The idea of using light to brighten your mood isn’t new, but can a small light box with strong blue light really help you battle such serious issues as depression and SAD? I asked my hubby Roger, whose mood is definitely affected by the weather, to test out this new gadget from Philips. -Erin
I’ve never tried a light box as therapy for seasonal affective disorder, which I certainly suffer from. My wife got this Philips goLITE BLU Energy Light Therapy Lamp and said, “Try this. Let me know how it works for you. Then, write an article about it.”
This is the article.
First off, this is kind of a personal thing. You don’t look for therapeutic products because you think they’ll be fun to use. SAD is a serious issue for a lot of us. It affects mood and motivation and impacts relationships and productivity. And that sucks.
Second, I’ve tried a bunch of things in the past that haven’t worked for me; I’m talking to you, supplements! The prospect of being disappointed in yet another thing… kind of saddens me.
Setting up Philips goLITE BLU
So I plugged in the Philips goLITE BLU and reluctantly set about seeing if and how it might help me get through the Fall and Winter. And set up basically involves just plugging it in and turning it on. There’s three different levels of light; low medium and high. I used it on low most of the time.
Light therapy and SAD
Use of lights or light therapy boxes to treat or offset the effects of SAD is fairly commonplace. Generally speaking, the Lightbox should give you exposure to 10,000 lux of light and as little UV light as possible. (Sidebar: Luxes, by the way are units of light measurement. While lumens measure b rightness and intensity of light, luxes also take into account the area over which the light is spread. One lux (which is Latin for “light”) is the amount of illumination provided when one lumen is evenly distributed over an area of one square metre.)
There are plenty of recommendations that the most effective time to use Lightbox for therapy is first thing in the morning, to get you motivated for the day, I guess.
Philips says their goLITE BLU kicks out 200 lux of light, but that their blue light is so efficient, it packs the luminous punch of much larger and stronger 10,000 lux competitors. Also, their light is 100% UV free, so it’s safe on your skin and eyes. Which is good, because you don’t want this thing to be much more than two feet from your eyes when you use it.
I set up the Philips goLITE BLU on my desk about two to three feet from my head and basically left it on whenever I was working. I was getting about 2-3 hours of that beautiful blue glow at a time. It’s been on my desk for about 2 months now. It won’t be going anywhere soon. I like it.
Here’s why:
Why I like Philips goLITE BLU
I believe it has lifted my mood. I feel happier and while that may read like a flaky statement, it’s pretty much the most important outcome I was hoping for; to FEEL happy-ER. Because I’ve felt happier, I’ve been getting more done… including this article.But…
This is a “your mileage may vary” type of product. It’s up to you to decide if the $180-ish price tag is worth it for you. If you want to use my experience to help you decide, I can tell you that this product did me no harm and, more importantly, didn’t disappoint me like so many other remedies have in the past.
Find Philips goLITE BLU at places like Best Buy and Amazon.
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1 Comment
I originally bought the Philips alarm clock that lights up. The idea seemed good and it does tend to wake me up but it’s not ideal. The problem is that the orange/yellow glow from it does not at all recreate sunrise. This blue light you’ve reviewed seems to do a much better job at recreating sunrise however it’s not an alarm clock!
From what I can tell, the best solution for what I want is going to be to integrate Sleep as Android with a smart light bulb to create the effect that I want. The concept being that I want to wake up between 4:45 and 5:15 to a simulated sunrise based on where I am in my sleep cycle.