Product Description
Introducing the new Philips Wake-up Light, a more pleasant and natural way to wake-up in the morning. Light gradually increases for 30 minutes before your wake up time to gently prepare your body to wake up and feel more energetic at the start of your day. With optional FM radio and nature sounds, waking up will be a pleasant experience. Its innovative design includes a light that can be adjusted to 20 different brightness settings, making the product suitable to use as a lamp in any bedroom. At the end of your day, set the dusk simulator to drift you off to sleep by gradually dimming the light and sound.
I’ve used an extra loud (literally the name of the device) alarm clock for the past four years. Even then, I still usually hit the snooze at least twice every morning. I also started using a Philips GoLite Blu light therapy device during the fall and winter months last year. I find it helps with my sleeping issues as well as seasonal affective disorder. I usually have little trouble waking early in the spring and summer, when days are longer and the sun rises earlier. Light is nature’s alarm clock and it just happens to be the best there is. Fall and winter have always been my difficult seasons. While the GoLite Blu has helped tremendously, it’s more like an energy boost after you use it. I still needed my ear-piercing alarm clock for mornings. I was very eager to give the Philips wake-up light a try. After receiving the device, I followed the quick setup instructions, adjusted the settings, and selected my desired wake tone. The menu was simple to use. There are four selectable tones you can wake to. I selected what the device specifies as “African Jungle”, although it sounds more like a warm Caribbean steel drum tone. It seemed to have the best mix of loudness while still being relaxing. I set the volume at 15 (goes to max of 20). Afterward, I tested the device in demo mode and will admit, I initially had my concerns. It was three in the afternoon and the light was almost completely washed out by the afternoon sunlight. Also, even at 15, the drums sounded quiet and a little too soothing for me to believe they would be capable of waking me. Fearing it might not work, I set my old alarm clock to go off five minutes after the wake light (little did I know, I’d never need the old alarm again). The next morning, I actually woke after the light started glowing dimly, but before audible alarm of the wake up light. When I realized the audible alarm hadn’t yet sounded, I looked at the time and saw I had an additional 15 minutes to sleep. As the light got brighter and brighter I could gradually feel myself awakening more until I heard the soft sound of the drums begin very quietly and gradually raise in volume until reaching my preset maximum loudness. The best part is, due to the gradual awakening instead of the abrupt snatch-you-out-of-your-sleep-like-a-baby-out-of-the-womb waking I’m used to, I had no lingering drowsiness and I did not feel the need to hit the snooze once. I merely flipped the alarm lever to “Off” and hopped out of bed, feeling surprisingly refreshed and well-rested instead of groggy. It was like waking naturally on a weekend.
I can happily report that I had the same result the remainder of the week. By the third day, I didn’t get to bed until 2am. The wake-up light still managed to wake me at 5:30 with only one press of the snooze button. Not only did I only have to press it once, I woke on my own before the 9-minute snooze period was up. (By the way, the pre-determined snooze time is non-adjustable).
I see there are some concerns about the light being non-user replaceable. While I completely understand this very valid concern, it’s also a chance we take with many things. We don’t know if that $400 MP3 player or digital camera will function as long as we hope. The most popular (and expensive) line of MP3 players still come with non-user replaceable batteries (and backlights). LCD televisions and laptops all use backlights, so you’re putting your trust in the life of a lamp at some point for many things. This light comes with a two-year manufacturer warranty, so you can take comfort in the fact that you will get at least two years of use out of it. If you’re really worried, purchase it with a gold or platinum credit card and you can tack on a third year of warranty coverage free of charge. I’m not certain this is a deal breaker.
