Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I live in Seattle, which means I can go months at a time without ever seeing sunlight. Starting around late-September, I start waking up in the dark. By the time November hits, I wake up in the dark, go to work in the dark, spend the day inside an office building, and go home in the dark. It can be depressing. I bought the Philips goLITE BLU Light Therapy Device a few years ago to see if it could help with the winter blues, and I was amazed at how well it works. It is like a concentrated shot of sunshine that wakes my body up in the morning and gets me ready for the day. I love it, and have learned to trust in these Philips light devices. I have been wanting one of these "dawn alarm clocks" for awhile now to help with another problem; waking up in the pitch dark. No matter what time I go to bed, or how many hours I sleep, my body tends to reject the idea that it should be getting up when it is as dark as the inside of a closet. I have to put my alarm clock across the room and drag myself out of bed. It doesn't make for fun mornings. Could Philips help me again? After using this "Philips Wake-up Light" for about a week know, I am happy to say that it is equally awesome. This is exactly what I have been wanting. Somehow, waking up in a lit room makes all the difference. And I dearly, dearly love the slow brightening. This isn't a sudden shock to your system, like someone flicking on the light switch. Your body is brought naturally out of sleep with a rising light level, so by the time you open your eyes it feels like it is time to get up. There are plenty of options on this wake-up light, and I think everyone will need to fiddle with it awhile to see what works for them. The first time I used it, I set the light to full brightness and had it aimed for my face. It is bright!! Glaring!! So I ended up moving it across the room, and aiming the light at the far wall so that the light appears more natural and reflects off the wall. You can set the duration for a couple of different times. I haven't found much difference personally between the 30 and 20 minute settings. I suppose it depends on how light sensitive you are. Along with the light, there are a couple of different alarm sounds, including a radio. The sounds are OK ... some bird song, a little white noise, some wind chimes, jungle sounds, and a couple of music pieces. I have been using the bird song, which I like. But the sounds were something I was disappointed with. I have another alarm clock that slowly raises the volume of the sound the same way this wake-up light slowly increases the brightness. It seems like a no-brainer to connect the two, so that the nature sounds come in slowly with the light. But that option is not available. I also found programming the clock to be a bit of a pain. Like many modern instruction manuals, there are few written instructions, just images to guide you through the process. It took me awhile of tapping buttons to figure out how to get the clock and alarm set, and what my options are. It isn't as intuitive as it could be. But once it is set, it is set, so this is only a minor headache at the beginning. There are some other cool features here. I love the touch-to-snooze feature. It almost makes it too easy to head back to bed! And I haven't played around with the "dusk" mode yet, as I generally don't have the same problem going to sleep as I do waking up. But it seems like a good idea. The light is definitely bright enough to read by, and I could see reading in bed while the light slowly dims as a good way to get sleepy. So a few minor quibbles, but over all awesome. This is one of those devices I wish I had got years ago. It has improved my gloomy Seattle mornings immensely.