I just finished a fun project and I thought I'd share it here!

I built my own SAD lamps using truly full-spectrum LEDs because you can't buy anything like this right now. I also just love a nice light, and I like DIY projects, so win-win.

The Lamps

Here they are!

I know, I know, they're lovely. I'm glad I ended up making two because it just feels better with the dual monitor setup.

The articulating clamp mount lets me position them exactly where I want, after trying a few different options this was my favorite mounting method. I love the look and freed-up desk space they provide over traditional SAD lamps.

The articulating clamp mount lets me position them exactly where I want, after trying a few different options this was my favorite mounting method.

I ended up making two because I wanted to try out a couple of LED strips to see how they would compare to each other and to some of the other lamps I've tested.

Why Full-Spectrum?

Since it's kind of a buzzword nowadays... what even counts as "full-spectrum" anyway?

As a quick brief, recent LED+Phosphor technologies have made possible far more lifelike spectral radiation curves, for example here's a typical LED:

BLEH, gross.

If you didn't know, most LEDs are simply blue diodes with a phosphor coating over them that when excited by the blue wavelength radiation, emit a "white" light. This results in the unnatural radiation curve you see above.

Now, of course, the visible portion of real sunlight looks nothing like this:

Lovely.

Generally speaking, the entire visible wavelength range is completely proportional to itself and completely free of all large spikes and dips. This is what our eyes are used to seeing.

Even "high color rendering" light sources simply extend the red range:

We still have a rather large blue spike, however.

It's certainly better... but still not quite right.

This is where the newer spectrums come in, companies like Yuji, Seoul Semiconductor, and Waveform, are creating far more lifelike "Sunlike" emissions:

AliExpress (unknown manufacturer)

SunLike from Seoul Semiconductor

SunWave from Yuji

As you can see, these LEDs come quite a bit closer to mimicking the visual portion of actual sunlight, and thus they tend to feel subjectively better.

Testing the Lamps

The two strips I ended up testing were the 5600K Yuji SunWave and a cheaper 5000K strip I found on AliExpress.

Surprisingly the AliExpress strip wound up putting out more light than the Yuji!

The Ali strip ended up being closer to 5400K while the Yuji was around 5800K. Also, we can see a large 460nm spike on the Ali, while the Yuji is a bit flatter overall with an interesting 405nm LED bump.

At 1 foot the Ali lamp put out around 14,500 lux while the Yuji came in at 10,000 lux. Both are impressive either way considering their size.

And actually, if we compare the circadian light output of these lamps they come out near the top of the SAD lamps I've tested! The AliExpress lamp is the clear winner (although I did exclude the Aurora LightPad Mini and Max from Alaska Northern Lights since those things are so bright they throw off my bar graph...).

https://preview.redd.it/gbyklvobjkfc1.png?width=1375&format=png&auto=webp&s=602e3f040844aaac8f43b732139195ed73647765

The Yuji is however the nicer strip when it comes to replicating sunlight accurately, which we can see if we compare the TM-30 data.

Think of TM30 as an updated CRI, as instead of comparing 8 to 15 colors the TM30 fidelity range uses 99 colors.

AliExpress

Yuji SunWave

As you can see, the Yuji fills out the color fidelity range better so it feels a bit more like Sunlight because of this.

One more thing that makes these stand out is just how much more comfortable they are than most others because of their larger size.

If we take the same list of top-performing circadian lamps and look at "glare" instead here's what we get...

https://preview.redd.it/lgjwlvf2lkfc1.jpg?width=2072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11653442b43f68d2493f55b945b626554549fd81

Despite their high lux output, both lamps score on the lower end for lux output per square inch of emission area. Making them as comfortable as the Alaska North Lights NorthStar and the Carex Classic, two of my favorites simply because of their comfort.

The Build

So how do you build your own? It's not too hard!

I tried to keep this project as simple as possible so that anyone who wanted to make one could without too much effort or thinking, but unfortunately, it does require soldering and a little bit of time.

The build mainly consists of:

• An aluminum cake pan
• One 5m LED strip
• 100-120w power supply
• Diffuser
• Mount
• Extras like wiring, power switches, mounting gear, etc.

All in, if you own nothing, no wire, no soldering iron, etc. If you had to buy everything from scratch, this would cost you just under $200, if you made two, the cost for the second would be closer to $75 or so since much of the tools and materials from the first transfer over to the second.

