The light has three different brightness settings that users control to help wake them up and get their brains ready to start the day. It turns on with the touch of a button and will stay on for as long as you’d like. This lamp works to improve sleep quality because, ironically, light is essential to sleep. By having a routine in the morning that helps you become fully awake and ready to start the day, you’ll be more likely to fall asleep at night, when it’s dark and your brain realizes that it’s time for bed. “Environmental cues such as temperature and light levels interact with the circadian timer telling the body what time it is,” Nerina Ramlakhan, PhD, physiologist, sleep expert, and author of The Little Book of Sleep: The Art of Natural Sleep, previously told Real Simple. To buy: $40 with coupon (was $50); amazon.com. One happy shopper said that after “struggling with severe insomnia for over a year,” a doctor diagnosed a very delayed circadian rhythm and advised the shopper to find a light therapy lamp. “I use it for about 30 minutes right when I wake up,” the shopper continued. “Within two weeks I was off Ativan and actually getting some of the best sleep of my life. Hands down, it’s the most impactful $50 I’ve spent…It’s well made, lightweight, and moves into a variety of positions, which is helpful when I switch between using it at the table, sofa, bed, etc. It is a little top heavy, as others have noticed, but my cat has knocked it over about a dozen times already and it is still working fine. The only con is that my light does not work with batteries.” Another reviewer found the lamp equally helpful. “Light therapy is changing my life,” they began. “I live in the Pacific Northwest, where light is very sparse for over half the year. Having grown up in the Texas sun, I’ve suffered greatly for the past few years. Once the days became short and darkness abounded, I became lethargic and a pall of depression came over me. That’s changing this year because of light therapy. It helped the very first day I used it. What I like about the Circadian Optics lamp: one, it’s very bright—I use it in the morning while I am having coffee and waking up; two, it has a moveable arm, which makes it easier to manipulate the light to your advantage.” They loved using the lamp so much that they called it “life changing.”
