Wake-up light

A birthday is one of those days where you can ask for gifts that you normally wouldn’t purchase yourself. The new Philips wake-up light is one of those things. What does it do? It simulates a rising sun together with birds singing, to fool you in getting up naturally. I was curious wether this would work.

The alarmclock (a clear understatement it is truely a wake-up light) has a lightbulb built inside that gets brighter and brighter in the timespan of 30 minutes. At the of the 30 minutes birds start to sing. On the box it reads “medically proven benefits” and I always hesitate when products claim these facts. But…I must say…after owning it for three weeks now, I am very happy with Philips new invention!

It does wake you up more gentle and you do feel better in the morning. I am not really a “morning” person so this is a big help for me. Since this device is really new, and although you notice that Philips has taken great care in make it user-friendly I think they still missed a few things. Not that the wake-up light is not working properly, I love it, wouldn’t trade it for any other alarmclock in the world, but I think I am going to send a few recommendations to Philips (being an early adaptor :))

First of all the screen, if there is no ambiant light in your room and the wake-up light is your only light source, it’s really hard to read the clock. The contrast is between the wake-up light and the display is to much for your eyes when you wake up. Perhaps Philips did not test it in real life, only in a lab?  

Another thing that bugs me are the buttons situated on top of the wake-up light. They are nice and big, but they don’t have things on them so you can “feel” which button you are pressing. You know, those small bumps that blind people use. I think having them would using the alarmclock a lot easier. Remember, I am not a morning person so finding the right button can be a task…

This is my view of the Philips Wake-up light, I own the HF 3451, I hope it helps everybody outside who is interested in buying. My conclusion? If you don’t like waking up, get one!

View Philips website with more information