Lumie Lights product review update; one month on

It has been a month since Lumie sent me a lamp and an alarm clock to try. I had read about light therapy but was, I must be honest, a little sceptical to say the least.

I have been using the lumie alarm clock regularly. My husband, who works night shifts, also uses it on occasion during the day.

The alarm clock has a 30 min wake up light, and each and every time I have used it without fail, I awaken 5 minutes before 'full sunrise'. Even when hubby uses it to waken him in the day when he is on night shifts, the same pattern emerges, despite the bright light of the day (we do not have black out blinds). I have also used it inconsistently in some weeks, to see what the difference is. When I don't use the clock, I use my iPhone alarm.

In comparison with when I wake with light therapy, on the days that I used the normal alarm, I was much more lethargic, it took me longer to awaken fully and get up, a very noticable difference. When I woke to the light 'alarm' I was brighter, ready for action for sure.

Even through the summer I train twice a day most of the time. This means that I still get up before dawn, a lot of the time. The light alarm is growing into something that is my saviour, that I rely on, and when I use it I will be able to get up promptly and have a good training session. It has enabled me to do many early morning training sessions that I felt surprisingly good about, not to mention the 90 minute brick session I did yesterday before breakfast! (yes, it was very cold out at 5am!)

So far I am very much impressed, and am trying to work out how I might make the alarm clock portable so I can take it with me when I travel to races!

I would say light therapy is invaluable, even in summer!