HappyLight Compact Energy Lamp

I've only had this for two days so far, but I am LOVING it.I am someone who has to drag myself out of bed in the morning, and I tend to be tired all day long. As a writer, I tend to be up all night and sleep until the afternoon. Even when I wake up though, I tend to drag until the sun sets again, and no matter how hard I try, I can never seem to reset my internal clock to the "right times."I read about Spectrum lighting in a book called "Waking up Successful" and it said that this light could totally energize you as well as make you happier. I was intrigued because I had never heard of this before, so I started by reading the reviews. Sure enough, people were reporting how this light helps with the S.A.D. condition - something that usually happens during winter and in overcast or dark areas. So I ordered this, since it was the cheapest.I put this light on an outlet timer so that it would turn on at 10AM. It woke me up without me "jerking awake" like I usually do with my alarm clock (although to be honest, it took about ten minutes or so before it penetrated my sleep and I registered how much light was on in my room). I used it for 30 minutes and found that I was energized all day. I was even ready for bed at 9PM, which is unheard of for me. Usually I go to sleep at 4 or 5 in the morning and wake up around noon.The second day, I woke up at 8AM, 2 hours before the light went on, but I was dragging all morning. I had my usual stay-in-bed lethargy, which involves copious amounts of coffee and Netflix. The light went on at 10 (when I was still kicking it in bed watching TV) and after about 20 minutes, I felt energized and ready to go about my day. I realized that by noon, I was going full throttle (again, not usual for me). I left it on for two hours this time and didn't feel tired all day long.It is a GREAT little light and I am now a Spectrum Light convert. I will probably use this for the rest of my life because even though it's only two days, it is such a HUGE difference in my energy levels.The only downside to this is that it is VERY bright (even though it's a lower level Spectrum lighting) and it's a blue-ish light. My evening lights are all yellow, which is softer for me. My eyes tend to be extra-sensitive to lighting that's too bright, and bright light does give me a headache. Today, I actually wore shades in my room because of the brightness, and just let my body soak up the light. I like to think of it like a lizard on a rock soaking in the rays, or a plant absorbing the sunlight. You don't have to look at it to feel the difference.GREAT product. I wish I'd heard of this years ago and I highly recommend it to anyone who has energy problems.

What a useless piece of crap. I decided to ignore the 1 star reviews and order this light anyways. i plugged it in, it was super bright I was excited. I turned it off. two hours later I decided to turn it on to show my wife how bright it was...it wouldn't turn on. The bulb or ballast or whatever busted after I used it once!! Amazon was great and took it back immediately but it was such a waste of time getting it shipped here and back. Just get a good one and please please don't make the same mistake I did! Listen to the 1 star reviews!

I have had this item for about 2 weeks and I wanted to give the product a good amount of time to test out before I wrote my review. A background on me: I live in Toronto, Canada with similar weather patterns to that of the northeast US. I have suffered from SAD annually in the fall/winter months since I was a teenager. Many of the studies I've read make it very clear that full-spectrum lighting (delivered early in the morning) really helps SAD and is equivalent, if not better, than fluoxetine (aka Prozac).After reading the posts here, I was expecting this light bulb not to work upon shipment, or to only work for 20 minutes or so before blowing out. I've had this item for about 2 weeks and the bulb still works! Hooray!Since this light is more on the weaker side (2500 lux vs 10000 lux for the higher end models), I committed to spending 1 to 2 hours with the light very close to me and starting at 6am every morning. The distance and angle of light box are really important so I made sure to put this one very close to me (as it's only 2500 lux) and apparently, these light boxes are more effective if they are placed at an angle (light box above eye level) so that the retina receptors located in the lower eye can receive the light and so change one's biorhythms and thus, brain chemistry. With these adjustments in place plus the daily commitment to light time, I've noticed a remarkable improvement in the quality of sleep and in my general disposition/mood. I noticed after the first day that I wanted to sleep much earlier than usual. I have also had a lot more energy to focus on the things I need to do during the day. The lethargy and fatigue have improved considerably and I'm starting to feel like myself once again.The light itself is excellent! I'd recommend it to anyone who suffers from SAD or who would like to regulate their biorhythms. If I were to make this purchase over again, I would probably choose a lamp that was stronger (closer to 10000 lux) so that I wouldn't need to spend as much time with the light box in the morning.