Luminette 3 light therapy glasses to improve circadian rhythm, mood, and sleep

I did look at some studies long ago about using blue light in the morning to boost attention, mood, etc, and around 10% of the population has seasonal affective disorder which is depressive symptoms when light changes in the winter or summer.

“With the Luminette® light therapy glasses, experience year-round energy boost and improve your sleep patterns”

There are a few studies on this page:

An independent nature study comparing it with a light box at 10,000 LUX:

Light therapy with boxes or glasses to counteract effects of acute sleep deprivation (2019)

Morning light significantly improved sleepiness and sustained attention from 5 to 7 am. These effects were comparable between devices and significantly different from control. Both devices were overall well and similarly tolerated. Early morning light therapy in the condition of sleep loss may have broad practical applications to improve sleepiness, sustained attention and subsequent risk of accidents.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-54311-x

Much more convenient to have it in glasses form, can do other tasks meanwhile, unlike a large bright light box you have to be close and for long (LUX is a measurement of light received to eye, many boxes require sitting 10-30 cm away to get the 10 K lux). So the compliance for glasses should be much higher, also this light is peaking at 468 nm, should give the benefits of blue light as well. Not as bright at lower LUX, though.

Light glasses take the lumens*distance = lux relationship to an extreme. Instead of a very bright light a foot away from you, they use moderately bright lights on glasses right next to your eyes, providing the same 10,000 lux that a light box would. They may be more convenient since you can walk around in them; some people use them on their daily commute (although they probably look kind of silly).

In theory these ought to work, since they’re providing the same treatment as light boxes through a different delivery system, but I don’t know of any really strong research demonstrating that they do. Most reviewers recommend the Luminette brand because “it has studies”, though if you look closely these studies are all for random easy-to-detect effects and not for seasonal affective disorder or depression. Competitors include Pocket Sky, Re-Timer, and Ayo. You can find some very comprehensive reviews here.

In short, they’re a cool idea, but caveat emptor.

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According to Yale blue light can be toxic to eyes and it’s better for the circadian rhythm, while higher LUX might be better for SAD, mood, etc, but it looks way less convenient to me.

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