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Top pick
Carex’s new Elite is my favorite—12,000 lux, low glare (69), and a versatile VESA mount for creative placement.
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Oct 8, 2026
- 6,563m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 10,970lux
- Brightness
- 4049K
- Color temp
- 1.03%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Carex Day-Light Elite, 4049K, melanopic DER 0.60.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Carex Day-Light Elite.
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Best spectrum
This lamp delivers 20,000+ lux of sunlight mimicking light with plenty of infrared, making it one of the best spectrums I've tested.
See the lab results
White + IR, 1 ft · measured Oct 1, 2026
- 17,382m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 17,701lux
- Brightness
- 6268K
- Color temp
- None
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. SOLshine PhotoVites, 6268K, melanopic DER 0.98.
Flicker, white + IR, full brightness
Chart by time. SOLshine PhotoVites.
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Best for travel
Travel-ready, flicker-free SAD lamp with USB-C charging and warm evening light—perfect for those who prioritize portability and quality.
See the lab results
1 ft, diffuser off · measured Oct 6, 2026
- 3,107m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 3,038lux
- Brightness
- 5613K
- Color temp
- None
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Chroma Sky Portal Mini, 5613K, melanopic DER 1.02.
Flicker, one capture across settings
Chart by time. Chroma Sky Portal Mini.
Most comfortable
Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar
If both comfort and effectiveness are important to you, the NorthStar's output and large size make it the best option for you.
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Oct 1, 2026
- 7,930m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 13,516lux
- Brightness
- 4436K
- Color temp
- 18.42%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar, 4436K, melanopic DER 0.63.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar.
Best compact desk
The Lampu is our budget pick for a normal-sized desk lamp. It's bright and dimmable so you can select the right output for you.
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Sep 30, 2026
- 5,826m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 6,880lux
- Brightness
- 5861K
- Color temp
- 1.2%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Circadian Optics Lampu, 5861K, melanopic DER 0.85.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Circadian Optics Lampu.
I’ve now scientifically tested over 60 of the most popular SAD lamps, and due to popular demand, this article will go over my favorites for different categories.
This list is not final and will change and adapt as more testing is done!
Before we get into the recommendations, you may want to familiarize yourself with some of the factors that make a lamp worth buying. So feel free to read on or skip to the recommendations.
Things to Consider When Buying a SAD Lamp
Lux, circadian light, glare, color temperature, flicker, oh my!
Many things combine to make for a good light therapy lamp; it can be challenging to choose one unless you know what you’re looking for and why.
Let’s go through the most critical factors to consider:
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You're reading about one piece of this. The book is the whole day.
The Circadian Blueprint covers setting your body clock with light — the timing, the doses, and which products actually deliver them. Every number came off my own spectrometer.
Lux
You’ve probably seen a few lamps advertise “10,000 lux!” This is the most popular measurement for bright light therapy.
Lux is a simple number representing the lumens per square meter or the amount of light hitting a surface.
Lumens are spectrally weighted measurements tailored explicitly to the visual sensitivity of the human eye.
This means it fairly accurately tells us how bright a light source is, but there’s a better measurement for light therapy lamps…
Circadian Light
Circadian light, or CLA for short, is similar to lux; only spectrally weighted towards the parts of the light spectrum that most affect our circadian biology.
Just like lux, it spits out a simple numerical value, which makes it easy to compare the effectiveness of various lamps to each other.
You can read more about the model here if you’d like, but basically…
The higher the CLA, the more light sources will wake you up and align your circadian rhythm.
This is a reasonably new metric, so no one reports their CLA, but since we measure all of our devices, we have this info!
Glare (Lux/in2)
One important thing to remember regarding SAD lamps is how comfortable they are. A super bright light might be effective, but if it’s too uncomfortable in your field of view, you probably won’t like using it very much! And while it may technically help with your sleep, you won’t feel all that great while using it.
This is why we measure the light emission area of each lamp we test. This allows us to calculate the lux per square inch, which gives us an idea of how comfortable a light source will be when used.
Consider a flashlight and standing outside on a cloudy day to give you an example of why this is important.
The light outside on a cloudy day can approach 20,000 lux, but since it’s so dispersed and ambient, it doesn’t feel uncomfortable.
Now, a flashlight from two feet away might only reach 3,000 lux, but looking at it will feel like staring into the sun!
This is why the amount of photons per unit area is essential! We ideally want to strike a delicate balance between brightness/effectiveness and visual comfort.
Be sure to check out our extensive SAD lamp database! →
The Best SAD Light Therapy Lamps
Without further ado… here are my recommendations for the best SAD lamps!
- Best Overall: Carex Elite
- Best Runnerup: Carex Day-Light Sky
- Best Spectrum: SOL PhotoVites Full Spectrum
- Most Powerful: Aurora LightPad Max or Aurora LightPad Mini
- Most Comfortable: Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar
- Best Compact Desk Lamp: Circadian Optics Lampu
- Best Floor Lamp: HappyLight Duo Floor
- Best Color Rendering: HappyLight Duo Desk
- Best for Travel/Portability: Chroma Sky Portal Mini
Best Overall: Carex Elite
The Elite is Carex’s newest offering, and it has some great new features and specs that make it my favorite SAD lamp right now.