If you'd like to build your own I have an article and video guide you can check out.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I seem to feel better with regular sun, then when I try this SAD lamp, I bought. SAD lamp seems to give me anxiety.I could be wrong, it could have just been a coincidence, and ill have to test it more, . Regular sun, makes me feel happy. From what Im reading, it seems like the blue light stimulates dopamine, which can give some anxiety, this leads me to believe that sad lamps are only good for people with dopamine deficiency depression, but not good for people with serotonin deficiency depression, and or anxiety. Anyone else only get an improvement from days of sunlight, and not from days of light therapy from a SAD lamp, or get anxiety from sad lamp?

I’ve read so many great studies on the benefits of red and blue light therapy for the skin (acne, fine lines, collagen, etc.). The machines/devices designed for this look like the lights I use for my plants. Are they the same or is there some kind of harmful difference (wavelength, intensity, etc.) that a layperson wouldn’t know about?

If a sun lamp is just mimicking the sun, then why would this not happen just from being outside?

Any thoughts regarding the safety of using luminette glasses more than once a day? I've heard that some benefit from an extra dose

I still have a number of lamps to test, but since we’ve hit the gloomy season I thought I’d share this with ya’ll in case you’re in the market for one!

For those of you who want to check it out: Here’s the database!

(I now also have a list of the best SAD lamps according to my testing for those interested)

It’s hard to know who’s telling the truth about their products, this includes SAD lamps. So just like in my previous post on blue-blocking glasses, I set out to objectively test these lamps with a lab-grade spectrometer!

Testing is done by placing each lamp 1 foot from the spectrometer. Readings are then taken every minute for an hour.

This allows me to see what the emission spectrum is like over time since LEDs often shift (sometimes quite dramatically) as they warm up...

The following metrics were tested:

Lux

This is of course the most popular measurement for a SAD lamp. Lux is an area-based numerical value based on the spectrum of light a human is most visually sensitive to.

We often see "10,000 lux" touted as the holy grail minimum, and so many lamps claim to hit this as a sort of buzzword marketing gimmick. But...

1. There's nothing special about hitting a minimum of 10,000 lux, so I wouldn't be overly concerned with that number specifically.
2. There's a better metric for circadian effectiveness anyway...

Circadian Light

Using the spectral data collected during testing, we can calculate the circadian light from each light source.

Circadian light is similar to lux, but is spectrally weighted towards the portion of the visible spectrum most suited to activating the ipRGCs in your eye, or your circadian system.

This means that a light source that emits let's say 5,000 lux and 4,000 CLA is less effective than a lamp that emits 4,500 lux and 4,500 CLA.

When it comes to white light, these metrics track pretty well with each other, generally more lux means more CLA, but not always!

So just something to be aware of.

Lux per in²

One more thing to keep in mind with a SAD lamp is how comfortable it is, not just how bright and effective it is.

For this reason, I’ve measured each light’s radiating area and calculated the “lux per in²" from each, which gives you an idea of just how much “glare” a light source might have.

There is a better metric for circadian effectiveness anyway... then look for the standout bright lights with low glare, which at this time are the Alaska Northern Light NorthStar and the Carex Classic. These lights offer disproportionately more light output for their size than others.

https://preview.redd.it/1fc5h3hfa48c1.jpg?width=2754&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63b782573340112a7da171e5c0aaf100ed293e4b

I personally found that going over a Glare of around 300 starts to get a little uncomfortable. Doable but I prefer equal to or less than.

Note: This is all based on a 1-foot measurement on the brightest setting of course, so you can move things away and dim them to modulate this effect.

Other Stuff

We’ve also tested CRI, color temperature, SPDs or spectral graphs, flicker, and more!

So hopefully this resource will help you objectively find the right SAD lamp if you’re on the hunt for one!

Any suggestions or questions are welcome!

I read that it’s only 1500 lux, compared to regular light therapy boxes’ lux of 10,000+

Hi everyone!

I wanted to know which products you have been using for curing SAD.

I would like to get some information on your experience using the product, what features you like/dislike, any issues faced while using the product, and what could be improved. It would be helpful for me in buying and researching. Thanks!

Looks like it's cool to post items for sale here...if not, moderators, please accept my apologies and kill the post...

