If you've been wondering about investing in a SAD lamp but are put off by the price tag, Aldi has come through with an impressive bargain version. The budget supermarket brand is dropping a £20 'wellness lamp' later this month, and it could be the secret to helping ease your winter blues this January.
While Aldi has called it a 'wellness lamp', it is essentially a SAD lamp, or a daylight therapy lamp, as some brands call them. The lamp lands in-store on the 25th January, and I'm fairly confident that it is going to sell fast.
The lamp is a fraction of the price of other big-name daylight lamp brands, including Beurer and Lumie, despite looking almost identical and offering very similar product specifications. But how does it actually work?
This portable lamp is currently on sale at Amazon. It delivers 10,000 lux at a distance of 10 cm and comes with a porch for travelling.
SAD refers to Seasonal Affective Disorder; around 2 million people in the UK suffer from it, according to Brainworks Neurotherapy. The exact cause of SAD is unknown, but many believe it is linked to reduced exposure to daylight in winter. SAD lamps are one of the ways you can try to combat SAD in winter. The efficacy of these lamps is still unclear, but some research suggests that they do alleviate symptoms in the short term.
However, they do have to meet certain criteria to help with winter low moods in terms of light output. This light is quantified in the number of lux, which should be 10,000 for an SAD lamp to mimic natural daylight.
Aldi's wellness lamp claims to have a 12,000 lux, making it more than equivalent to more expensive daylight lamps. However, in the product description, it is not clear at what distance the lamp needs to be from you to deliver this amount of lux, which is also an important number to note.
To get the most out of a daylight lamp, you should use it within an hour of waking up for about 20 to 30 minutes. It should be about an arm's length away from you and angled towards your eye. The Aldi lamp has a built-in timer you can set for up to 60 minutes, which is perfect for timing each light dosage.
While I haven't personally tested out the Aldi wellness lamp, I use the Lumie Dash, priced at £137 at John Lewis, at home, and as I said in my Lumie Dash review, I do notice a difference in my energy during the day and sleep when I use it.
I love the look of the Lumie Dash, and I have it perched on my dressing table so I can use it when I'm getting ready in the morning. However, it is an investment, and if I didn't already have a daylight lamp, I'd definitely consider giving the Aldi version ago.
The Aldi version is only available for purchase in-store. If you don't live near an Aldi, here are three others worth considering.
This lamp has almost 100 many positive reviews at John Lewis. It delivers 10,000 lux at 20cm and has a rippled diffuser for soft, comfortable light.
