product review » and another thought

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to get up at 6:00 a.m. in the summer than 6:00 a.m. in the winter? Some days in the summer I’ll even wake before the alarm (and not because my kids have woken me up). Not only is getting up in the morning easier in the summer; I also seem pretty happy about it. It’s all due to that big bright happy ball of sunlight.

The light from the sun can have an amazing impact on our disposition; much different than just a light in your house. I can’t help but feel happy and ready to handle whatever life throws at me, well almost everything.

Philips Wake-Up Light works to harness that summer feeling all year round, mimicking the sun rising and your body gradually adjusting to the start of a new day. Sounds good in theory but does it really work like that.

The folks at Philips sent me over a Wake-Up Light to put it to the test with my ‘not a morning or winter person’ personality.

Thankfully there were not pieces to put together; just pop out of the box and plug it in. Setting up the light and alarm takes a few minutes (and the manual; read the manual). After you set your alarm time (you can set up to two different alarms so you can have a different wake-up time and setting for the weekends versus the workday), you adjust the light intensity - the brightness you want it to be at when the alarm goes off, and the sound. It does come with a built-in FM radio if you prefer that but I like the ambient sounds best. The clock has a few built in sounds, like zen music or birds on a Spring day or even sounds from the country with the occasional cow mooing. There’s a USB port on the side of the lamp so you can even wake-up to your own music or sounds or download over 20 additional sounds from the Philips website.

Once all your settings are in place, the Wake-Up Light has a test setting so you can see and hear what it will sound like when the alarm goes off. Make sure to darken your room to experience it like you would most mornings.

It actually took us a few days of finessing to get the light just right. The first day I had to adjust the intensity of the light, a lot. I had it set up to about 20 but found having it around 9 worked best, for us. I also had to adjust the alarm time. The idea behind the Wake-Up Light is to gradually wake you up so by the time your alarm goes off you are ready to get out of bad and go. To do this, the light comes on before the alarm time, very low of course, and gradually builds up. My husband found that the light woke him up too soon so we adjusted the alarm time.

Now with the settings to our liking I must admit I’m impressed at just how much the Wake-Up Light emulates natural sunlight and waking up to the light is so much nicer than fumbling out of bed in the dark to the radio. I like the nature sounds also. Though one drawback that I can see with the Wake-Up Light is the power source. You can only run it by plugging it in; there’s no battery back-up. This may be a minor thing to most people but in our household everything needs a battery back-up. So now I have my standard clock radio go off for the news but use the Wake-Up Light to actually wake me up.

The Wake-Up Light also has a dusk function, meaning you can have the light dim to darkness, ideal for those who have difficulty falling asleep. I might just try that with my 4-year old.

When I read about the Philips Wake-Up Light, I liked the idea behind it but was a little skeptical. Now that I’ve tried it, I can’t go  back to waking up in the dark. I love my sunrise and birds chirping to me every morning.

I want to thank the folks at Philips for sending a Wake-Up Light out to me to try. For more information on the Philips Wake-Up Light visit their site . You can follow Philips Light Therapy on twitter.