If you're in San Francisco, a professional grade, 552 light (blue, red and combo) bt-Accent is for sale. Listing is here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256278048367

Hey everyone. I've been trying the Omnilux clear mask for acne. It seemed to be making my eyes dry so I ordered some protective goggles. Today, because I don't have them yet, I put on just a regular sleep mask under the Omnilux. When I took it off, my vision was very blurry. It's been a half an hour and it's still blurry and I'm panicking. I'm going to try to to an optician tomorrow. But could anyone help me? Thank you !

I did on 18 August led therapy on my face. Now my eyes are still stinging and burning and my eyelids becoming heavy. What to do? Had an appointment with doctors and provided sustained eye drops but still doesn’t change anything. Did anyone go through this same situation?

I tend to leave the lamp on low most of the day, can light therapy be overdone? The only thing I can think of is that It would increase cortisol due to the artifical blue light. This would be bad for me as I struggle with chronic stress, sleep and high cortisol as it is. The problem is my office does not have a window.

Ive been using light therapy in the morning for years to make it easier to fall asleep at night. My body changed 2 years ago once my daughter was born and now I struggle with insomnia, typically waking up at 4AM. Im really tired around 8PM or so, I've been using light therapy around then for 30 minutes with a 10:30 bedtime. I also leave all the lights on in the house until 30 minute before bedtime and popping a melatonin. Should I still be doing light therapy in the morning aswell?

I want to buy this one ...does it really help heavy sleepers to wake up ? And did it has an alarm to automatically open at specific time ?

The Light Pad is a home-use cold laser therapy device. This wearable LLLT (Low-level laser therapy) device has 3 x 808 nm and 33 x 650 nm laser diodes (total 36) providing an intensity of 615 mW.

https://reddit.com/link/13opz2s/video/nijxrzbtpd1b1/player

There are several light wavelengths that are believed to have healing properties, but the best wavelength for healing may depend on the specific condition being treated. Here are a few examples:

1. Red Light (620-750nm): Red light is thought to have anti-inflammatory effects and promote tissue healing. It has been used to treat skin conditions, such as acne and rosacea, as well as joint pain and inflammation.
2. Near Infrared Light (750-1400nm): Near-infrared light is believed to penetrate deeper into tissues than other wavelengths, making it useful for treating muscle and joint pain, as well as skin conditions. It is also thought to stimulate the production of collagen, which can improve skin elasticity and reduce wrinkles.
3. Blue Light (450-490nm): Blue light has been shown to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, making it useful for treating acne and other skin conditions.
4. Green Light (495-570nm): Green light is believed to have a calming effect on the nervous system and may be helpful for reducing stress and anxiety.
5. Violet Light (380-450nm): Violet light has been shown to have antimicrobial effects and may be useful for treating fungal infections and other skin conditions.

It's important to note that while light therapy can be helpful for some conditions, it's not a replacement for medical treatment. If you're considering light therapy, it's important to talk to your healthcare provider to determine if it's a safe and effective treatment option for you.

Hi everyone!

Did anyone ever tried light therapy to target fat loss (specifically the love handles area)? I am really tiny and skinny but have a lot of fat on that area (proportionally to the rest of my body).

Would 1070nm work or is it too much? For how many minutes? Should I keep some distance from the light?

Thank you!

Hi everyone, I live in an area that is grey for most of the year so I am looking into light therapy lamps but don't even know where or what to look for. What are the best models out there and have you guys found them to be beneficial? Would love to hear what has worked and what has not!

This morning I did my second light treatment. I put it on my desk turned it on, put on my glasses with a blue light blocking feature. And did a diamond painting for the duration of my treatment. Afterwards I realized that the blue light blocking layer may mean I don't get the full light spectrum.

Does anyone know if this affects the treatment in anyway.

I have chronic inflammation in my knee, especially left knee. The pain has kept me awake at night for two days. I wanna know how can I do for relieving the pain. Thanks!

Is it safe to use a light therapy lamp as a regular lamp in the corner of the room? I have this lamp that I just don't want to waste, don't really need it for therapy:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B09YV78JPG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It says no UV - does that mean it is safe to use all day in the corner of my office? Any info would be helpful thanks, don't want to use it and then find out it's messing up my eyes or skin etc..

I've searched amazon and the internet. It seems none of the sunrise alarms have the 10,000 lux that's needed to be therapeutic for seasonal affected disorder and none of the actual light therapy lamps have an alarm/sunrise feature. Does anyone know of a product that is a combination of these?