So far, I can’t really find any negatives (other than maybe not being the most aesthetically pleasing device to some people. My wife says it looks like a humidifier with a dot matrix clock on the side). Philips light therapy products have really impressed me up to this point. You see so many rip-offs and health products promising results that usually don’t deliver. Just like the GoLite Blu (which still impresses me after a year of ownership), this wake-up light does what it says it will do. Of course, everyone’s chemistry is different and I can’t predict it will necessarily work for everyone. I just know, after four years I’m glad I no longer feel like I want to shoot straight up out of bed and cling to the ceiling by my claws like a scared cat when my super-loud alarm clock goes off in the mornings.
This alarm clock has far exceeded my expectations. I take a medication for chronic headaches that has the side effect of making me drowsy. Since I take it before I go to bed, it can be difficult to wake up in the morning. I was hoping that this alarm clock would be better at transitioning me from sleep to wakefulness without having to hit the snooze button a million times.
First of all, I love the design of the alarm clock. It’s sleek and modern looking, but also has a prominent lever on the side which turns the clock off in the morning. With my old alarm clock, I’d be forever smacking the top of it trying to turn off that horrible sound that’s so typical of most alarm clocks.
That brings me to another great feature, the sound options. You can choose from the radio, bird sounds, and various tones. all of the tones sound soothing, and gently increase in volume in a way that gets your attention and wakes you, but doesn’t scare the heck out of you.
Then there’s the light, which is probably the best part of this clock. 30 minutes before the alarm is set to go off, it’ll slowly get brighter and brighter (and you can adjust just how bright you want it to be, I have mine turned all the way up). It usually wakes me after 15 minutes, which gives me another 15 minutes to settle into the idea of getting up. I cannot express to you what a huge difference it makes just waking up to a lit room, as opposed to a dark one with a shrieking alarm clock. The brightness is such an obvious and logical way for your brain to tell your body, “ok, time to start the day”. I’m sure this will be especially important around the winter months when it’s pitch black outside at 6am.
One of the reviews for this alarm clock talks about the fact that you can’t replace the bulbs. This is an LED lamp, so they use significantly less electricity, and are long lasting, but once they burn out, that’s it. So I can see the initial concern, but these LED light bulbs have a life of 10,000 hours. So, lets say you use the lamp for 30 minutes in the morning, that means it’s going to last you something like 55 years. Or, if you use it 30 minutes in the evening for the “simulated dusk” and then 30 minutes again in the morning, it’ll last around 27 years. So I’m not too worried about the life of the bulbs. Of course, if you use it like a regular lamp and keep it on for several hours a day, it will burn out quicker.
The only caveat I can see, is that it’s larger than a regular alarm clock, and so takes up more space on your night stand. Not a problem for me, but might be for someone with space issues.
I’m afraid I will get lots of “unhelpful” votes because of my non-glowing review, but I’m not going to make up something. This wake-up light affects me no differently than a normal alarm clock. I’ve used it for over a week and don’t wake up feeling any more rested than I did before I began using it.
The device itself is pretty large and would make a decent lamp. You can adjust the light intensity over 20 steps, with the brightest setting being very bright. It does have a nice array of alarm sounds: birds, wind chimes, tropical drums, some musical tones or the FM radio. There are three dials on the right side of the unit. The top dial turns the light on and off and also is used to adjust the intensity. The middle dial is for setting the time, the alarm time, and the alarm functions. The bottom knob controls the radio.
I find that the middle dial that controls most of the settings isn’t the easiest thing to use. You press the dial in to move from function to function (setting to setting) and then to adjust the individual settings you turn the dial. The dial doesn’t always seem to move that smoothly for me, and I wind up pressing it in, rather than turning it which makes it go to the next function.
Most of the reviews of this product have been very favorable, with everyone saying the light really makes a difference as far as waking up pleasantly and energetically. The chimes are indeed pleasant but I’m the type who wakes up right away and doesn’t use the snooze button so I don’t care what kind of sound emanates from the alarm. The light does nothing at all for me – I actually seem to feel more sleepy than normal when waking up. Of course, your mileage may vary. It’s a reliable alarm and makes for a decent lamp but for me it is no better than any other alarm clock.