I’m not sure if you have heard of these wake-up lights; they’re the latest fad these days. Light therapy was developed based on the theory that it’s easier to wake-up each morning if you simulate the sun rising. Apparently, wake-up lights are suppose to take away the stress in your morning routine. I’m not convinced! I hate the mornings; I would rather stay up in the wee hours of the night than get up early.
With so many people talking about these lights I thought that I would try them out. I want to see if these are just hype or do they help you have a better morning.
THE PROMISES
According to the hype, by purchasing the wake-up light, you’re going to be able to:
- Wake up more naturally
- Be refreshed and ready to tackle the world
- Not be totally scared to death each morning by the loud alarm sound
- Get out of bed quicker
- Get rid of sleep Inertia which is that groggy feeling you have when you first get out of bed.
THE DETAILS
I purchased the Philips wake-up light which offers the following features:
- Two different wake-up sounds
- Bed-light lamp with ten light settings
- Philips claims that they are the only wake-up light that is clinically tested and proven to work.
- The sunrise simulation has four brightness levels that will gradually begin to wake you up
- It also has a color flow feature which changes from yellow to bright yellow simulating the sun.
So here is what I did. I had to try one of these wake-up lights. I read several wake-up light reviews, and most people have positive experiences. I wanted to know for myself if these lights are worth the investment or are they just a load of hype. I went out and bought a Philips HF3500 wake-up light and this is my review.
I want to say that this post is my opinion and results may vary, but I’m going to write on what I thought of the wake-up light as a whole.
DOES IT WORK?
I set the wake-up light alarm for 7 am, and went to bed. I found that at 7 am I turned over to a bright light in my face and a loud alarm ringing in my ears.
Frustrated, like with every alarm clock, I hit the snooze button. I didn’t have a slow natural wake-up at all. In fact, I wanted to throw it across the room against the wall. You know that angry feeling, “Why did you just wake me up?” This was the only thing natural about the whole expertience.
In my opinion, the wake-up light is no different than any other alarm clock on the market. Maybe I just used it wrong; I’m going to use it for a couple more nights and see if it makes a difference.
MY CONCLUSION
Okay. So I gave it another go, but the results were the same. The light never woke me up – maybe I’m a deep sleeper – the alarm does wake me up, but it’s no different than my other alarm clocks.
When I first purchased the clock I had this picture in my head of a raising light (as if the sun was rising) and me waking up, yawning and feeling refreshed – never happened!
I think that with any wakeup clock it depends on the person. For me, it never helped me. I believe that it may work for some people, but in my opinion, the wake-up light alarm clock is more hype than anything else.
There you have it, folks. Leave your comments below if you had any better results using light therapy or a wake-up light alarm clock.
Cheers.
