Testing the Alaska Northern Lights SAD Lamps
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
- 👉 NorthStar:
Alaska Northern Lights: www.alaskanorthernlights.com/...
Amazon: amzn.to/3MIBMZr
👉 Aurora LightPad Max:
Alaska Northern Lights: www.alaskanorthernlights.com/...
Amazon: amzn.to/3QWtOy5
👉 Aurora LightPad Mini:
Alaska Northern Lights: www.alaskanorthernlights.com/...
Amazon: amzn.to/49yBWMy
💡 Best SAD Lamps:
optimizeyourbiology.com/best-...
We've also tested the lux and circadian light from many other popular light therapy lamps. if you're interested, you can find the data for those in our database here:
💡 Light Therapy Lamp Database:
optimizeyourbiology.com/light...
Alaska Northern Lights Review:
optimizeyourbiology.com/alask...
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Build and Features
2:14 - Lux
3:04 - Glare (Lux/in2)
4:40 - CRI
5:18 - Color Temperature & Spectrum
5:47 - Flicker
6:35 - Final Thoughts
6:55 - LightPad Max Summary
7:13 - LightPad Mini Summary
7:53 - NorthStar Summary
9:16 - Outro
Disclaimer: Some of these links go to one of my websites and some are affiliate links where I'll earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
✅ For business inquiries contact me at derek@optimizeyourbiology.com - Věda a technologie
☀Check out my running list of the Best SAD Lamps here!☀
optimizeyourbiology.com/best-sad-light-therapy-lamps
hey! i just now discovered your channel while researching for the best SAD lamps as i am trying to get one for myself, but have struggled finding reviews that actually realistically look at things like the "10000 lux" lie. thank you so much for the help :) best of luck in growing your channel!
You;re welcome! And thank you :D Good luck finding a lamp!
Great stuff, learned a lot. I am still partial to the old old Apollo Light Systems wood boxes from 20 years ago, which are basically identical to the Northstar. Your detailed research and data really help to frame why this style seems so much more comfortable and effective. Your work is appreciated.
Agreed! The larger emission area really helps make it feel more natural even if the quality of the light isn't. I've found myself preferring the larger lamps because of the comfort.
I had one of those! It was great, I was looking for something like that - I think these are a little over my current budget :( Unfortunately I dropped my Apollo and broke it.
I have learned that these lights are most effective when slightly above and angled at about 30 degrees - i.e as natural sunlight. This angle allows the light to hit the receptors we want to target most effectively. So even a less bright light might be more effective at the proper angle - accordig to one source I read. These lights seem to be angled the opposite way and the box would be hard to mount like that.
Do you know which of all the lights you've looked at would have the most balance blue/red ? i.e not the increased blue? I 'm thinking about using this along with an IR bulb for an even more natural effect... the IR has a lot of health benefits!
Yeah that's true so far as I know! I'm currently working on my own DIY light that will utilize a very nice full spectrum but you'll have to solder which may turn some folks off haha. But it will be very spectrally balanced and mounted above eye level.
I'd add some IR lights such as halogens or IR flood lights to your setup to offset the blue spike from typical lamps.
But also, yes these Alaska lights would be hard to setup like this!
In my other comment I recommended lower CCT lights as they're going to have less blue and more yellow, amber, and red in proportion to it.
I love your reviews.
In your opinion which of the light therapy is effective glasses or lamp?
Thanks
Thanks brother!
So, it depends. The advantage of glasses like the AYO+ or the Luminette 3 is that they're portable, so you don't have to sit in one spot the whole session, and they're always at their effective range.
Lamps can certainly be *more* effective overall, but you have to sit down to use them, and if you're two feet away which is fairly common, their effectiveness drops quite a bit.
I use a desk lamp most of the time, but use glasses as well for when I don't want to or can't sit down in front of my lamp in the morning.
Hi, would it be an option to use a film light as a SAD lamp? If color accuracy/full spectrum is important to you, these might be better as well. A simple little light like the amaran 60d can do 33.000 lux and has an SSI of 87, which is very good (a CRI of 96). And you could maybe put a softbox on it for greater comfort.
Photography lights are definitely an option! I film with an 80W GVM so I'm familiar. The color accuracy is good on them but the spectrums are still pretty unnatural technically speaking.
You'd absolutely need a softbox, a 50W+ COB LED without diffusion would be unbearably uncomfortable to have in your FOV.
My 80W GVM with a small softbox hits around 5,000 lux right at the surface of the softbox. So you'd likely need around 500 watts or so of energy to hit 33,000 lux, I'm doubting the 65w Amaran 60D can do that haha
Now sure if you pull the softbox off and get really close you will hit 33,000 and more, but you'll also likely damage your eyes.
But they are a good option overall I think and feel great with the softbox on. Only issue is they tend to be kind unwieldy for most people who are just looking for a simple solution. I would use them if you have them!
@@optimizeyourbiology thanks, going to try that :)
I'm still up in the air on which one to get? I like comfortable and bright.
I'd definitely go with the NorthStar! That fits your criteria the best I think. The only other option might be the LightPad Max but it's not nearly as comfortable, and since you'll want to put it farther away, I wouldn't even say it's all that much brighter.
I made a great DIY sad lamp with a $40 high bay light from amazon - over 30,000 lum 80 cri
That's definitely a great option for bright overhead lighting! I'd like to test some one day.
Hi, how did you do it?
Great videos. Would be good to see you test the Beurer range. They are a German company. Unfortunately most of the US companies don’t ship to Europe.
Thank you! Somebody else mentioned those, they're now on my list!
Hey man I watched all of your SAD videos a few times and is quite torn between multiple options. If $ is not an concern, and portability is not important would you be so kind to list your top 3 choice? Thank you.
I'd go with one of these:
*Carex Day-Light Sky:*
Carex: shrsl.com/49qtn
Amazon: amzn.to/40dq7Ya
*Carex Day-Light Classic:*
Carex: shrsl.com/49qt3
Amazon: amzn.to/4987Wa5
*Alaska Northern LightS Northstar*
Alaska Northern Lights: www.alaskanorthernlights.com/product/north-star-10000/?ref=optimize
Amazon: amzn.to/3MIBMZr
I'm tempted to recommend the Chroma Sky Portal as well I just haven't tested it yet. But the ones above are all pretty good options.
@@optimizeyourbiologythank you so much!
Which lights do you use
I personally use the DIY lamps that I made myself 😁
Why do you measure glare as lux/in^2? Lux is a measure of lm/m^2, so you might as well just use lumens as your unit, no?
Technically lumens are a measurement of the total radiation emission from a light source, weighted towards the human visual system of course. I can't measure lumen output since I don't have an enormous integration sphere, so we don't really know what the lumen output of these devices is.
Since lux is a measurement of the amount of lumens found on a m2 surface area, I can measure this with a spectrometer, as it doesn't require "capturing" all of the light.
Glare being "lux/in2" is simply a way to state how much "brightness" is packed into the emission area of a light source, which is different than its total light output i.e. "lumens"
For example, let's say two lights might both emit 800 lumens in total. This would be a standard 8w LED light bulb. However, in this example, 1 light is two times larger than the other. In this case, the larger light would have less lux output per unit of size, since its emission area is larger, the light spreads out more. This would make it less uncomfortable to look at, hence the lower "lux per in2."
I use inches because that's what I'm used to personally haha but it's arbitrary really.
Hope that helps!
Most SAD lamps are 10000 lux at 1ft. These are 10000 at 2 ft. That's pretty nuts
It is! These are very bright compared to most. If you check our database you’ll see that most SAD lamps actually underperform on their claims! These ones do not however.