Find the Best Light Therapy Lamp

Find your favorite light therapy lamp with our handy database! The desktop experience is recommended.

Here is what we tested for and why!

A lights color temperature is essentially a description of how humans perceive the overall hue of a light source. The color of natural sunlight varies throughout the day, however, it hovers around 5700K for most of the day.

representation of color temperature from various lights

Some people prefer one CCT over another, we’ve included our measured CCTs so that you can decide which light is best for you.

Lux isn’t really the most important factor when it comes to bright light therapy, but we’ve included this metric because it’s a popular one.

Lux is simply the calculation of how bright a light source may appear to the human eye. Brightness itself however isn’t necessarily the best measurement for circadian activation.

For that, we can use two other metrics such as Melanopic Lux and Circadian Light, which we discuss below.

We have included a full graph of lux measurements for all brightness settings at 1, 2, and 3 feet.

CLA is a calculation of the light “postulated to represent the spectral sensitivity of the retinal mechanisms that generate neural signals reaching the human suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN).”

Phew.

In other words, the higher the CLA the more a light source will wake you up and align your circadian rhythm.

If you’d like to learn more about how this works, you can read it here on the CS 2.0 Calculator Documentation page.

Melanopic lux is an earlier alternative to lux that has since been better replaced by Circadian Light, however, it is still used in many places so we’ll include it here.

CRI is a unit used to represent the ability of a light source to reflect the true colors of objects, compared to a natural light source, like the Sun.

It’s currently the most popular way of determining the color quality of an artificial light source and can be seen on many light bulb packages.

For CRI, a score of over 90 is considered good.

image showing how apples might look under a CRI of 97, 90, and 80

Most light therapy lamps do not advertise this metric, so we provide it here for you if you’re looking for a more “realistic” light source.

A little dirt on CRI: CRI used to comprise only 8 colors. The average of these would be called the “Ra” or the average R-value. The CRI standard has since added 6 more colors, however, one of them, R9 (deep red) is more difficult to get high scores on. So most companies still only use the first 8 to calculate their “CRI score”.

We use an average of all 15 colors in our calculations, so the CRI score may be lower or higher than what is typically advertised for each light.

Glare is calculated by dividing the total lux output at 1 foot by the size of the light source.

We’ve included this metric for those of you who find yourself a bit more photosensitive.

The more light that’s emitted from a source point, the larger the emission area needs to be in order to avoid becoming too uncomfortable for the eyes.

This metric will allow you to select a lamp that’s a bit more pleasant to have around. If you’ve previously owned a lamp and found it too uncomfortable to use, simply locate it on our table, and look for a new one with a lower Glare rating.

Obviously, most lights have brightness settings, however when it comes to bright light therapy the more light you can bare, the more effective it will be, so we give you the glare on the brightest setting.

Almost all lights have an “invisible flicker”, if this bothers you, our database has lots of info to help you choose flicker-free lamps.

The flicker depth shows how much the brightness of a light source varies from its minimum brightness to its maximum brightness.

For example, a light source that varies from 100 lux to 80 lux, would have a flicker depth of 20%.

Generally speaking, we want this to be as low as possible, as sunlight doesn’t flicker at all.

The waveform graph actually shows you the flicker depth plotted on a 24 ms time slot.

waveform graph from an LED

Waveforms can vary dramatically from one light to the next.

It’s possible to associate headaches with certain types of waveforms, so if this is you, you can use this graph to decide which lights might irritate you and which might not.

This graph is based on the IEEE’s PAR1789 flicker standard.

While this standard isn’t perfect, it’s the best we’ve got right now.

This graph essentially takes the flicker frequency, seen in the waveform graph, and plots it against the flicker depth.

The idea here is that the lower the frequency and the higher the depth, the more likely a light source is to cause noticeable biological problems.

flicker risk graph from ieee

The Flicker index is a measurement that takes into account the areas above and under the light’s average output and calculates this as a number.

