outcomes; pulsed treatment produced more consistent improvements in anxiety-related tests. Behavior assessed approximately one week later. Treatment involved anesthesia. Only six animals/group; treatment began immediately after trauma.
2021 — Perez Garcia et al. (48) 39 male rats: 12 uninjured sham, 13 blast-exposed sham and 14 blast-exposed active. Repeated blast injury with PTSD-related behavioral testing. Treatment began months after injury.	808 nm. The paper describes “240 mW” as irradiance; the units are ambiguous, so a reliable mW/cm² or J/cm² value could not be verified. Methods specify five minutes/session; a figure says six minutes. Five sessions/week for six weeks: 30 sessions.	Thorlabs LP820-SF80 laser diode, with CLD1010LP controller and collimator. 4 mm diameter spot on the top of the head, between bregma and lambda. Reported distance: 0.05 mm above the head.	Laser; pulsed at 10 Hz, 88% duty cycle.	No improvement in cognitive or PTSD-related behavioral outcomes; some anxiety measures worsened. Assessment followed the treatment course; later follow-up not reported. Other active treatments: not reported. Inconsistent dose reporting limits reproducibility.
2021 — Li et al., memory study (49) Male and female rats across several experiments; typically 8–15/group, with some smaller groups. Total unique animal count: not reported. Stress, fear-learning and memory models with control/sham comparisons.	808 nm; 350 mW/cm² at the scalp. Total output: not reported. Two minutes/treatment: 42 J/cm², calculated. Protocols used one treatment or repeated treatment; schedules included two, four or eight sessions, depending on the experiment. Separate tissue measurements indicated approximately 25 mW/cm² at cortex, 12 at hippocampus and 3 at amygdala; these were not measurements in the living brain.	Dragon Lasers 808M100. Shaved head; 1.5 cm² spot. Reported lens-to-head distance approximately 35 cm. Animals restrained; eyes protected.	Laser; continuous light.	Improved some memory, fear-discrimination and fear-extinction outcomes. Benefits depended on treatment timing and the experiment. Follow-up ranged from short-term testing to approximately three weeks. Fear conditioning, reminders and extinction training formed part of the protocols; these results do not establish a human PTSD treatment effect.
2021 — Li et al., underwater-trauma study (50) Main behavioral cohort: 28 male rats—10 controls, nine trauma-only and nine trauma-plus-light. Additional animals used in acute and biological experiments; total unique count not reported.	808 nm; reported irradiance 25 mW/cm², although the measurement plane is unclear. Two minutes daily for seven consecutive days, beginning after trauma. 3 J/cm²/session, calculated at the quoted irradiance. The paper also reports “3 J/day,” which does not clearly distinguish total energy from energy per area. Total output: not reported.	Dragon Lasers 808M100. Shaved scalp; reported spot 1.5 cm². Contact/distance: not reported.	Laser; continuous light.	Improved several anxiety-, depression- and memory-related outcomes in testing beginning around day 21. A single treatment did not produce the same immediate benefit at three hours. No other therapeutic intervention reported. Early treatment model; dose reporting leaves uncertainty about the exact delivered exposure.
2012 — Rojas et al. (51) 62 male rats across several experiments. Main fear-extinction comparison: 11 light-treated versus 10 controls. Fear conditioning and memory research, rather than a full PTSD model.	660 nm; 9 mW/cm² at the treatment distance. Total output: not reported. Ten minutes/treatment: 5.4 J/cm²/session. Main protocol: one treatment daily for four days, shortly after fear-extinction training. A separate experiment tested one treatment.	Laboratory-built array with 49 LEDtronics LEDs. Board dimensions 5.5 × 9.5 cm; actual illuminated treatment area not reported. Positioned 1 cm above the head.	LED. Continuous versus pulsed operation: not reported.	Improved retention of fear-extinction learning and reduced return of fear in the main experiment. Key renewal test occurred the day after the final treatment. Light accompanied extinction training. Useful mechanistic evidence, but indirect evidence for treating human PTSD.

For the calculated doses, the formula is irradiance in W/cm² × exposure time in seconds:

Zhao et al.: 0.025 × 1,800 = 45 J/cm² for continuous light. The pulsed dose cannot be calculated reliably without knowing the duty cycle and whether the quoted irradiance is an average or an on-pulse value (47).
Li et al., memory study: 0.350 × 120 = 42 J/cm² per treatment at the scalp (49).
Li et al., underwater-trauma study: 0.025 × 120 = 3 J/cm² per treatment at the quoted measurement plane, which the paper does not clearly identify (50).

These calculations assume the stated irradiance remained constant throughout the exposure.