The Elite puts out less light than the Day-Light Sky I mentioned below, but it makes up for this in several ways.
For one, it’s much more comfortable visually with a glare of 69 versus the Sky’s of 180, meaning you can get a similar amount of light without it feeling as overbearing.
The Elite is also flicker-free on all four brightness settings, unlike the Sky, if that’s important to you.
The Elite also looks quite a bit more modern if you ask me.
But the real treasure here is that the Elite has a VESA mount on the back, meaning you can mount it over your monitor!
I love this. It’s easy to do, frees up desk space, and feels great! I will go over how to do this in my full review here.
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My verdict
- Pro: Hits over 12,000 lux at 1 foot
- Pro: Large size makes it extremely comfortable to use
- Pro: Can project light down from above
- Pro: No flicker on all settings
- Pro: Multiple mounting and setup solutions
- Con: No physical buttons
- Con: The cord is a bit shorter than in previous models
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Oct 8, 2026
- 6,563m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 10,970lux
- Brightness
- 4049K
- Color temp
- 1.03%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Carex Day-Light Elite, 4049K, melanopic DER 0.60.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Carex Day-Light Elite.
Best Runnerup: Carex Day-Light Sky
This one emits about 2500 more lux than the Elite, but the benefits end there. It’s a bit clunkier-looking, not quite as comfortable, and doesn’t have all the cool mounting options.
It is brighter, more effective, and a bit cheaper. So, if you aren’t too concerned about it being a bit less comfortable and don’t plan to mount it, this might be the better option.
I’ve done a full review of Sky if you want to see more.
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My verdict
- Pro: Great light output for the price
- Pro: More effective than the Elite
- Con: More glare than the Elite due to its smaller size and higher output
- Con: Some low-frequency flicker
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Oct 5, 2026
- 6,374m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 10,144lux
- Brightness
- 4194K
- Color temp
- 19.03%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Carex Day-Light Sky, 4194K, melanopic DER 0.63.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Carex Day-Light Sky.
Best Spectrum: SOL PhotoVites Full Spectrum
The visible light spectrum from this SAD lamp is by far the most natural I’ve tested since it uses genuine SunLike diodes in its construction.
The output is also very high, making it the third brightest SAD lamp we’ve tested at over 20,000 lux at 1 foot!
It also emits a lot of healthy infrared light, which none of these other lamps do. This is great for skin and eye health and abundant in natural morning sunlight!
It’s a bit expensive, but with a robust all-metal design coupled with a fan to help keep it cool, I have no doubt it will last a long time and provide a robust circadian response.
Get this one if light quality and effectiveness are among your chief concerns. You can read my full review here.
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My verdict
- Pro: Extremely bright and effective
- Pro: The only SAD lamp I know of using full spectrum SunLike diodes
- Pro: Very full in healthy red and infrared coverage
- Pro: Completely flicker-free
- Con: Expensive, but not terribly so for the performance
- Con: High glare rating, not very comfortable to use visually for a long time
See the lab results
White + IR, 1 ft · measured Oct 1, 2026
- 17,382m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 17,701lux
- Brightness
- 6268K
- Color temp
- None
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. SOLshine PhotoVites, 6268K, melanopic DER 0.98.
Flicker, white + IR, full brightness
Chart by time. SOLshine PhotoVites.
Most Powerful: Aurora LightPad Max and Mini
The Aurora LightPad Max is my pick for the brightest lamp!
This is the one if you’re looking for something that will match a fairly sunny day but is still comfortable enough to use for an extended period.
The Max puts out around 31,000 lux at 1 foot with a glare of only 400! That means it’s certainly getting to that uncomfortable range, but many people (including myself) can push it to this number.
Its color temperature of 6500K ensures plenty of effective blue light, contributing to its high CLA of around 63,000.
You can read a more in-depth review of the LightPad Max and the other Alaska Northern Light lamps here.
My verdict
Alaska Northern Lights Aurora LightPad Max
- Pro: Most effective lamp overall due to its high light output and large surface area
- Pro: Relatively small, so it doesn't take up much desk space
- Con: On the more expensive side
- Con: It might be a bit too bright for some people
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Sep 30, 2026
- 31,585m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 34,452lux
- Brightness
- 6365K
- Color temp
- 1.41%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Alaska Northern Lights Aurora LightPad Max, 6365K, melanopic DER 0.92.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Alaska Northern Lights Aurora LightPad Max.
If you’re looking for something even more powerful but definitely less comfortable to use, check out the Mini.
Warning: This thing is astoundingly bright, putting out just over 42,000 lux at 1 foot, and is relatively compact, measuring just 5×7 inches.
