Happy Lamp, Happy Life
A bit of science and anecdotal votes for a happy lamp in your home
Whether or not you live in an area where the sunshine hides from you in the wintertime, there’s a bunch of great reasons to add a happy-lamp into your winter resting routine. Here’s a crash course on what you need to know about adding a bit more light in your life.
Without further ado—let’s talk about the Happy Lamp.
What is a Happy Lamp?
The “Happy Lamp” is any light that produces over 10,000 lux and is specifically made for mimicking sunlight. When people are recommended to engage in something more commonly talked about as “light therapy” the mechanism of light therapy is to help reset, bolster, or maintain stability in your body’s circadian rhythm and help with increasing consistent serotonin release1.
Although the most common use for engaging with ‘light therapy’ was traditionally something called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD23), there are still plenty of other reasons to get a happy lamp and engage in some light therapy, whether or not you have a tendency to dip emotionally in the winter months.
Sleep Consistency
Sleep consistency when we define it in the scientific literature is all about the questions around “do you go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time on average throughout a week?” This question can be annoying for folks who are shift workers, or people who’s natural chronotype significantly differs from the work schedule they are required to hold. People who like to stay out late on the weekends also really struggle with this aspect of sleep health because of something we call “social jet lag.”
However, even if sleep consistency is annoying, it’s incredibly good for our overall sense of confidence in our ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and find our sleep satisfying the following day. In its most simple configuration, sleep consistency is how our bodies know “it’s time to be asleep now!” versus “it’s time to be awake now!”
If you’ve been following my work for awhile now you’ll know that I harp fairly hard on getting in a good evening sleep ritual, as well as a good morning sleep ritual. While their are many elements to having an evening routine and morning routine that help tell our body when it’s time to be asleep versus when it’s time to be awake, one extremely effective one is light exposure.
Bring Me To The Light
Human bodies can have their sleep disturbed with as few as 3 lumens of light. You know that little red light at the bottom of a TV screen? The blue one on your power strip? Yes—those little buggers can wake you up.4 While having those tiny lights inconveniently wake us up at odd hours of the midnights, we can utilize this same strategy to help get our butts and bodies moving in the morning.
Getting bright light exposure into the backs of your eyes first thing in the morning cascades a chemical release from light, to your hypothalamus which releases serotonin, and helps the brain “flag” what part of the 24-hour cycle we are in. This particular pathway signals to the brain that “hey! It’s time to be awake now” and turns all of the various important systems within your circadian rhythm into motion5.
Too Much Light?
While you probably couldn’t get too much light in the winter, there is a certain point where using a happy lamp wont actually keep giving you any of the benefits. According to the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, there is a recommended dosage that is optimal for happy lamp use in the winter. Essentially, the human body (especially if you suffer from SAD/SMD) greatly benefits from about 5,000 lux hours per day. Or in other words, sitting in front of a happy lamp with 10,000 lux for half an hour in the morning.
Anything over that half an hour doesn’t really seem to do much more.
Anything less than that, might be an insufficient dose.
It’s also noted that in order for this to be effective, you’ll need to find a lamp that is rated for 10,000 lux6 and sit no more than 16 inches away from the lamp while it is on.
I can tell you from personal experience, the proximity to the lamp is much harder than the time spent. My recommendation would be to literally measure 16 inches and find a time within the first 30 minutes of waking up to sit near this lamp.
Is there a Dark Side?
Eh, yeah. I mean sure. Everything has one.
There’s a few safety things to know like, it’s important not to stare directly into the artificial sun, but instead let it glow into your orbs from a slightly angled peripheral view. You can burn your retinas if you gaze straight into it like a moth to the flame.
30 minutes in the morning might also throw off your schedule.
As with anything, there is also no silver bullet. Like sleep consistency in general, happy lamp usage also depends on you participating in this artificial sunrise activity more often than you don’t for the best benefits. In more simple terms—you basically need to use this thing more or less at the same time every single day.7
While these are mostly logistical, I also want to comment on what the happy lamp wont help support.
