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Comment by crossroadsguy | Hacker News Reader

Not joking. Do these artificial sunlights help with the allergies? If yes and if it's not insanely costly I'd just try to get something like that for my bedroom during allergy seasons which most often coincides with no sun (winter, rain here). Even in those seasons when the sun comes out in its glory, the allergies (which mostly is my nose turning into an infinite source of salt water), which were driving me stark raving mad since days - at times weeks, might just vanish within an hour. Yeah, w/o even stepping into the sun. (And no, I am not D deficient.)

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Hmm, never heard that before, I’ll have to research it more. Maybe the UV from sunlight is killing something you are allergic to. We don’t have UV for safety and energy efficiency reasons but you could try buying some strong UV lamps and see if that helps. Ideally you turn them on when you are out of the room so they don’t damage your eyes or cause cancer.

Oh, thanks. I will explore more on this.

You might want to test for mold as well

I just want to emphasize how important it is for you to not be in the room with it when it's on. It can seriously damage you. There are stories of them being used at parties cause they looked cool and 12 hours later everyone is in the hospital cause it feels like their eyes are melting in permanent lava, their exposed skin is severely burned, it sounds like a horrible experience. Safety precautions are essential because it doesn't feel wrong when it's happening, but only hours after exposure. Also the lights can look really cool, so unsuspecting people may cause themselves serious damage without knowing.

Thank you for the detailed warning.

I actually decided to let go of this idea after OP’s warning and reading a bit about it. Because one problem will be that I will have to enter to switch off and on and even though it could be a short lived exposure I was scared. Though I’d read more on this what it could kill in the room. The thing is it might not help anyway. It is seasonal/situational and it happens in other places as well or outside if sun is not up. So whatever it is (general guess is pollen, dust, dust mite, sudden temperature changes?, general pollution etc) it is already in me or on me or everywhere around me. So I guess it might rather help more with an allergy test and if I am lucky I can find what I am allergic to.

UV is not so dangerous that you can't step in the room for a few seconds. Moreover, there's a significant number of precautionary measures you can take, like wearing UV-resistant sunglasses when you enter the room. There are also UV lamps that have timers on them, so you can have it automatically turn on and off when you're not there.

Have you tried an air filter? A friend of mine has a bad hay fever but since he's put an air filter in his bedroom he can sleep soundly again.

I would suggest you make sure you don't have any indoor mold. Mold in an apartment caused me problems some years ago. My understanding is that outdoor/natural mold is perfectly fine for most people (including me), but molds tend to incorporate whatever they consume into their spores, because molds prey on other molds so they try to arm themselves.

The problem is with manmade stuff like sheetrock, where the mold grows and then incorporates the binder chemicals into their spores, which are too small to see and yet get inhaled and then leech into our sinuses or whereever.

I've had problems in both work and home situations. I was tested and confirmed allergic; I don't think most people are, but it was rough for me. I'm always on the lookout for those water circles in drop ceilings; they're notorious mold colonies. Once a natural material stays wet for 12 hours, molds will begin to grow.

Just something you might be able to check off your list. Good luck.

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