I have been contemplating acquisition of a “sunrise simulator” lamp for a while, and finally got one yesterday. The NatureBright Per3 [1] is more or less a bright LED lamp with a clock attached. A bit modern looking…but not too garish:
After a single day of use, I can’t really offer a review, but I can say this: I’m awake, and probably in a better mood than I normally am at this time of day.
When I first looked at the lamp in the store (a Shopper’s Home HealthCare depot) it seemed sort of anemic. But at home, in my bedroom in the cruel hours of early morning, it was plenty bright. The construction isn’t quite as flimsy as it looks, and it can rotate as well as swivel both at the base and at the lamp head: it is nicely adjustable.
As for functionality: you set a time to “wake up”, and a duration for the “dawn” up to 99 minutes. The lamp will reach maximum brightness at your “wake up” time. The simulated sunrise starts <duration> minutes early, gradually increasing in brightness until it reaches maximum at your wake up time. Interestingly, it actually *felt* like a sunrise: I even put my arm over my eyes automatically as I do in the summer. Despite my unconscious attempt to blot out the “sun”, I still woke up. And I didn’t feel mostly dead when I did.
Of course, nature itself is starting to catch up with my intended wakeup time: I should have bought this lamp months ago. I’ll write a follow up a week or two from now- if I can start entering the world in the morning a little earlier and with a bit more of a positive attitude, it will have been worth it.