The most common issue I see when I start working with 1:1 clients who have chronic sleep and rest issues is that they have been ignoring their body’s own cues for tending to their needs for a long time. Getting a happy lamp is another way to override your body’s natural impulse to sleep until the natural light around you becomes bright enough to wake you up.
I want to be clear that our dominant culture and workplaces not shifting their working hours in the winter is the main reason that we don’t sleep more total time in the winter. It’s not because our bodies don’t need the increased sleep and rest.
If you are someone who is chronically overriding your natural impulses to prioritize being productive rather than creating more space to prioritize listening to your body’s needs, getting a happy lamp is probably only going to marginally help for a very short amount of time. If you’re getting a happy lamp to attempt to control your body rather than support your body, you’ll have to pay the piper eventually.
All-In-All, A Little Light Goes a A Long Way
If you’re just brushing up on optimizing your overall winter sleep hygiene routine—getting a Happy Lamp is a great way to go.
If you have one you love or want to share your experiences about using light therapy (good or bad) I’d love to hear it.
As for me? Mine’s perched right beside my bed, blinding me every morning circa 6:37 AM. Let the serotonin shine.
Hope To (safely) Blind Y’all With Science Too,
Dagny Rose
This sub-section of The Art of Rest, is all about—you guessed it—The Rest.
As a trained sleep scientist and mindfulness teacher & researcher, here we explore the everything related to rest. Whether we are unpacking the newest evidence-based sleep health tips, exploring day-to-day tools for bolstering and protecting rest, or diving into a world of dreams, “The Rest” is going to regularly touch into what a restful life is, and how to move towards one5
Looking For A Personalized Way to Optimize Your Rest?
Exciting announcement! My books are now open again for the hibernation season! I am looking forward to giving winter guidance around sleep health & nervous system regulation around stress. I offer individualized 1:1 guidance for those who want to use rest as a way to expand their creativity to just need a tune up all the way towards those who are dealing with chronic rest related issues. Shoot me an email at dagnyrose@theartofrest.me to inquire about getting started.
Which has been part of why it is nicknamed “the happy lamp” because of serotonins associations with neurochemicals that produce “feel good” emotions (even though serotonin does a host of other things as well)
what an unfortunate but maybe appropriate name right?
A Note About Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
While not everyone actually gets diagnosed with something like Seasonal Affective Disorder when the sun gets more slim-pickings in the winter— the lack of sunshine affects us all. Having winter months where we’re seeing more grey skies and getting less vitamin D from the sun can associate with moods that feel a bit lower. To-do lists that feel more daunting. Social lives that feel more arduous.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re depressed or that something is wrong with you or even that you have diagnosable levels of SAD. This inherent downshift is absolutely, 100% normal.
We are supposed to slow down in the winter and the activities and responsibilities that give us a sense of joy and purpose in the summer are probably not going to be the same activities that help fill our cups in the winter. We are not meant to go-go-go year round. Some cultures around the world even have wintering activities built into their social calendars and culture to accomodate for these darker, gloomier times to remind us that this, too, is part of a whole and healthy life (Check out the book Wintering if you haven’t read it!) . Our dominant culture really likes to pathologize things and sometimes labeling ourselves with something like this can feel good because it’s helpful for us to find a starting point to learn from. Other times we can over-identify with it and a label like this can drag us down.
Regardless, the only person who can tell you whether or not you have SAD is a licensed therapist whom you see regularly and who opts to give you that diagnosis. That’s not me, and that’s not what we’re doing here.
If you’re trying to fully “rest-ify” your room, the gold standard recommendation would be to cover those tiny lights up with electrical tape!
The circadian rhythm is SO complex but it helps with us feeling sleepy, awake, hungry, full, stressed, relaxed, social, or isolating. We generally want our circadian rhythm to feel as predictable as we can.
You can find these for around $40 on Amazon but if you’re really looking to invest in a good quality one, the best quality ones are closer to $60 - $80. Verilux, Carex and Northern Lights are the three most respected companies who make them and I’ve listed them from most financially accessible to most expensive. Here’s an article deep diving on all three.
Most evidence based recommendations say before 8 AM is best….but I’m not sure that’s entirely practical for everyone.