Some people are Winter people, some people are Summer people. I'm a heating up to 30 degrees no matter what the weather, a happiest when hot and in small shorts kinda girl, and nothing will ever dissuade me from that. I can blame my poor blood circulation (makes you chilly), or I can just out and out declare myself firmly in the summer camp. Heck, when in Thailand I opted for the room with fan not aircon- based on preference, not budget.
When it comes to winter I get moody. Like PMT 30 days a month moody, crotchety snappy, chilly, downright miserable. Yes, those are all qualities of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but can a SAD lamp really make a difference- and a mini one at that?
Lumie thought so, and so they sent me the Lumie Zip to try, a purse sized portable SAD lamp that you can use at your desk. You simply charge it at the mains, then pop it in the carry bag (included) and use it wherever, whenever. My wherever is the 23rd floor of a Canary Wharf building in a room that's far from the windows.
I pop it on for 30 minutes a day and sit back and bask in the glow whilst I touch type badly. You can set it in 10 minute increments, from 10-60 minutes, and a battery display on the side shows you how much charge is left. I charged mine a month ago and it still has juice.
The Zip delivers 2,500 lux (that's how they measure brightness in SAD world) and has 45 blue enriched LED's in the tiny frame. Bigger SAD lamps have around 10,000 but the Zip uses the blue enriched LED's to make up for this lack.
It's very easy to use- you simply press the button on the site to turn the battery meter on, and then once more to activate the light. It starts to glow slowly, faintly and then more vibrantly till it's at full shine. The light turns itself off after the segment has finished. You don't need to stare at it, just have it in your frame of vision.
Colleagues have said that 'I glow' whilst it's on, which is nice, in a none pregnancy type of way.
So how does it make me feel- the big question.
Well, I haven't morphed into a freaky Mary Poppins and yodel my way around the office, but neither do I snap when someone snaffles the last Wispa from the chocolate machine or my colleague forgets that I like the teabag left IN my herbal tea (how hard is that to remember?) I'm not a living breathing Brady Bunch member, but I've moved from Addams family blues to something more along the lines of That Seventies Show (and yes, TV references are a totally acceptable way of quantifying mood).
It works- and it works well. It seems so simple, yet it really does lift my mood, and if some of that is psychological, who the hell cares? If you're a winter hater like me, invest in a Lumie Zip pronto!