Do you suffer from SAD? In the depths of winter, bright mornings and summer evenings are a distant memory and for some, this lack of light disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythms, triggering a so-called ‘winter depression’ known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. The treatment for this, they say, is therefore to expose yourself to bright light early in the morning. Equally, at night ‘blue light’ is said to keep the brain awake, so reducing this is the answer to better sleep.
The Hue Twilight, from Signify, the company that owns the Philips Hue brand, is the company’s answer to this issue. It’s a smart lamp, that as well as a standard bedside reading light, can be automated to wake you up gently in the morning with a light that mimics natural sunlight, and set the right visual mood in the evenings to prepare you to sleep.
Premium Priced Design
It feels only right to mention right away that this is not a budget offering—far from it. The Hue Twilight will set you back around $280 in the US, while in the UK it’s even more pricey at £249. If you want to get two for a bedroom then that’s quite the investment. And that’s not including the $50/£50 Hue Bridge, which, while not essential, will enable you to make the best use of the ecosystem if you want to add more Hue lights.
Available in a black or white finish, the curves are clean and modern but it’s arguably rather odd looking: the top section reminded me of an old-fashioned bonnet-style hat. However, it proved more appealing in person than in pictures and, while it’s lightweight, the construction is sturdy, and it has a cork base that will be kind to your bedside table.
Omni-directional Lighting
The Twilight consists of two separate lights at the top and at the back, and these can be controlled independently of each other. The lights at the back are made up of three separately addressable sections, enabling it to offer a range of to give out a mood-setting glow reflecting off the wall. The top section of the lamp can be rotated, so you get more light onto your book without having to turn those rear lights away from the wall.
Though you can connect to it directly using Bluetooth, the lamp is designed to work best with the aforementioned Hue Bridge, and this is how I tested it. One benefit of having one is that it will then work with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Homekit to give you voice control.
App and Voice Control
The Hue app is polished, making it straightforward to add the light and set it up. There are two buttons on the top of the lamp – one with a dot on it and one labeled ‘Hue’, which can be set up as you wish in Settings. By default, the dot button will cycle through a series of included ‘scenes’ (a pre-set combination of colors), while the Hue button will manually begin or end the automation.
This automation is done separately and by default, the app, and quite logically, suggests the ‘Sunrise’ for waking up, and ‘Sunset’ for bedtime. However, nothing bad happens if you select one of the others, and should you wish to, you can create your own customized scenes in the app.
Whatever scene you choose the wake-up routine will take 30 minutes from when you set it to go to full brightness, while the nighttime routine, takes 45 minutes to gradually dim to fully off.
In Use
After a month or so of using it, I can certainly vouch for Hue Twilight being a very effective and classy bedroom light. What sets it apart from other wake-up/sleep lights are the colors for which Hue is known and the ambiance it created was certainly gorgeous. I also have a Hue Gradient lightstrip in the room and when added via the app they worked flawlessly together to enhance the wake-up routine.
Does it Work?
Whether a lamp such as this fully alleviates the symptoms associated with ‘SAD’, will inevitably vary from person to person, but I can vouch for it having a positive impact. This was particularly true on darker mornings, where it provides a very pleasant, natural illumination that is much more pleasant than my previous standard bedside table lamp.
The only major concern I have is the price, which ironically is likely to make your wallet sad. If you simply want a wake-up lamp to battle the effects of SAD, then there are undoubtedly more affordable options. If you want to enjoy the color delights of the Hue ecosystem at the same time, you’ll have to dig deep.
Read the full article here
