Philips goLITE BLU Light Therapy Device

I have used the goLITE for four years now. It's absolutely indispensible to me. I suffer from SAD and this product has been a life changer. It would be difficult for me to get through the autumn and winter without it.

I would encourage anyone on the fence about light therapy to give it a try. Many studies have found it to be as (or more) effective than antidepressants for treating SAD. I would say from experience that it is true. I have not tried any other lights besides this one. I have found no reason to do so. This one works. It is compact (the face is about the size of a cd jewel case) and easy to use almost anywhere. It comes with a cover if you are traveling with it, and an ac adapter for charging. It has a small touch screen with an optional programmable alarm and adjustable light intensity and light duration settings. It's very easy to use.

My advice to anyone who wants to use this for treatment of SAD is to find the length of time with the light that works for you. It will take some experimentation. For me, at times of the year when I use this the most, I will do a 45 minute or longer session in the morning and another one in late afternoon. I find that late afternoon sessions (4 or 5 o'clock) are very beneficial. You should try to use the light at the same time each morning, as it will affect your circadian rythyms. It's another benefit of this light that it will regulate your waking and sleeping times.

After around four years using the same goLITE, I have found that the battery has finally lost its ability to hold a charge very long. It's not too big of a deal to me, I simply use it plugged in via the ac adapter. But that is the only drawback I have found in this excellent product after years of use. I HIGHLY recommend the goLITE!

So I suffered from Sleep Apnea for at least a few years now undiagnosed. It seems to correlate mostly with me putting on a lot of weight quickly but it's very possible I had it most of my life when I was thin. In any case, bed time for me was around 4:30-5:30 AM assuming I went to bed around midnight and I could force myself up at 8:00-9:00 with the help of stimulants -otherwise it was noontime. I always felt off a little. Then i got a CPAP which seemed to fix most of my problems but made a few worse. Before, I could somehow accrue my sleep deficit and hold it off until Saturday, then I'd sleep all day Saturday and 1/2 of Sunday (A miserable and unproductive existence for a former compulsive over-achiever). Then came the CPAP and as long as I got my 8 hours, I was great.

The problem was, my sleep cycles (circadian rhythms I'm told) were way out of wack. Try as I may through herbs, relaxation techniques, extreme exercise and even prescription sleeping meds, my body wanted to sleep at 4:30 and wake up at noon - otherwise, I'd feel off all day. On a whim and out of desperation, I tried the goLite. I was less skeptical of doing a shot with Elvis than I was of this really working. Day 1, nothing. Slept right through it, didn't even notice it no. Day 2 same thing other than thistime, I heard the alarm. Day 3, heard the alarm, went to relieve myself and tried to stay up for a few before falling back to sleep and waking up 30 minutes later. FF 2 weeks, I had a ton of trouble sleeping last night, was up and down all night. I woke up 6 different times and didn't have a single complete hour of sleep. But it's 7:04, I've been up over an hour, I'm off to the gym after feeding the dogs and taking them for a walk. My wife is a early riser except for weekends, that's her self-permitted time to sleep in. I offered to make her favorite breakfast and she said "I'd love some, but not for another 2 hours if that's ok." And it is - so off I go to the gym, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Make no mistake about it, the CPAP is the main thing that made the difference in my life. Without it, I'd still be a mess. The magic it worked on my body simply can't be overstated. But it left out the one vital component and that was the sleep cycles. This very inexpensive little device (which did take some getting used to) seems to have filled that void perfectly. If I am excessively sleepy one morning, I just turn it on for another 15 minutes, that's all it's taken so far. Each time I've woken up feeling very refreshed, very 'amped' and very ready to take on the world. Placebo effect? Possibly but I doubt it. And if it is, it's the cheapest effective delusion I've run across in a long time.