This gives us a good numerical value for how much time the light source spends away from the median brightness level.

diagram showing how the flicker index is calculated
Diagram illustrating how the flicker index is calculated.

If you appreciate this content and want to help us create more, consider sending us a small donation!

  • Lamps Tested: 23
  • 9/1/2023: Tested TheraLite lamps
  • 8/6/2023: Tested Verilux HappyLights
  • 6/24/2023: Tested Circadian Optics
  • 6/24/2023: Tested Olly Day
  • 6/24/2023: Version 1.0 Release! 🎉

The Database

This page contains affiliate links. Click here to read our affiliate policy.

BrandModelPriceLinkCCTLuxCLAM-EDIGlare (lux/in2)Light SizeCRISpectrumFlicker RiskFlicker GraphWaveformFlicker IndexFlicker DepthColor TemperaturesBrightness LevelsCord Length
OllyDay89$$$$Check Price →5900K430635462884.9 in279.6spectral power distribution graph of olly day light therapy lampNo Riskolly day light therapy lamp flicker risk grapholly day light therapy lamp waveform graph0.377394.6%Jun/21/2023Link12N/A
Circadian OpticsLumine74$$$Check Price →5700K38005363315914326.5 in279.2spectral power distribution graph of circadian optics lumine light therapy lampNo Riskcircadian optics lumine light therapy lamp flicker risk graphcircadian optics lumine light therapy lamp waveform graph0.382299.5%Jun/24/2023Link137.3 ft
Circadian OpticsLuxy28$$Check Price →6100K3344493228344537.4 in281.2spectral power distribution graph of circadian optics luxy light therapy lampNo Riskcircadian optics luxy light therapy lamp flicker risk graphcircadian optics luxy light therapy lamp waveform graph0.735699.5%Jun/24/2023Link135 ft
Circadian OpticsLattis60$$$Check Price →6150K49557909447424620.1 in282.1spectral power distribution graph of circadian optics lattis light therapy lampNo Riskcircadian optics lattis light therapy lamp flicker risk graphcircadian optics lattis light therapy lamp waveform graph0.646799.5%Jun/25/2023Link137.3 ft
Circadian OpticsLumos 2.084$$$$Check Price →6350K3752601333764408.5 in281.9spectral power distribution graph of circadian optics lumos 2.0 light therapy lampNo Riskcircadian optics lumos 2.0 light therapy lamp flicker risk graphcircadian optics lumos 2.0 light therapy lamp waveform graph0.682899.5%Jun/25/2023Link137.3 ft
Circadian OpticsLampu73$$$Check Price →5750K968515528816223541.3 in279spectral power distribution graph of circadian optics lampu light therapy lampNo Riskcircadian optics lampu light therapy lamp flicker risk graphcircadian optics lampu light therapy lamp waveform graph0.626099.5%Jun/25/2023Link137.3 ft
Circadian OpticsLeo50$$Check Price →6250K31794819286924513.0 in281.3spectral power distribution graph of circadian optics leo light therapy lampNo Riskcircadian optics leo light therapy lamp flicker risk graphcircadian optics leo light therapy lamp waveform graph0.193265.2%Jun/25/2023Link137.3 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Compact30$$Check Price →6850K1924255816189121.2 in270.4spectral power distribution graph of verilux happylight compact light therapy lampLow Riskflicker risk graph of verilux happylight compact light therapy lampwaveform graph of verilux happylight compact light therapy lamp0.01646.3%Aug/03/2023Link115 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Full-Size49$$Check Price →6300K46746744387311341.5 in278.1verilux happylight liberty spectral power distribution graphNo Riskflicker risk graph of verilux happylight liberty light therapy lampwaveform graph of verilux happylight liberty light therapy lamp0.00933.9%Aug/03/2023Link226.3 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Alba50$$Check Price →5250K32674490274710531.2 in285.3verilux happylight alba light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Riskflicker risk graph of verilux happylight alba light therapy lampwaveform graph of verilux happylight alba light therapy lamp0.407495.3%Aug/04/2023Link345.8 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Lumi Plus40$$Check Price →5500K39435549328312731.0 in282.2spectral power