Lighten Up! - $19.95 Uses Your Own Lamp.

This light does what it's supposed to do well and at a reasonable price. If you've never tried a light alarm, you should. It is a gentle, peaceful and effective way to wake up and it feels more natural and relaxing. I wake up happier. I've owned the more expensive type of sunrise light that's made to look and operate like a bed table alarm clock and I prefer the Lighten Up 308. The 308 has a more even light increase, it is completely silent and so far has remained cool while operating. Also, it can handle up to 300 Watts (the competitor only 200) so if you really want to light up a room you can. And the 308 is much less expensive than competing models. I prefer to have a separate alarm next to the bed, so don't need something that looks like an alarm clock to handle the light, too. The 308, and the tangle of lamp power cords plugged into it, sit on the floor under the bed out of the way. The table top unit I owned meant that the power cords were in the way. I use the 308 as a set-it-and-forget-it unit, kind of like a light timer. If you want to use the lights during the day, have the 308 stay on for the maximum time after full illumination is reached and use the switches on the lights to turn them off and on, then you need to remember to turn them back on before you go to bed. Or you could just dedicate a couple of lights to the 308 and have different lights for regular use. Or you could leave the 308 in reach and use its manual light switch. The only cons are that the instructions are somewhat vague and the timing needs to be set for each day of the week. But, it wasn't that hard to figure out and now that it is set, it just lies on the floor and does it's thing. Also, it comes with a warning that it could be damaged if it is unplugged or loses power while the lights connected to it are on. So, if you want to turn the lights it controls off manually, you need either to use their switches or use the 308's control panel. You can't use a powerstrip or unplug it. This warning also means that there is a risk that a power outage while the lights are on could damage it, but this is a small risk. You can unplug it from the wall once the lights connected to it are turned off. Finally, none of the sunrise alarms work with CFL or LED light bulbs. They only work with old-fashioned incondescent bulbs. Since the light alarm is on for only about an hour a day, the energy loss is not great. Someday the technology may advance to the point where light alarms can work with LED's but apparently it hasn't happened yet. Overall I am very pleased with this purchase. So far (about a week) it's worked well and does exactly what I need it to do. UPDATE: Have used for about 5 months and it still works great. The only minor issue I have with it is that it's internal clock tends to run fast so I needed to adjust it once. UPDATE: Have owned this for over a year now and it still works great. UPDATE: Over two years and working fine, though it still runs a bit fast. Happy to own this product.

I bought the Lighten Up in August. The time was already set so I set the start time for each day of the week. The first morning I was awakened not by the light but by the light bulbs buzzing. I tried other types of light bulbs and all of them buzzed. I contacted the seller and they recommended I use halogen bulbs. I had already tried normal and halogen bulbs. Finally I started running a fan to mask the bulbs buzzing. The display died sometime before we set the clocks back, so I couldn't change the start time. I started getting up an hour earlier as a result. This morning (12/8), I was in my bedroom and already awake. When the Lighten Up was supposed to turn on, there was a bright flash from the lamp bulbs and then nothing. Turning the Lighten Up to On and the lamp lights, turning the Lighten Up to Off and the lamp turns off but turn the Lighten Up to Timer and the lamp doesn't light when it should have. Now the Lighten Up is just garbage in less than 4 months! What a waste of money!

I got this to help me get up on dark winter mornings when my husband and I have to get up long before the sun rises. I don't have a problem waking up to my alarm, but when it's dark it's way too easy to stay in bed and snooze through the alarm, which really annoys my husband. I try to get up at least a half hour before him, especially because he has a terrifyingly loud, vibrating alarm that I hate, but when it's pitch black in the morning I tend to fall right back to sleep. He also tends to snooze through his alarm as long as I'm in the bed, so our mornings would turn into a very grumpy sort of competition of who can stand to stay in bed the longest, which sometimes involved elbowing, shoving and kicking. Neither of us liked it, but neither of us wanted to get out into the cold black air. I set up the sunrise simulator to start an hour before I want to get up, and reach full brightness when I want to get up. My husband doesn't want to wake up to bright light, so I set this up with a lamp that will shine bright next to my head (not in my face), but barely cast any light in the room otherwise. I no longer need my alarm at all. I naturally start to wake when the light first comes on, and can tell what time it is by how bright it is. Plus there's a clock on it if I'm not sure. It is so much nicer to wake up peacefully, and the light makes me happy to get up! My husband isn't bothered at all by the light because his side of the bed is very dim. He's happy that he doesn't have to listen to my alarm, and since I'm out of the bed by the time his alarm goes off he gets up right away (so his alarm no longer bothers me either!). Most of all I am so glad for the battery backup it has: we've been through a few storms with over a dozen frequent power outages (we gave up on resetting all the clocks) but I never had to reset this sunrise simulator, so the 4 or 5 times when my husband forgot to reset his alarm and it didn't go off, or when he accidentally reset it to the wrong time, it was thanks to the sunrise simulator that I didn't sleep in too late and was able to wake him up on time (without being grumpy about it!). I also like that it has a switch on the side to set it to normal lamp on, off, or sunrise simulator on. That way I don't have to have an extra lamp by the bed if I want to read before going to sleep. I just use the normal lamp on setting, and then set it back to the sunrise simulator setting when I put my book down. Or if I really want to sleep in on my day off, I can turn it completely off without losing any of the settings. The product's website and the instructions it came with are very clear about set-up and technical support. It's a bit of a bummer that it doesn't work with florescent or LED bulbs (even dimables), but those technologies aren't built to handle the way this simulator works. Also note that it doesn't work with a dimable lamp (even with an incandescent bulb), but it will work with 2-way and 3-way lamps. For the price, this is a really, really great little device. It's simple, reliable, and you get to choose your own lighting! In my house it has made mornings much easier and more cheerful. Now if I could just get a sunset simulator (automatic dimmer) in the living room so I'm reminded to go to bed on time...