Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock Deluxe Bedside Lamp, Graphite

by Verilux

Product Features

• 4-in-1 functionality includes alarm clock, AM/FM radio, nature sounds and reading light
• Natural Spectrum Xenon bulb simulates a full range of natural lighting conditions from soft to bright.
• Synchronized light and sound simulate nature's dawn and dusk cycles
• Eight authentic, soothing digitally mastered nature sounds
• Easy to read large, crisp LCD display with clearly marked controls and choice of 7 different color settings

Product Description

Sleep well, wake refreshed! Circadian rhythms -- on your own schedule. Here's a radio, alarm clock, nature sounds, and lamp all in 6.5 of space. Come morning, the Rise & Shine lamp slowly brightens and the high-fidelity speaker increases volume over 5-60 minutes so you wake gently to your favorite AM/FM radio station or birds, harbor, village, brook, ocean, forest, rain, or breeze sounds. At night, the process reverses to help you sleep. Lamp also provides Natural Spectrum light for reading. Display color adjusts to 7 different hues and high/low brightness. Graphite or Ivory. Linen shade, snooze button, adjustable color display. includes FREE pillow speaker ($19.95 value) so that sounds only wake you.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 8.4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000F95A60
• UPC: 768533951885
• Item model number: VA02BB3
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,402 in Health & Personal Care (See Top 100 in Health & Personal Care)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, but flawed design, March 15, 2007

By 

M. Kreg (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock Deluxe Bedside Lamp, Graphite (Health and Beauty)

The idea is fantastic. The fact is I don't wake up immediately like BZZZZ--I'm awake. Amazingly I can hit the snooze on a regular alarm without ever knowing it. On this alarm, the light starts glowing and gets brighter and brighter over a period of time you select. I have mine set for 15 minutes, and usually by the time the light has reached maximum I'm coherent enough to get up. If the light doesn't do it, you can add sounds ranging from a buzzer to screeching sea gulls--ocean, wind, and ringing bells falling somewhere in between.

The flaws:

As others have mentioned, the light itself makes a buzzing noise at low light levels. So when it first pops on in the morning, you also get the annoying filiment vibration of the lamp.

Secondly, you don't set the alarm for when you want to get up. You have to go through some math calculations, figuring out when you WANT to wake up and how long it will take you to get to that point. Then you set the alarm for that earlier time (awake minus groggy equals alarm time).

Third, if you use the sound in addition to the light, it does increase in volume as the light increases in intensity, but the sound starts out so loud to begin with that the light is really pointless. A workaround we've found for this is to use the external speaker provided. Plug it into the back of the light, run it across the room, and bury it upside down under some pillows. Then pick a sound like "Birds" instead of the lip-curling "Harbor" or "Town". From it's buried location across the room, the sound hits the right volume about the time the light maxes out. Whoever came up with the plan of making the sound come on with the light was just not thinking.

Fourth, the clock lumination can change colors, rotating through the entire rainbow all night long in its default setting. At first that looks cool. Until you realize a bright yellow clock glowing in your face at 2 a.m. is just wrong. The darkest setting is red, and the only way to choose it is to hit a pause button on the back when it rotates around to that color.

So yes, it works. And it wakes me up without making me use my hammer. But the design is just plain stupid. If the manufacturer would wander by here, read this and make a few design changes, they could make a light worth buying.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars maybe a bad batch?, October 13, 2006

By 

Nathaniel H. Pittman (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock Deluxe Bedside Lamp, Graphite (Health and Beauty)

we just got one too, and if you turned on ANY sound, it just made a horrible squealing noise. we returned it, and haven't decided yet whether to try again, because we really liked the light timer part.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neat Idea, Poor Quality, February 14, 2007

By 

EER "EER" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock Deluxe Bedside Lamp, Graphite (Health and Beauty)

This lamp is successful in these ways:

1. It gradually illuminates at a pre-determined interval before you get up.
2. You wake up to warm, de'light'ful light.
3. It makes waking up somewhat easier.
3. You can also fall asleep in the same manner (but in reverse).

The lamp is not worth its exorbitant price for these reasons:

1. Quality...or it's lack thereof. Its sleek packaging is nothing more than a facade. Base and controls are cheap. Sound quality is bad.

2. If you want to use sound to also wake you up, the sound comes on at the same time the lamp starts illuminating...uh, kinda defeats the point then doesn't it? It claims to gradually increase sound. Trust me, there's nothing gradual about it.

3. EVEN ON A SURGE PROTECTOR (which apparently, according to Verilux, is a must), when I try to use it as a regular lamp, it is very epileptic. I turn the lamp on, it's fine for a minute or 2. I think I'm hallucinating the light growing bright and then dim, then all of a sudden, it turns itself off! I have to try to re-enforce the idea to the poorly constructed dial that, in fact, I want the light on. Sometimes this works. Sometimes, the light does not turn on until I frenetically jab the dial. It's been reliable illuminating in the morning, however.

4. The lamp hums when it's beginning to brighten to wake you up.

5. I have to use a regular alarm clock too because of the sound issue in complaint #2.

6. Funny things happen to the display when you turn the lamp on.

7. Sound quality is atrocious. Do not try to wake up to the 'birds' unless you're thinking of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

Overall, I think that it's an OK product. I use it daily but I definitely think it's NOT worth the money. Seriously, if I had known it was so cheaply made and glitch prone, I would have bought a $[...] lamp and $[...] timer.