All participants were told to place the light box about 1 foot from their face for a 15-minute session to start. Every week, exposure was increased until it reached a dose of 60 minutes per day. Patients didn't have to stare at the box, says psychiatrist Dorothy Sit, lead author of the study, published last month in the American Journal of Psychiatry. They simply had to be in front of it. "They could read the paper, a journal, or look at their bills," she says.