My verdict
Alaska Northern Lights Aurora LightPad Mini
- Pro: Very high lux if you can stand the intense glare
- Pro: Works well at great distances
- Pro: Extremely bright for the money
- Con: Very very bright
- Con: Not very visually comfortable to use
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Oct 1, 2026
- 15,458m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 18,650lux
- Brightness
- 5618K
- Color temp
- 2.22%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Alaska Northern Lights Aurora LightPad Mini, 5618K, melanopic DER 0.83.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Alaska Northern Lights Aurora LightPad Mini.
Most Comfortable: Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar
The North Star is a unique lamp because of its massive size. This makes it uniquely comfortable in the realm of bright light therapy lamps. If you’re looking for the most effective and comfortable light therapy lamp, this is hands down the one you want.
This one uses older fluorescent light technology, which emits a warmer color temperature of around 4350K, making it one of the warmer lamps on this list. Some people may prefer that, as it is closer to the CCT of morning sunlight.
You can read a more in-depth review of the NorthStar and the other Alaska Northern Light lamps here.
My verdict
Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar
- Pro: Very effective at over 16,000 lux at 1 foot
- Pro: Unparalleled comfort due to its large surface area
- Con: Very large and cannot easily be used on a desk at work
- Con: Fluorescent technology with a high invisible flicker rate
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Oct 1, 2026
- 7,930m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 13,516lux
- Brightness
- 4436K
- Color temp
- 18.42%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar, 4436K, melanopic DER 0.63.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Alaska Northern Lights NorthStar.
Best Compact Desk Lamp: Circadian Optics Lampu
We’ve reviewed all of Circadian Optics’ lamps, and the Lampu is one of their standout options.
It’s pretty bright for the price and offers a reasonably large illumination area, which also helps with comfort.
The color temperature of this guy is also pretty much exactly 5700K, making it one of the few lamps that mimic the color of noon sunlight.
Overall, the Lampu is a decently priced compact desk SAD lamp that looks nice and performs well.
My verdict
- Pro: Quite bright for the price
- Pro: Looks nice and fits well on a desk
- Con: The angle can't be adjusted
See the lab results
1 ft · measured Sep 30, 2026
- 5,826m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 6,880lux
- Brightness
- 5861K
- Color temp
- 1.2%
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Circadian Optics Lampu, 5861K, melanopic DER 0.85.
Flicker, full brightness
Chart by time. Circadian Optics Lampu.
Best Floor Lamp: HappyLight Duo Floor
The Duo Floor is my pick for a floor-based light therapy lamp due to its impressive light output and high-quality color rendering.
This lamp offers three color temperatures for those who like that option.
This is great for reading in the morning, board games, or whatever else you want to illuminate.
My verdict
- Pro: Over 10,000 lux at 1 foot makes it quite useful for activities
- Pro: Can be positioned easily for multiple uses
- Con: Assembly can be challenging
- Con: Glare is a bit high for direct FOV use
See the lab results
Full brightness
- 2.1%
- Flicker
Flicker
Chart by time. Verilux HappyLight Duo Floor.
Best Color Rendering: HappyLight Duo Desk
The Duo Desk has a fantastic CRI rating of 94.5, making it a perfect desk SAD lamp for anyone who does color-sensitive work or appreciates a high-quality light source.
This light offers seven total brightness settings, which is pretty unheard of. This allows you to dial in the exact brightness you’re looking for.
Of course, three selectable color temps are familiar to the HappyLight lineup.
You can read our in-depth review here if you’d like to learn more about the various HappyLight options.
My verdict
- Pro: Very high CRI LEDs make for very realistic light
- Pro: Great for color-sensitive desk work
- Pro: Has a USB output for charging devices
- Con: A bit large for some desk setups
See the lab results
Full brightness
- 0.6%
- Flicker
Flicker
Chart by time. Verilux HappyLight Duo Desk.
Best for Travel/Portability: Chroma Sky Portal Mini
For frequent travelers this feels like a smart, well-executed option that’s hard to beat. The Sky Portal Mini offers everything you need for an on the go SAD lamp.
It features an all-white mode for daytime energy and the amber mode for winding down at night. Yo can also change it anywhere in between.
The included tripod is sturdy and adjustable, the diffuser makes it easier on the eyes, and the flicker-free performance shows real attention to quality.
You also get USB-C charging, a massive 8000 mAh battery that can double as a power bank, and the versatility to serve as both a SAD lamp and a warm evening light source.
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My verdict
- Pro: Great performance on white mode, cozy amber/red mode for evening use
- Pro: Flicker-free!
- Pro: Travel-friendly with an 8000mAh battery built in
- Pro: The included tripod and diffuser work well
- Con: On the pricey side at $275, though really only $248 with my code
- Con: Optional diffuser lowers effectiveness
See the lab results
1 ft, diffuser off · measured Oct 6, 2026
- 3,107m-EDI
- Melanopic EDI
- 3,038lux
- Brightness
- 5613K
- Color temp
- None
- Flicker
Spectrum
Spectrum chart. Chroma Sky Portal Mini, 5613K, melanopic DER 1.02.
Flicker, one capture across settings
Chart by time. Chroma Sky Portal Mini.
That’s about it. Stay tuned as we test more lamps!
