As regular readers will know, my eldest son has had M.E. for two years, and mornings are NOT his best time. Never a morning bird, even as a small child he liked a lie in. So couple his natural tendency with the slow-starting body that comes with M.E. and he’s on to a total non-starter, if I’m honest. On a bad day, he’ll simply lie in bed, unable to even contemplate the effort involved in lifting the duvet and placing his feet on the floor, his body shouting at him to be still. On a good day he’s slow moving as a tortoise – on a very VERY grumpy day.
So when the rather nice man from Philips asked if we’d like to review the Wake Up Light I might actually have damaged his hand a little bit, I snapped at it so fast. Anything that gets No.1 son moving a little faster in the mornings had to be worth a shot, yes?
The lamp arrived (“Oh! Cool!” was the 11yr olds verdict), and was duly set – which was dead easy – and it has an impressive option choice for your morning wake up call. No.1 opted for the cow bells.
And so, at 7.05 the following morning, you’ll imagine my stunned disbelief when I felt the insistant prodding, peeled back my eyes rather reluctantly – and found my vision filled with No.1 son. With minty fresh breath. In his school uniform. Smiling.
Clearly I was still dreaming, so I closed my eyes again rapidly… and got quite cross at the even-more-insistent sniggery poking and lazy-mother taunts.
I wasn’t dreaming.
And it wasn’t a fluke either.
It Was This Light.
It’s amazing.
The light gradually comes on over the 30 minutes before your wake up time, slowly flooding the room with ‘natural’ daylight so that by the time the alarm goes off (his brothers got a bit grumpy at the cow bells, so he switched to his MP 3 player and Iron Maiden, which caused Objects To Be Thrown by grumpy parents. We’ve settled on the birdsong) your brain is pretty well awake already.
It’s not foolproof – on one of his bad mornings, a little extra daylight isn’t going to get him moving out of bed any quicker. But. The rest of the family has noticed there is still a definite improvement in his mood when he does surface.
We’ve had it on review for nearly two months now, right through the darkest and coldest grimmest mornings of the year – but it’s a lamp that keeps on giving. He’s still getting out of bed faster, more cheerful, and far more alert.
Also, it’s no slacker in the practicality stakes either. The lamp is actually useful as a bedroom lamp too – on full it’s bright enough to read by, and the dimming options make it great for a middle-of-the-night emergency light too.
Honestly, I can’t tell you how great it is, and what a difference it has made to him. And therefore to all of us.
Thank you Mr-Nice-Man-From-Philips. From all of us.
