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Comment by lelf | Hacker News Reader

> There’s clinical evidence that ramping up the brightness gradually before you wake up (“dawn simulation”) is highly effective.

Can someone recommend a ready-made solution?

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I use a Phillips hue system to do this. Not for SAD reasons - just because I found it much less jarring to wake up with the sun when I could do that, than with an alarm clock. Since waking up at set time became necessary I tried this out and it works fantastically. Plus the hue system is very versatile and programmable with many other tricks. Not exactly cheap though.

I second the Hue recommendation. They're a solid product. They aren't as good at rendering arbitrary color, but that's because they optimized for excellent whites.

Their API is also really good: clear, well-documented, REST-y. I wrote my own software to simulate a day/night cycle in my house, and I'm very happy with it. It's a much easier way to wake up, and having the gradual dimming in the evening makes it easier to go to bed on time.

I have this: http://www.amazon.de/Philips-HF3520-01-Sonnenaufgangfunktion...

Not sure if it helps, but it is nicer to wake up to compared to using a regular alarm clock.

I use this lamp too. Highly recommend it.

A programmable dimmer, such as one of the Casetas from Lutron, would work. Set the brigtnesses to a time to increase over a period of several minutes starting at your designed time.

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