Hello everyone, I hope you’re all settling into Monday slowly but surely. If you find it hard to motivate yourself during this time of year (it’s January if you’ve just randomly found this article) then this blog post is one you need to read.

Most of you guys may know already that I live with anxiety and depression, cropping up a few times on the blog before. It’s something I (and millions of others) live with and manage as best as I can. No big surprise that my mood can suffer in the depths of winter. I’m not 100% sure if I suffer with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but there’s a marked difference in my overall wellbeing when we have lighter, brighter days. As someone who is a pale skinnned, indoor kinda gal (and permanently vitamin D deficient) the little light I do get is massively missed during those long, dark drawn out winter days. So I contacted UK based company, Lumie to ask if I could try out and review some of their products and introduce them on the blog.

“Lumie has been researching, designing and developing light therapy products for over 25 years. A wealth of technical expertise and consumer feedback goes into creating well-being products that harness the natural benefits of light for a life made bright.

Our lights treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and winter blues, boost mood and energy levels and improve sleep.”

Lumie kindly sent three of their lights to review. First, i’m going to chat about my most used and favourite out of the three….

Lumie Desklamp

Just as sunlight naturally makes you feel good, topping up with extra bright light in the winter months, or when you’re stuck indoors, is proven to put you in a better mood and make you feel more awake. Using Desklamp every day makes a big difference to symptoms of SAD such as tiredness, over-eating and a lack of energy and motivation.

Up to now i’ve had a couple of bog standard lamps in my lil office, but in the winter, the sunlight doesn’t reach my office window until way after 1pm, so in the morning, it can feel like i’m sat in the dark. Cue mega fatigue, sporadic migraines and general grumpiness by midday when sat staring at my screen. I’ve been using the Lumie Desklamp for a month now and have to say it’s made a marked difference to my time sat at this desk. It’s brilliant.

The Lumie Desk Lamp has four touch sensitive light settings, which you can adjust by tapping the button on the base of the unit. By tapping it four times, you can get it to its brightest setting which is what i’ve favoured. For a couple of reasons really. Firstly, the brightest setting really suits me, I like how vibrant and energising it is, but I do find there’s an audible, high pitched noise when the lamp is set any lower than its absolute brightest. I’ve not read this mentioned on any other online reviews, so maybe my unit is faulty, not sure…

I was a little concerned the design of the lamp wouldn’t really fit into the overall aesthetic of the home office, but actually it looks pretty cool and works fantastically. The adjustable neck means it’s super easy to manoeuvre with one hand making sure the light shines exactly where you need it. Right in my face please! If any of the lamps were to leave Making Spaces HQ at this point, hands down, this would be the one I really missed. I highly recommend it to anyone that works indoors, low mood or not, but especially for those, like me that struggle with energy levels during this time of year.

Onto the second lamp we received…

Bodyclock Glow 150

Bodyclock Glow 150 is an alarm clock that mimics the light and colour of a real sunrise so when you open your eyes you feel properly awake and refreshed. Waking like this helps to regulate your sleep-wake cycle and has even been shown to boost mood, energy and productivity levels for the rest of the day.

Bodyclock Glow 150 uses improved LED technology to produce smooth changes of light and colour for a lovely, realistic sunrise and sunset. Extra customisation options allow you to choose the duration of the sunset and sunrise, light intensity of the sunrise alarm and add complementary sleep/wake sounds. You can fall asleep to the gentle rhythm of rolling thunder… then wake to a bright sunrise filled with tropical birds or bleating goats. A truly natural start to the day!

It’s a neat little thing and fits easily on my small bedside. Things I really love about this are:

• The light. It’s a lovely tone and certainly feels like a little sun in the corner of the room.
• The digital display. It switches off completely when it’s dark, so you don’t have that annoying glow by the side of your bed when you’re trying to sleep.
• The digital display, again. If you do wake in the night and want to see what time it is, you simply tap the top of the unit and the clock pops back up again for a few seconds. Love that feature.

I’d prefer it is the buttons were easier to access, for example, when I want to just pop the light on, I have to pick the unit up to find the tiddly + and – buttons (+ for brighter and – for darker). Ideally they’d be somewhere more user friendly. However this isn’t my main bedside light, I have a wall light to general reading and stuff, so it’s not a deal breaker for me, but worth mentioning.

Third and final light is the Sunrise Alarm which we popped in Charlie’s room to replace his Gro-Clock.

“Sunrise Alarm simulates a sunrise to help you wake up naturally. The sunrise starts 30 minutes before your alarm time and slowly brightens over half an hour to wake you gently. Snooze button gives you another 5 minutes in bed.

If you like the reassurance of an audio alarm, Sunrise Alarm has an optional alarm beep or a choice of 5 natural sounds, including birdsong and a purring kitten.

When you’re ready to sleep, touch the sunset button and the light will dim over 30 minutes to help you relax. The display can be switched to low or off if you prefer.”

Now we’ve not tested out all of the functions for this light yet, mainly because Charlie is fussier than his mother (if that’s even possible). He doesn’t like change, so going from his Gro-Clock to the Lumie took a few days of negotiation. But he loves it now.

We are also using this clock to start teaching him how to tell the time as he can see the display from his bed.

So there you have it. Our three Lumie lights, all of which provide a slightly different function but have all improved our time at home and general wellbeing. If you’re on the look out for something to boost your energy levels, improve your mood and quality of sleep AND you hate the sound and downright rude-ness of your current alarm, take a look on the Lumie website. They have several other designs that might just help getting out of bed a little easier and put a spring back in your step!

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I was very kindly gifted the three lights mentioned above for this review post, but all words, opinions and images are mine. I only ever work with brands I genuinely like and support.