Cutting to the chase, if you have trouble waking up, this very well may be the magic bullet you need. If you have just started CPAP therapy - you may still have really whacked out sleep cycles so that even though you've fixed the apnea, now you want to sleep like a baby, the whole way until 1:00 PM each day - the docs didn't mention it to me and I found it on my own (actually , found it from a recommendation in the 4 hour body) but I've mentioned it to a few medical professionals and they all had very positive things to say about the therapy without commenting on this specific unit. for the price, it's pennies on the dollar IMHO, and if I had the money, I'd buy everyone who just got a CPAP one b/c it's helped make that much of a difference in my life. Rather, along with the CPAP, it gave me my life back. And for those that might think that this is only effective for Sleep Apnea sufferers- I'll let my wife, who isn't a morning person but didn't have apnea write her own review, she wants to sleep in on the weekends, but when she needs to get up, hers is right on too.
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Update: 6:24.13 - 7:15 AM I know this went live a few days ago but wanted to post an update. I mentioned before that if I didn't get my exact 8 hours even with the CPAP, that i was zombified and I really needed the full 8. I've been doing this therapy for around a week now. it's simply amazing and that's an understatement. I no longer need or use an alarm clock (prior to the Apnea, I never really needed one either but I let the radio run all night and would detect wake up time by the change in the DJ's voice. Whenever Art Bell, George Noory (don't immediately write me off as a nut, I like CoastToCoast for many reasons, one of which is the frequent off the wall topics you never hear covered elsewhere, but it's an entertaining show whatever you think of its merits). I didn't get to bed until close to 2:30 AM and I yesterday was a very tough day as I was out to set some new personal fitness records. I had some important stuff I needed to do by 9:00 AM at the latest and even begged the wife, please, turn all the other lights on if I'm not up, turn on the radio loudly (the obnoxious local hots and his callers will always give me a nice blood pressure rise whether wanted or not which awakens me). Well, her alarm was set for 7:15 - i woke up feeling great and quite energized and immediately looked over to make sure she did't sleep through her call - nope, it was 7:02. My GoLite was still on, only 17 minutes into the session and I bounced out of bed feeling like a million dollars, on very limited sleep and after a really physically demanding day. The best part is that even though there's a king side bed between us, the light actually helps my wife 'ease' into the morning, something she's never been able to do (she's always needed a loudly beeping alarm clock with a snooze bar which she'd hit over and over). The dogs even wake up less agitated to it and were calm at 7:05 until they say us get out of bed where they'd normally be bouncing all over the bed making their demands for an early breakfast, morning walk and run outside (and that time has gotten progressively earlier over the past few years where it's normally around 5:00 AM now). They were calm but awake waiting for us both to get up. My wife beat her alarm clock, I beat her alarm clock and needed no assistance and the same goes for the dogs. But what's really amazing is that the same thing happened yesterday, and the day before and the day before that. The day before these three I didn't use it, went to bed late and of course, needed her to get me up b/c I went to bed so late and had to drag myself out of bed.

For me the CPAP stopped the APNEA which fixed several health problems I started to suffer from (the least of which was always waking up really late, especially if I went to bed late) and crashing all day on Saturday and most of Sunday. I described it too as magic b/c of the impact it had on my life. But the CPAP couldn't get my sleep cycles adjusted and I was stuck, no matter how hard I tried, with a sleep cycle of someone who worked late 3rd shift (something which did not work well for me as a software consultant that travels constantly). In what seems to be about a week, the circadian rhythm adjustment I couldn't ever seem to get my arms around (well, I could but it would only be for a few days and was very delicate and completely dependent on my sleep time) just got fixed. Perhaps it's too early to call complete victory but i've not woken up without intervention this easily this many days in a row and now, neither the wife or myself have any need for the alarm clock.

I don't know if you'll hvae the same results although i have every reason to believe you will. But this thing has been life changing and it's not just that we get up earlier, we get up earlier on our own, feeling great and energized about it. You always have to grant the placebo effect - but if that's it, it happened on both of us and the dogs, and whatever it is, it's making life a lot easier for us , especially now that I can get up and go to the gym before work. I don't play the lottery but if I for some reason buy a ticket and win, honestly, I'm donating a few thousand of these machines to anyone I know that has trouble waking up in the mornings along with a CPAP for anyone I know who may have APNEA. It's been that life changing.

Got this a few years back, have sleep issues from my time in Iraq, playing Army. Used it a little at first in the mornings but didn't notice much change. When I started to follow the directions, and read up a little on it, blah. I would get super tired every night around 8 or 9 pm. (I wake at 7am)
Likes Works, but you must give it a week or two to work.
A great first step to someone with sleep issues from work, stress, or sleep related mental issues.
Charge lasts forever, and comes with a soft padded case for travel.
Has instructions for phasing in the light.
Dislikes Must follow directions to the T, meaning can be really bright first thing in the morning, but worth it overall.
Needs a vertical stand or raise or lower bar in it. Had to stack books to get it at right height, (im 6'4'' so this
might not effect you.)
Tips Use in the morning for sleeplessness, in the evening if you have issues getting up in the morning
ADJUST height to be level with your eyes. I marked a space on a table, and measured with tape measure to be sure
Make sure angle and distance is correct. Its bright, so don't look at it directly. Move it off to the side so light is indirectly
hitting you. And adjust distance according to the instructions, if you don't it will not work.
Work up to the max time, again follow instructions.
Make a few areas in your house to place it. So you can watch TV, or eat or whatever while using it.
DO THIS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING. every morning.
If its too expensive, then right as the sun comes up, take a walk with no sunglasses on and do that for 30 mins a morning
it will produce the same results.