Your best bet would be to highlight your hair. This is better than bleaching your entire head, because it is less damaging. Aim for honey-colored highlights.
It really depends on skin tone, if your skin is olive toned, choose a caramel tone, if your skin is rose toned, choose an ashy tone, and if your wanting to go more than two shades lighter, you should pre-lighten your hair before coloring.
For any darkish colored hair, the person should use any light color for hair coloring. For your dark brown hair, you can use pale red color to reduce its darkness.