I Use Smart Lights to Fall Asleep and Wake Up

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With our busy lives and our brains buzzing with everything that needs to be done, it can be difficult to sleep. This can lead to groggy mornings, and waking up to that annoying alarm clock doesn’t help. Waking up naturally with the sunshine can help ease you into the day much better.

If you wake up early, especially during winter months, the sun rays that come through the window aren’t available until later. This is where using lighting, specifically smart lights, can save the day -- or at least the morning. From color effects to automated dimming, smart devices are excellent at simulating sunrise, and getting started is easier than you think.

Use smart light automations

Smart lighting allows for goofy and fun effects, but the automation and dimming features make them shine (pun intended). Combine those two things with color and you’ve got the perfect feature to aid in going to bed and waking up.

Before setting up your morning and bedtime automation, you’ll need to pick out a smart light. While a tunable white bulb like the Wiz Smart Bulb can help, a color-changing light like the Govee Smart Color Bulb will be best for bedroom routines (more on why this matters later). 

After setting up your new smart light, use a fixture in your room where the light isn’t obstructed by furniture or curtains. The more direct light you are exposed to, the better. 

Now, it’s time to curate your automation. When it’s time to sleep, you want relatively dim lighting around you to signal to your brain that it’s time for rest, not work or play.

This automation is less complicated than one to wake up with, but you’ll want to keep a consistent sleep routine and, as part of this, have the lights in your bedroom turned on simultaneously each evening. I set mine to run an hour before I want to sleep and automatically turn off to indicate it’s time for bed. You may need to make adjustments based on your schedule.

After a restful night of sleep, it’s time to wake up -- but we aren’t using the beeping alarm. This automation has a few extra steps to consider when building it. The most important of them is to schedule the lights to begin at a low brightness level, 5-10%, and gradually increase over timeme. My automation takes 45 minutes to reach full brightness and 15 minutes before I need to wake.

The idea behind this automation is to mimic sunrise. With your light gradually getting brighter, it tricks your brain into waking you more naturally rather than the abruptness of an alarm clock. According to the University of Washington, “Our internal clock runs in 24-hour cycles and lives in a small part of our brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. Although it does and can run on its own, light cues keep us in sync with the outside world.”

Dr. Catherine McCall, assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UW School of Medicine, says, “These types of light-based alarms could reduce the impact of that by gradually waking you up.”

We have guides for Amazon Alexa and Google Home users if you’re unsure what automations are or how to build them. You can use your lighting manufacturer’s app to create your automations, but those steps will vary depending on the brand.

Color matters

The colors around us can directly affect our mood, including the colors you paint your bedroom. The same goes for lighting and sleep.

This is where my previous note on choosing color bulbs over tunable white bulbs is important. But if the only smart bulb you have doesn’t offer a rainbow of colors, using warm and cool colors can help.

According to the Sleep Foundation, “Research has shown that exposure to red light can improve sleep and increase the production of melatonin.”  

Blue light, like what is emitted from our screens, inhibits sleep.

“Blue light is the best studied and most effective in causing a phase shift of the sleeping period,” says Dr. McCall. “Sunrise alarms’ light starting with a red-orange and then transitioning into yellow to mimic the sunrise just hasn’t been studied. Blue light or full spectrum light might be more effective.”

Now, when you build your automations and schedule when the lights turn on and off, select the color you want your light to be. 

Complete the experience

Lighting is crucial in winding down for the night and waking to start the day. For me, when the lights go out and I close my eyes, I also need sound -- not just any sound, though. 

Many use a fan to create white noise for sleep, and if I’m in a pinch, it’s better than nothing. However, I prefer some kind of sleep sound to help me drift off. While certain apps help with relaxation and offer sleep sounds, there are also dedicated sleep sound machines and headphones for sleep. I use my Sonos Beam Soundbar and play rain sleep sounds via the Sonos Radio.

If you’re struggling with sleep, consider the environment you are trying to rest in and see if implementing some of these smart home solutions can help you.

Sleep is vital to our lives, and having a set sleep routine for your evenings is key. If you sleep on an old, unsupportive mattress, sunshine may not overcome that grogginess. Solving that problem with a new mattress must be a priority. Now, with a good night’s sleep taken care of, getting exposure to sunlight early in the morning is the perfect way to start the day.