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Comment by ianhorn | Hacker News Reader

I bought some smart bulbs for the bedroom and use those as a gradual alarm clock. It works wonders. I only have a blasting audio alarm clock when I need to catch a flight these days and it’s much much more pleasant to slowly wake from the “sun” than to be jolted awake suddenly. I also make sure to wake up early enough that I don’t have to start getting ready immediately. It has made mornings much more pleasant.

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I absolutely agree, and in addition -- my teenager sleeps through all manner of audible alarms, including very loud ones, but now wakes easily from a light-based alarm clock.

Cheap ones on Amazon are in the $20 range. Highly recommended. The Philips is more expensive and has just one color, but it seems to be built much more ruggedly.

I agree. I bought one of the Philips light alarm clocks[0] years ago me and my wife both swear by them.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Simulation-Headspace-Subscrip...

I haven't had much success with a single standard Philips Hue light bulb. Maybe it's not bright enough, but I just sleep through the light as if it wasn't there.

I found myself in a similar situation. I'm not suggesting this is what's happening to you, but in case it helps: my mistake was that the light and sound were increasing too quickly and my body was turning away from the light and shutting off the alarm before I had became conscious.

The approach that worked for me was:

- Increasing light from warm dim (~100 lumens) to bright white (1000+ lumens) over the course of ~30m. Even though you're not conscious and your eyelids are closed your eyes are still responding to the light and rebooting your circadian rhythm.

- A few minutes after the light reaches the brightest setting, have a sound-based alarm. I have nature sounds that start quiet and get progressively louder over about ten minutes, but I usually wake up after less than a minute.

- Getting into bed at a consistent time (+/-20m) seven and a half hours before the sound-based alarm. This is the hardest part since I rarely feel tired that early (yes, even when I've exercised) and it feels like a waste of time to lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. But I know from regular experience that when I wait until I'm tired to get in bed I have an unproductive morning.

I have a Hue light on my bedside table that goes from 0 to max over 30min, plus three bulbs in the ceiling socket that do the same, but are staggered. Like bedside can be 6:55-7:25, with overhead 1 from 7-7:30, overhead 2 from 7:05-7:35, etc. So you have the four lights brightening together over the course of 45min or whatever longer period you want.

If it's gradual enough, you won't just bury your head, and if it's enough bulbs, it'll get bright enough to convince your body it's daytime.

There's another trick I've been meaning to do. The Hue app's wake up routine turns it on to a low temperature light, but turning it a little higher temp/bluer once I'm up does help trick me into daytime. I'm meaning to make a cron job on my raspberry pi to make my own wakeup routine that is a little slower to avoid the need to stagger lights, and also increase temperature once it's bright. If you know linux, the pi is easy.

Even without the fancy pi stuff, it's Good Enough. The Hue bulbs add up fast in cost, but it's worth it to me. I have the white ambiance ones.

It's not bright enough.

- Sunlight - 10,000 to 120,000 lux

- Light Therapy lamp (from 4 inches away) - 10,000 lux

- 60W Philips Hue light bulb (800 lumens, 120deg beam angle, 4in away) - ~25,000 lux

- 60W bulb (same specs, but 5ft away) - ~100lux

Those numbers for the 60W light bulb are also optimistic, and will go down if you put it in a light fixture that doesn't redirect all of the light into a 120deg beam (like a regular standing lamp).

So, either place it ~4"+ from your face, get multiple, or find a brighter 100W+ smart bulb.

Additional anecdata - I've used the Philips sunrise alarm clock before (apparently 300lux), and it tends not to wake me up either.

In other news, if anyone has a 100W+ white color temp changing smart bulb to recommend, I'm all ears.

Most ceiling fixtures have a couple bulbs. Get one with three, and a bedside table + lamp on each side of the bed. That’s at least five hue bulbs, which lights up a room very effectively. Not full sunlight, but enough.

I think you aren’t including in your calcs that you’re presumably not in a black room. A light colored paint means the light that isn’t going straight to your eyes from the bulb still brightens the room significantly.

Good points. My main problem is the butt-clenching costs of FIVE Hue bulbs. I have contemplated using a splitter with 2 60W bulbs in a lamp next to my bed though.

Although I checked again recently, and they now sell them with Bluetooth direct, eliminating the cost of the Hub (with limited functionality, but enough for sunrise alarm clock, I think). Still puts you solidly in the 3 fig cost territory...

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