Taken together, the studies give researchers reasons to investigate red light therapy further, but they do not yet establish a dependable treatment protocol for PTSD. The strongest caution comes from the controlled human studies: the 2025 crossover trial did not show a statistically significant PTSD advantage over sham, and the Gulf War illness trial did not show a significant overall PTSD benefit either. Its more encouraging PTSD findings came from an exploratory subgroup (28) (33).

The unanswered questions are practical ones: who benefits, how much improvement to expect, whether benefits last after treatment stops, and which device settings work best. The current evidence cannot answer those questions confidently enough to turn these experimental protocols into an established home-treatment recommendation.

Update 2026 - I've covered these topics in great detail in my advanced science course, which is 100% free to join.

Light Therapy Applications And PTSD

Fortunately, there are more options in countering PTSD. If you manage your circadian rhythm properly, getting bright light exposure can be a game-changer (41; 42; 43).

To use this effect, you'll need blue light exposure in the morning. Morning sunlight is arguably the best by far, but, some people don't have this option available because they've got very dark winters at their location or because they're working at that time.

In such cases, using a red light therapy panel that emits a decent amount of blue light is an asset. A decent option here is the PlatinumLED BioMax 900, which emits some blue light - Alex Fergus reviewed that panel here:

And then, if you want a lot of blue light exposure - which I recommend in the morning if you don't have an alternative, consider the LightpathLED Diesel Blue Combo panel - Alex reviewed the regular version here:

The PlatinumLED BioMax 900 has only a few % of LEDs allocated towards blue light, but the LightpathLED Diesel Blue Combo panel has 33%. Then there's a Lux Vital product by Chroma, which Alex hasn't reviewed yet, but it is more portable than a panel and arguably has tons of different types of blue light for the best effects.

You can grab these panels here with a discount:

PlatinumLED BioMax panel - use the link for a discount to be generated
Lightpath LED Diesel Blue Combo - use code ALEX and get 5% off
Chroma Lux Vital (now replaced with Chroma Trinity in 2026!) - discount code ALEX saves

So what does blue light do? First, PTSD becomes more treatable and the response increases by more than 33% (41). Secondly, symptoms like depression may decrease (42). Thirdly, sleep improves, and you may have less fear and symptom severity (43; 45).

(For more info on sleep, check my latest breakdown below!)

The amygdala, the emotional center of the brain that may be enlarged and quicker to trigger in PTSD, may be less reactive (44; 45). The goal here is to expose your eyes to bright blue light in the morning. If you'd like more information, check my guide on blue light therapy.

To be clear, you don't necessarily need laser light therapy for PTSD. The LEDs I've mentioned are fine!

Conclusion: Hopefully, We'll See Tons Of Research On Light Therapy For PTSD!

As you can see, light therapy for PTSD is just getting started. And, both red and blue light therapy applications are already very promising. Red light therapy, when applied around the traumatic event, may prevent PTSD from forming. Blue light therapy in the morning may improve fear, insomnia, and other symptoms. Of course, both can be used together for the best effects.

Now, it's time to wait for more human studies. Unfortunately, it's not easy to test for this, as most people don't know that they've got PTSD after a life-changing traumatic event. Also, hopefully, we'll get good results with people who have had PTSD for a longer period of time as well - in both animal and human studies.

LED light therapy used for PTSD has a bright future ahead! For many more brain-related topics, check:

Frequently Asked Questions

Lastly, a few frequently asked questions on the topic:

Does strobe light therapy for PTSD work?

Yes, strobe light therapy for PTSD is the same as the EMDR which I talked about earlier in this blog post. EMDR has a decent track record, even though some scientists think EMDR is pseudoscience.

Can I use EMDR therapy on my own?

Contrary to light therapy for PTSD, you can't use EMDR on your own - you'll need a psychologist, psychiatrist, or similar to administer the therapy to you. The EMDR isn't the only "ingredient" of the therapy - the preliminary psychotherapy and after therapy are important too.

Should I use color light therapy for PTSD?

There's no need to see "color light therapy" as separate to the different types of ligh therapy I discussed above. So, red light therapy or blue light therapy are all part of "color light therapy" - the latter is just a different name for the same input!

This is a post by Bart Wolbers of Lighttherapyinsiders. Bart finished degrees in Physical Therapy (B), Philosophy (BA and MA), Philosophy of Science and Technology (MS - with distinction), and Clinical Health Science (MS), has had training in functional medicine, and is currently chief science writer.

Items Mentioned

PlatinumLED BioMax panel - use the link for a discount to be generated
Lightpath LED Diesel Blue Combo - use code ALEX and get 5% off
Chroma Trinity (for blue light and even UV!) - discount code ALEX saves