Hoffman says most are designed to deliver the greatest benefit at a distance of around 12 inches from your face. The number 10,000 is the “magic” one, Hoffman says, and scientific research has shown that it is the ideal light intensity “to get the best therapeutic benefit.” But light intensity drops the farther you are from the source, so many SAD lamps will also include a distance measurement telling you how close you need to sit to get 10,000 lux within a typical 30-minute time frame.

To put that into context, 10,000 lux is about as intense as ambient daylight, where 32,000 lux or higher is equivalent to direct sunlight. Every expert agrees on this point: To trigger the brain to release serotonin, a true SAD lamp must have a brightness level of at least 10,000 lux of white light. The most important thing to look for in a SAD lamp is the correct amount of light intensity. For that reason, it makes sense to treat buying a SAD lamp as seriously as you would any other medical device or prescription medication. While an apartment with good lighting or a sunrise alarm clock might anecdotally put some people in a pretty good mood, neither has been clinically tested to treat the well-documented symptoms of SAD. Click one of the links in the table of contents to jump to a specific option or read more to learn about what to look for in a legitimate SAD lamp. And before you buy any SAD lamp, talk to your primary-care physician, since some medications might interfere with light therapy and “certain conditions could make you more sensitive to light,” adds Hoffman. Instead “put it at an angle next to the computer screen or place it on a table next to where one is reading a book,” Hoffman says. Both Saltz and Hoffman caution against looking directly into the light. Don’t worry, it’s totally fine to multitask: You can eat or read or scroll through your phone or watch something on TV while getting in your therapeutic light time. For the best results, our experts advise using a SAD lamp first thing in the morning and positioning it between 12 and 15 inches away from your face for 20 to 30 minutes. All the options below meet those requirements, and we’ve tested several of them ourselves. As doctors and researchers, many of them did not want to endorse specific brands or models, but they did provide specific criteria for SAD lamps. To find the best SAD lamps, we spoke with nine experts and asked for their recommendations. But according to Janna Gordon-Elliott, a psychiatrist at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork–Presbyterian, SAD lamps aren’t regulated by the FDA, so it’s important to not just “buy the cheapest thing on Amazon or the thing that’s more portable.” With that said, the Center for Environmental Therapeutics, a nonprofit research and education institution and the leading authority on SAD and light therapy, does offer guidance on what to look for in a legitimate SAD lamp as well as other helpful resources. “SAD lamps.” These lamps are specially “designed to mimic sunlight” and when used correctly, can cause chemical changes in the brain, tricking it into thinking it’s summer so it will release much-needed serotonin. The most common treatment for SAD is light therapy, a.k.a. Rosenthal, the clinician and researcher credited with discovering SAD, also says that many may feel less energetic and have a greater need for sleep and an increased appetite - “especially for sweets and starches.” If you think you might be suffering from SAD, the best first step is to talk to your doctor or therapist. Gail Saltz, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Symptoms of SAD can include feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, difficulty concentrating, and the loss of libido, to name a few, says Dr. Hoffman, an assistant professor at Michigan State University who studies how light affects our physiology.

It’s characterized by a long list of symptoms, similar to those of depression, that usually occur in fall and winter “due to the shortening in day length and lower light intensity,” according to Hanne M. Feeling a bit down when the days become shorter is totally normal, but if your change in mood is more pronounced, it’s possible you have seasonal affective disorder (SAD) - a mood disorder that is experienced by an estimated 5 percent of Americans every year.

L.e.d sad light sunrise alarm clock