Are you ready for this?

If your weekend sexual adventures didn’t go to plan, then it may have something to do with low light.

Yup, according to scientists from the University of Siena in Italy, bright lights increase testosterone levels and should be used by men who have low sexual desire.

Using a lightbox similar to those used to treat some forms of depression is suffice (see feature image and that Seasonal Affective Disorder light), but more research is required to confirm it.

Relying on a group of 38 men, one half was treated with a lightbox and the other half was treated with an adaptive lightbox which provided significantly less light.

Here’s how the study went down, according to BBC:

They were treated for half an hour early in the morning for two weeks.

When they re-tested the participants, they found that the group exposed to the bright light tripled their sexual satisfaction scores while the control group’s scores stayed roughly the same.

The researchers also found that testosterone levels increased in men who had been given the active light treatment from around 2.1 ng/ml to 3.6 ng/ml – but the control group showed no increase.

And it all has to do with winter. The lightbox treatment works because:

In the northern hemisphere, the body’s testosterone production naturally declines from November through until April and then rises steadily through the spring and summer with a peak in October.

You see the effect of this in reproductive rates, with the month of June showing the highest rate of conception. The use of the light box really mimics what nature does.

The light therapy inhibited the pineal gland in the centre of the brain, which allowed more testosterone to be produced.

There are a few reasons why one experiences lack of sexual desire, and treatment depends on whatever the underlying reason is. It is believed that light therapy could be one of the main treatments of the future as, unlike medication, it has fewer side effects.

But then again, you could also just get a body wand and turn it up for reals.

[source:bbc]