Does that do that to you too? Despite the days that have started to lengthen, the lack of external light ends up affecting your morale, your mood and your energy? However, there is a gentle method, without medication, to boost yourself and fight against winter depression: light therapy. This is the one proposed
the Luminette. This rather special pair of glasses was developed and manufactured by the firm Lucimed, in Belgium. With her, 20 minutes took advantage of the start of the 2022 school year to fight the winter blues and try to start the new year off on the right foot.
An anti-depression chemical messenger
It looks like a pair of glasses ripped off in an episode of Star trek. None of this in reality. If the Luminette sits well on the nose, it has no effect on sight, except to help us see life a little more rosy! To be used daily, at the rate of a 20 to 45 minute session, this light therapy device helps reactivate serotonin (also called “the hormone of happiness”). It’s a kind of chemical messenger that influences our mood. And which, by the same token, regulates melatonin, the sleep hormone.
The body’s energizing response
Once recharged via USB, the Luminette is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is adapt your nose rest to your body type in one of the three positions available, then activate the button on the front of the right temple. One to three successive presses trigger a light therapy session of 20 minutes to 45 minutes. The autonomy of the glasses is about ten sessions, depending on the duration of use chosen for each session.
Eight LEDs to feel better
When turned on, four LED bulbs light up above each eye. The scattered light, which wants to reproduce that of the sun, is white light enriched with blue. Without UV and infrared, it is not dangerous.
On the other hand, we are asked not to look at the holographic visor that lines the interior of Luminette, at the risk of taking full eyes. Dazzling, this reflective strip will direct the light produced by the LEDs directly into the eye, up and down, as the sun naturally does.
Precision: its speed is 468 nanometers, a wavelength that would more effectively activate the body’s energizing response to light, says the manufacturer of the Luminette.
More practical than a simple lamp
At the end of the session, the LEDs flash three times, then turn off automatically, thus preventing excessive use of the device. Faced with a classic light therapy lamp that does not allow any other action than that consisting of remaining motionless in front, Luminette is much more practical.
Its added bonus: simultaneity of action. Thus, during our tests spread over ten days, we were able to use Luminette in turn while cooking, reading and even working on a screen. You can also use Luminette with eyeglasses, or even contact lenses. But what effects in reality?
More enthusiasm
If we are sensitive to the lack of light as we are every year when winter is in full swing, there is no doubt that Luminette can be a good ally against morbidity. We have verified it: after a few days of use, the effects of the glasses on our daily energy were convincing, especially on days of winter skies weighed down by the lack of light. We had the feeling of having more energy and of being much less weighted by lead soles in our daily activities. Moreover, on the rare days of full sun, we felt much less the need for our small daily session of light therapy …
Resting on a study independent, the manufacturer of Luminette, Lucimed, argues that the effects produced by its binoculars would be equivalent to those of a light therapy lamp of 10,000 lux … like those found from 45 euros
on Amazon. Sold
229 euros, more than four times more expensive, the Luminette is therefore not cheap. Faced with other products, its best arguments will undoubtedly remain its discretion and its great mobility.