I have resolved to be resolution-less in this new year, but there are definitely things in my life that I want to work on in the coming months. Most of them revolve around the fact that I want to feel better – and a big part of that is getting good sleep. Getting good sleep so that I can actually get up out of bed in the morning, which would lead to all kinds of fabulous things like not screaming at my kids to hurry the crap up, not wearing a ponytail to work, and arriving at work on time.
Waking up in the morning has always been a huge issue for me, and a few months ago I started researching things that might make it easier. One of the things I came up with was the Rise and Shine Natural Wake-Up Light from Verilux. I had worked with them before, so I reached out to see if I might review this product as well and they were kind enough to send me one to try out.
It functions as an alarm clock, but there’s much more to it than that. First of all, there’s a sleep cycle. I just discovered this a few nights ago and I really like it. You can set it for 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, and the light starts out bright and progressively gets darker. I set mine for 60 minutes a few nights ago and read until I couldn’t see anymore, and by that time I was super relaxed and ready to go to sleep. (Now if I could only get my husband not to come in and turn on the television and disrupt my peace!). The wake up cycle works similarly – the light progressively brightens as your set wake up time nears. Also, you can set it so that it plays “spa sounds” as you wake as well.
The idea is that the light helps realign your body’s circadian rhythms so that you fall asleep naturally and wake up refreshed.
I really like this light. It is a much different experience than waking up to a blaring alarm clock – and when you think about it, jolting awake can’t be good for your body! That said, it’s taken some getting used to, but I’d say that’s to be expected when going from alarm clock shock therapy to an easy, gentle wakening. A word of warning, though – if you hit snooze three times, it gives up on you and doesn’t try again! I learned that one the hard way. I am trying to wean myself off the snooze button, though, and the Rise & Shine is the way to do that.
In my opinion, there’s not much that’s more important than a good night’s sleep. I looooove to sleep. I love drifting off to sleep as the Rise & Shine dims! I don’t so much love to get up, but I do love getting a paycheck so I must… and the Rise & Shine makes that process much more pleasant.
Brandon T. got one of those bracelet things that link to your iPhone to track your sleep patterns. You put in what time you have to wake up by, and it might wake you up a little earlier than that because it will pick the optimum time in your sleep cycle to wake you up. It’s also a pedometer so you can track your activity during the day.