Woah, ok that title is already a mouth full 😀 Like I indicated a few months ago already, I have periods where I sleep badly. I have troubles falling asleep and staying asleep. I’ve been wanting to test the Philips wake-up light for a while, and now the day has arrived!
First, let’s start with the explanation and claims on the box:
Philips Somneo is the Sleep & Wake-Up Light designed to help you wind down to sleep and wake up naturally. From a leader in sleep and maker of millions of Wake-Up Lights sold worldwide.
Natural sunrise and sunset simulation
Our Wake-Up Light is clinically proven to work, with independant research showing that 92% of users find it easier to get out of bed.* (Matrixlab 2011, N=209 users).
Sounds promising, right? Further, on the box you can find the different functions and technical specifications.
It has:
- 8 wake up sounds
- 3 relaxation sounds
- FM Radio
- RelaxBreathe
- Sunset Simulation
- Tap Snooze
- Midnight light
- Reading light
- 315 lux (The amount of light that is cast on a surface is called illuminance, which is measured in lux. This can be thought of as light intensity within a specific area.)
- Power BackUp+ (so if you have a power outage, it doesn’t stop working)
- Aux entry
- Multi level touch display
The box itself already gives me a relaxed feeling. The Somneo looks sleek and modern, yet simple.
I am so excited to test it! The first impression is really good.
I intentionally didn’t read the manual first because I wanted to see if it was self-explanatory and intuitive to use. And I can confirm it is! The touch display gives you a short yet good introduction where you can set the time, the desired time you want to wake up and the accompanied settings (light, sounds, how long upfront it should start). In 5 minutes you are good to go!
After trying it in the kitchen, I moved it to the bedroom (so I unplugged it, and reinstalled it) and thanks to the built-in battery it doesn’t die.
So there it is, on my bedside table! It’s hard to show you how it works, because my camera makes the light look striped, and that is absolutely not how it is.
But to give you a bit of an idea, this is how it is portrayed on the box:
My opinion:
I have been testing the Philips Somneo for 2 weeks now and I am pleasantly surprised!
My favorite functionality is definitely the “Sunset” setting to wind down in the evening. Basically it simulates the sunset accompanied with a relaxing sound of choice (or not, if you don’t like it).
Since I have trouble falling asleep, this has really helped me to make a ritual of going to bed. I gives me 10 minutes of “earthing“, of arriving in the here and now. I chose to have a sunset whilst listening to the rain. So as the light is slowly fading, and I hear the raindrops, also my body seems to slide more easily into a relaxed state.
And believe it or not, I think it has become a kind of “Pavlov’s Dog” story now. As soon as I hear the rain, my body seems to know it is time for bed.
Another way to “wind down” is the RelaxBreath setting – which is basically breathing exercises you can adjust to your breathing pace. You can choose from 3 up to 10 breaths per minute. You can choose to have either a sea sound or the light going harder and softer.
The wake-up function
Judging the waking up part is a bit more difficult, since I have my alarm set at 7 AM, but my boyfriend has his at 6.30 … So just as the Wake-Up light starts to go, my boyfriends phone alarm wakes me up -_-
On Wednesday’s he stays in bed until 7 as well, so I have been able to try it! And it is really a much more pleasant way of waking up for me than always the same jingle on the phone. I wake up now with birds chirping and doves doing their roo-koo. Just like when I lived on the countryside 🙂 I don’t feel the urge to snooze, I just stay in bed and listen to the birds a bit or just get up. If you want to snooze though, just place your hand on the sensor on top.
Another BIG plus is the fact that it has a USB port to charge your phone with. So you don’t need an extra power socket.
What I miss, is an easy way to switch on/off your alarm clock. Now, you have to do a few ticks on the touch screen to do so. It would also be nice to be able to set an alarm for the entire week, but not in the weekend. Now on Friday evening you have to remember to switch off the alarm for the next day.
In short
+ Design is nice and sleek
+ Easy and intuitive to use
+ Sunset function to relax and fall asleep to
+ A lot of sound options from birds to frogs and music
+ RelaxBreath breathing exercises
+ USB port to charge phone
– Misses the weekly programming function for your alarm
– A bit on the expensive side (although I think it is worth it, considering it is not just an alarm clock).
Price: € 179,99
Conclusion: I am very happy with my Wake-up light! Despite the 2 remarks, would definitely buy again! Want to know more? Have a look at the Philips Somneo on the website (USA site, in English) for even more details. Curious to know more about it in Dutch? Click here to go to the Dutch Philips site.
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Would you buy it as well?
labellita.com 