distribution graph of verilux happylight lumi plus light therapy lampNo Riskflicker risk graph of verilux happylight lumi plus light therapy lampwaveform graph of verilux happylight lumi plus light therapy lamp0.342899%Aug/05/2023Link135.9 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Lucent40$$Check Price →5250K41525470323311436.3 in276.5verilux happylight lucent spectral power distribution graphNo Riskverilux happylight lucent flicker risk graphverilux happylight lucent waveform graph0.00813.7%Aug/05/2023Link115.9 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Luxe70$$$Check Price →5400K4157580034317952.9 in283.9verilux happylight luxe light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Riskverilux happylight luxe light therapy lamp flicker risk graphverilux happylight luxe light therapy lamp waveform graph0.562899.5%Aug/05/2023Link345.9 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Touch Plus50$$Check Price →5100K41905677338610540.0 in285.5verilux happylight touch plus light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Riskverilux happylight touch plus light therapy lamp flicker risk graphverilux happylight touch plus light therapy lamp waveform graph0.192777.8%Aug/05/2023Link235.9 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Halo90$$$$Check Price →5150K46356130359510245.3 in279.9verilux happylight halo light therapy lamp spectral power distirbution graphNo Riskverilux happylight halo light therapy lamp flicker risk graphverilux happylight halo light therapy lamp waveform graph0.121070.7%Aug/05/2023Link345.9 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Duo Desk80$$$$Check Price →5550K44786728396223319.2 in294.5verilux happylight duo desk light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Riskverilux happylight duo desk light therapy lamp flicker risk graphverilux happylight duo desk light therapy lamp waveform graph0.215976.6%Aug/05/2023Link375.9 ft
VeriluxHappyLight Duo Floor130$$$$$Check Price →5000K1126118713984943126.1 in288.6verilux happylight duo floor light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Riskverilux happylight duo floor light therapy lamp flicker risk graphverilux happylight duo floor light therapy lamp waveform graph0.291481.6%Aug/05/2023Link356 ft
TheraLiteAura43$$Check Price →3000K1178211651625314482 in280.6theralite aura light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphHigh Risktheralite aura light therapy lamp flicker risk graphtheralite aura light therapy lamp flicker waveform graph0.048415.8%Aug/29/2023Link145.4 ft
TheraLiteAura Qi38$$Check Price →3000K1213811290604114882 in280.4theralite aura qi light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Risktheralite aura qi light therapy lamp flicker risk graphtheralite aura qi light therapy lamp flicker waveform graph0.00662.3%Aug/30/2023Link145.3 ft
TheraLiteHalo50$$Check Price →3000K50184478254515732 in280.5theralite halo light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Risktheralite halo light therapy lamp flicker risk graphtheralite halo light therapy lamp flicker waveform graph0.00331.1%Aug/30/2023Link145.3 ft
TheraLiteGlow30$$Check Price →4100K38893960251514626.7 in279.1theralite glow light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Risktheralite glow light therapy lamp flicker risk graphtheralite glow light therapy lamp flicker waveform graph0.00291.1%Aug/30/2023Link145.9 ft
TheraLiteRadiance45$$Check Price →2950K2133175310273685.8 in279theralite radiance light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphHigh Risktheralite radiance light therapy lamp flicker risk graphtheralite radiance light therapy lamp flicker waveform graph0.569299.5%Aug/31/2023Link135.9 ft
TheraLiteOriginal40$$Check Price →3200K68466411354518836.5 in279.7theralite original light therapy lamp spectral power distribution graphNo Risktheralite original light therapy lamp flicker risk graphtheralite original light therapy lamp flicker waveform graph0.00180.5%Aug/31/2023Link114.9 ft

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *