Loving the lightness again in the morning, makes getting up much easier but I know it wont last long! any realworld feedback on the various SAD wake ups clocks around? I aim to be up at 6:45am but was really struggling last week to get up

coincidentally I just threw my old Lumie in the bin this morning. It had stopped working and was nearly 10yrs old.

I think Mrs S bought it for me ages ago for a birthday as we used to live at the northern end of the Malverns where you don tget any direct sunlight for three months of the year because of the hill behind you. I got v v grumpy.

It kind of worked to wake up to the building glow from the bulb. And getting out of bed was easier. But the hardware was shit and overpriced – v british, barely one notch above prototype in manufacturing design. £80+ for an alarm clock radio with a lightbulb using a 1980’s analogue clock mechanism like you used to use in DT lessons at school.

If Lumie are doing anything better for a sensible price, then they’re probably OK. Id probably look at a chinese knock off though if I were to get another.

They are expensive and not particularly reliable (according to the reviews). So I just put a not too strong lamp in a corner of the room on a timer, set to come on 10 mins before my alarm goes off (which is set to play some air moon safari rather than some god awfull buzzer). It works a treat, usually wake up before the alarm goes, or at least half awake when it does start playing.

ps. Cheap ikea energy saving bulbs seem to take a couple of mins to hit full power and are ideal for the application.

I have one, doesn’t make any difference to me.

You wake up in the full knowledge that outside your bedroom its cold, dark and wet – and will be for months. That’s the depressing bit.

So, unless you somehow forget it winter, or just live in your bedroom, they don’t work in the real world.

erewego, something like this for a fraction of the price of the lumie stuff to see if it works for you.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-LED-Digital-Sunrise-Alarm-Clock-Natural-Wake-Up-Light-Sound-Date-Temperature-/271623512339?pt=UK_Alarmclocks&hash=item3f3e05e113

EDIT: In fact I have just bought one from that listing for the wife. She had only just dug out the old lumie one yesterday for me to set up. Since its knackered I will see if this new one is any good for her.

Had a Lumie, sold it on here as not bright enough. Wife and I now each have a large lightbox from maplin on a timer plug. I find it very effective, it’s right next to my head on the bed side table and really wakes you up….

good find, thanks stoner, if not the lamp and timer idea sounds good, i’m keen to try it as it really made a difference this morning it be light again, but yes, the winter won’t go away anytime soon!

I use a Phillips one and think it’s great. Waking up to a light room, even if you know outside is dark, is much more conducive to actually getting out of bed. The Phillips one I have also changes the colour temperature as the brightness increases to simulate a sunrise (dark red to a yellow-white depending on how bright you set it).

What I actually find best is the reverse and using it as a diffused bedside lamp for reading before nodding off. You can set it to slowly dim the light (and again, colour temperature) over 5-30minutes and it really does help rather than just going from bright to dark instantly.

Really impressed. They just need to make one with a DAB tuner in it now.

I just leave the curtains open a bit.

I just leave the curtains open a bit.

Stop doing that. I can see what you are doing in there.

Anyway, that’s only fine for those who can get up at 8:06am and still make it to work 😉

Have to agree to the pathetic build construction of Lumies

We have a Philips now which is LED and I hope will deal with the dimming better than incandesant.
It is just a single colour white one.

Also look out for the type that is just a mains powered alarm clock but provides an extension plug for you to plug in your normal bedside light, and almost any other bedside light will be better looking than one of the SAD lights.
Ours did die after a couple of years but was fairly inoffensive while it worked.

Phillips ones have 2 year warantee

Philips Hue light in the bedroom, others elsewhere. I can set the light to slowly come on at a set set on a work day morning and even set the colour temperature of the light to something similar to daylight.

Expensive but worth it. Plus, the brother’s kids love freaking out their gramdma by changing the colours of the living room lights when she is at mine.

Rachel

I acquired one of these from an old flat mate. I don’t suffer from SAD but it definitely makes getting up in the morning easier. Being able to adjust the length of the sunrise, have different times for different days etc is useful and it certainly wakes me up a lot more gently than my phone used to.

Get a baby, works every time!

Read an article in a magazine recently that talked about these wake up lights and it said the number of hours sleep you get is far more important than how you wake up. Get 7-8 hours each night and the beep-beep-beeps in the dark won’t seem quite so awful.

Interestingly, now the clocks have gone back I woke up with daylight about 40mins before the light box went off….

I bought one for my Wife a few years ago, the basic one, no radio. We also have a radio come on part way through the brightening cycle.

It’s a nice way to be woken up but that’s all really. We’ve discussed it and decided that the SAD side of the the light makes no difference. In fact the bulb went pop a while back and after seeing how much a replacement costs I fitted a basic bulb from the cupboard and it works just as well for both of us.

If it died I’d buy another but again only the basic one.

I think this one is 4 yeas old or so now.

i really liked it when we had one for a bit. don’t know about SAD effects but i find that when my phone alarm kicks in it’s like being punched in the soul. I feel most affronted. with one of these wake-up lights it felt like i was ready to wake up, then i woke up. Hard to describe but much much more pleasant!

… as per doris – a nicer way to be woken up or fall asleep. I’m not aware of suffering from SAD so I can’t say whether there is any effect on that condition or not

We’ve had ours for 6 months or so and wouldnt go back to a normal alarm clock. Quality of sleep is much better (that might be because we’ve also banned phones / ipads from the bedroom!) and the light really does wake you up. I’m not a morning person so a complete novelty being awake before the alarm goes off!

although I have to agree with everyone else build quality is shocking and human interface sucks.

No-one does mornings at the best of times in our house, and winter each year is horrible.

I’d forgotten about the Phillips Hue. Good call Rachel!

I developed quite severe SAD last autumn and getting up on dark mornings, no matter how many hours of sleep I’d had, was like the end of the world! I didn’t buy an alarm clock lamp, but I did buy a Lumie light box which I dutifully sat in front of for an hour every day through the winter. I wouldn’t say it was a miracle cure but it definitely gave me some benefit, and getting up on dark mornings became easier.

interesting thread this. I’m finding my current alarm clock a fairly horrendous awakening and fancy trying something different.

Obviously I could use the DAB but that would enforce setting it early enough to wake up and turn it off before that twunt Keaveney starts at 7 😡

I’ve got a Lumie body clock and as mentioned above the build quality is pretty poor for the money. It is made out of very flimsy plastic with horrible clicky clacky buttons. It also gains time so needs to be adjusted every month or so.

That said, it does seem to help me get up on darker mornings. I do tend to use it in conjunction with a normal alarm, albeit one with a fairly soft sounding alarm, as I’ve been known to sleep through the light getting brighter and it turns itself off after being on at full power for half an hour.

I’ve got the basic lumie model. As above it’s essentially a dirt cheap alarm clock with a light bulb on top.

That being said, I’ve had it about 3 weeks now and the effect is staggering. Waking up in the morning is so much easier and I feel far more alert. It’s made getting up in the morning actually nice and I’ve always struggled at this time of year. Big thumbs up from me despite price vs quality.

I’ve got the Lumie body clock and much prefer that way of waking up. That said it could be improved greatly in terms for design and quality. For instance you can’t turn the EL backlight for the display down without setting the wakeup. When you do set the wakeup the EL still stays on low – why if the thing is about quality of sleep would I want the display to emit light! Should you wan’t to use the audible alarm it sounds awful – again why given the purpose of the lamp would it not a a soft ascending alarm tone!

Some people above are confusing daylight SAD lamps with body clock wake up lights.

Really like my Lumie and its my second, makes waking up a lot easier.

But they really are crap quality. My current one will not allow me to change the alarm time anymore without the display going funny requiring switching off at socket. It then comes back on at the same alarm time.

Cheers-drive- I assume by ‘some people’, you mean me. I assure you that I’m not confused by body clocks and light box, but some “other people” obviously are 😉

They both work on the same principle: that in the winter, some people find that low levels of light upset their circadian rhythm, which can manifest as struggling to wake up in the dark, or as SAD. Both the ‘body clock alarms’ and light boxes tackle the problems associated by low light levels. Regular use of a light box can reset your body’s clock and help you wake up more easily.

I think the idea is good but the lumie is terrible, not rempotely straightforward to use and keeps you awake with a bright blue light if you haven’t set the alarm. Not tried any others but I was thining of just getting a timer light switch instead. You can even get smartphone controlled light bulbs for cheaper than the lumie, I’m sure you could set these up to give the same effect.

I just finished replacing all the bulbs at home with LEDs a couple of weekends ago and a mate and I were laughing at the concept of Philips Hue and the very idea of spending so much on a lightbulb. (To be honest I have not considered the wake-up/SAD benefit previously.) Now I find myself seriously considering it! hmmmm…

Which Hues do people have? Currently have GU10s in the bedroom so could get some GU10 Hues and plug them straight in. But due to the limited beam angle of GU10s and the fact that presumably a more uniform/ambient style of light is preferable would one of the other bulb styles be better?

Also is it possible to have them function as a normal white light controlled by a regular wall switch (on/off only as I understand it; no dimmer?) most of the time except when a pre-programmed “event” is happening, e.g. wake-up? Or do you just leave the wall switch set to “on” and then everything is done via the app, etc?

I think the idea is good but the lumie is terrible, not rempotely straightforward to use and keeps you awake with a bright blue light if you haven’t set the alarm. Not tried any others but I was thining of just getting a timer light switch instead.

I know I’ve already mentioned it above, but for anyone disappointed by the quality of the Lumie but still likes the effect then definitely have a look at the Philips ones. They look better, they are built very well, the display dims with the ambient light level (and vice versa) and is a nice orange rather than bright blue and it works great. The colour changing one is especially good.

I suspect that fitting the Hue along with a WeMo light switch and then setting up an IFTTT command might allow it to work both as normal lightbulb and also “alarm clock”.

Don’t know for sure….