Are you suffering from sleep disorders, low mood, and other circadian rhythm problems? Do you live in an area where direct sunlight is rare? Or maybe you’re suffering from SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may benefit from light therapy. You may have heard about it as a supplemental treatment alongside medicine, therapy, and holistic methods to treat low mood, sleep issues, jet lag, low energy levels, and even depression.
Light therapy can be an effective method to help regulate your circadian rhythm and lift your mood during the winter months or if you’ve been diagnosed with SAD. But, light therapy can’t be achieved with any regular source of light. A light therapy lamp designed to mimic sunlight is what you need.
The Carex Day-Light Classic Plus Light Therapy Lamp is a bestselling light therapy lamp that delivers 10,000 LUX illuminance capacity. It helps lift mood, regulate your circadian rhythm, ease the effects of jet lag, help you sleep, improve your energy levels, improve concentration, and decrease the symptoms of SAD and other mood disorders.
In this review, we’ll take a look at the Carex Day-Light Light Therapy Lamp features, how to use it, what’s so great about it, and the things that are not so great about it as reported by some users. Let’s begin:
The Carex Day-Light Classic Plus Light Therapy Lamp
The Carex Day-Light Classic Plus Light Therapy Lamp is a lamp designed to simulate natural sunlight. It is meant to be used for light therapy and promises to boost energy levels, improve sleep, boost concentration, and improve mood.
The lamp uses light therapy to reset your circadian rhythm, and with only 20 to 30 minutes of exposure every day, you can immediately reap the benefits.
It is ideally used during the colder and winter months but can also be used daily for its benefits. Those who live in the upper US and Canada can take advantage of this device’s benefits.
Let’s take a look at the product’s features and why it can do what it promises to deliver:
1. LED Therapy Light
The device features two settings for its LED therapy light, which are at 10,000 LUX and 5,000 LUX illuminance capacity, or in other words, intensity.
10,000 LUX is the recommended power for light therapy lamps to have a positive effect on mood. According to leading experts and researchers, light therapy is a means to improve symptoms of SAD and other mood changes.
5000 LUX, on the other hand, makes the lamp ideal to use as a task lamp while also illuminating powerful lighting.
2. Large Screen
The screen size for the lamp is 16” x 13”, which makes it large enough to illuminate a powerful source of light that’s ideal for light therapy. It’s a whole spectrum light with maximum effectiveness and is large enough to provide superior light treatment.
It also features an adjustable angle capacity that allows you to angle the light above your head and aim down at you at a practical angle to receive simulated sunlight.
3. Glare-Free White Light
Most light therapy lights use blue light, while the Carex uses an effective, glare-free white light, which is safer than colored light. Based on clinical trials, it delivers the maximum dose of therapy light, ensuring that you don’t have to sit too close to the light source to receive its benefits.
It’s recommended that you position yourself at 12” from the lamp. This distance is just ideal for you to work on a laptop, eat, cook or read as you expose yourself to the light.
How to Use
Place the device on a desk above your line of sight to maximize the light reaching your eyes. Each session should last anywhere between 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your needs.
It works best at the start of the day, as soon as you wake up, or right before you get to work. It is recommended for light therapy to be a part of your daily morning routine.
Angle the lamp above your head and aim it down to you. You can also use the lamp while cooking and eating.
Pros and Cons
The Carex Light Classic Light Therapy Lamp features advantages and disadvantages. While it’s a great device, there are also not such great things about it that users don’t like. Let’s take a look at what these are:
Pros
- It comes in two light settings – 10,000 LUX for light therapy and 5000 LUX, which can be used as a task lamp.
- It features a large screen size of 16” x 13” for maximum and brilliant illumination.
- It is designed after global research design and engineered after studies by leading experts.
- It is meant to boost mood, boost energy levels, improve concentration, and ease the symptoms of SAD and mood changes.
Cons
- Users have reported that the device is quite large. You will need a large surface area to set up the lamp.
- Storage is also a challenge for some since the screen is quite large.
- The stand seems to lack rubber, so if you don’t have a sturdy table, there’s a tendency that the lamp will slip or move around if the surface area moves.
Why Use the Carex Light Therapy Lamp?
You might wonder why you would need to invest in a light therapy lamp when you can simply use a regular light source to simulate sunlight.
Well, a regular light bulb is not enough to simulate sunlight. A typical light bulb only typically has 500 LUX, which is very small compared to the 10,000 LUX featured in the Carex Light Therapy Lamp. In short, a regular light bulb is not enough to provide a positive effect on your mood.
A known cause of SAD is a limited amount of sunlight exposure. The lack of sunlight exposure can cause a depletion of hormones that promote happiness, which leads to low mood, feelings of sadness, low energy levels, low motivation, and an overall negative mood and disposition.
With light therapy, those who suffer from SAD and “winter blues” get to experience the benefits of “sunlight” exposure even during long winter days, and hopefully, decrease symptoms.
Can The Carex Day-Light Classic Plus Light Therapy Lamp Cure You of SAD?
Unfortunately, light therapy from a home device has not been proven to be the only solution to SAD. You might still need medication or psychotherapy or go to a mental health practitioner to fully address your symptoms and your condition.
Light therapy is merely a supplement to other treatments of SAD and mood changes, as well as low energy levels, a dysregulated circadian rhythm, and low concentration.
Some users, however, have reported that their symptoms have indeed decreased and that they experienced improved mood, higher energy levels, and other benefits of using the Carex Day-Light Classic Plus Light Therapy Lamp.
The Bottom Line
The Carex Day-Light Classic Plus Light Therapy Lamp is an easy, inexpensive, and effective solution for sufferers of SAD, jet lag, low energy levels, and low mood. However, It’s not the only solution or alternative psychological treatment and merely supplements other methodologies.
Nevertheless, if you have mild symptoms, such as difficulty sleeping, low energy, low mood, and difficulty focusing, the lamp might be what you need to improve your condition.
Though there have been complaints that the device is quite large and storage is challenging, the lamp features maximum brilliance through a large screen, and its two-light setting allows you to use it even as a task lamp.
By using the lamp for 20 to 30 minutes a day, you can dramatically ease your SAD symptoms, as well as their circadian rhythm issues. It may not be a magic pill or the only solution you’ll need, but it does help you alleviate the “winter blues,” and for that, it’s definitely worth a try.
