Verilux Happy Light

My first experience with Verilux Happy Light or with any mood altering light was a generally good one.  Never owning a light designed specifically to keep me in a happy mood I had some of my own ideas on how it would work.  My ideas were wrong.

For those who don’t know, it’s not a light that you can just turn on and expect to feel better the minute you see it.  It is recommended that you place it directly in front of you, within 2 feet for about 2 ½ hours.  Since everyone is different it can vary from 1 to 6 hours.

I have been using the happy light for several months now, even though it is not the dark cold winter time of the year just yet, I still have gotten good results on days that are dark, gloomy and rainy.  I expect that during the long winter months it will keep me productive and I will not slink back to bed depressed and tired.

For the eco-friendly aspect of this product, I’m happy to know that while I am using this light that I am not wasting energy.  This is because the 36-watt bulb produces 300 watts of light.  So there is no need to worry about wasting energy.

Since I didn’t expect the happy light to be a light that I need to stay close to, to be affective.  I can’t really count it as a negative towards the light.  At times I find the high setting to be a bit too bright, causing me to squint.  The high setting is difficult to use when near a computer screen, since it can create a glare on the screen.  But I’m sure when winter blues are truly here I’ll be happy to have that setting for high.

The only negative I found about this great light is the switch.  It has a setting for high, low and off, which can be a bit iffy when you are trying to turn it off from the high or low setting.  It skips right over off, thus care must be taken, usually using two hands to turn it off.  Perhaps mine just has a defective switch or is too sensitive.  A difficult switch is certainly something that I can deal with when this light helps to brighten my mood so simply.  Verilux not only makes lights to help your mood, but they also have products that sanitize with light, lights that help you wake refreshed in the morning and those that help vision improvement.