Philips SmartSleep Sleep and Wake Up Light Review: Will This Change Your Life?

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In Short

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Product Name: Philips SmartSleep Sleep and Wake Up Light, HF3650/60 
Latest Review Date: 23 October 2019
Price Guideline: $$$

The Philips SmartSleep Sleep and Wake Up-Light is pricey, but worth it for a beautiful sunset simulation and some really innovative features not found elsewhere.

MY RATING: 91%

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Features

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Product Information

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In Box

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So How Does the Philips SmartSleep
Sleep and Wake-up Light Work?

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A Dutch multinational company, Philips are one of the biggest electronics companies in the world. In fact they employ over 75,000 people in more than 100 countries around the globe

Since making their first wake up light in 2006 Philips have continually evolved the brand with this, the Philips HF3650/60, being released in 2017.

But enough about that…

The bread and butter of this is the sunrise simulation. It has a default setting of 30 minutes but it can be set to last anything from 5 minutes to 60 minutes. This is the time the light will start to come on before you desired wake up time.

So if you set your alarm for 7.00am with a 60 minute sunrise duration the light will first start to illuminate at 6.00am before reaching full brightness at 7.00am. The video below gives you a demonstration of the sunrise simulation.

It also has a sunset simulation that you can again set from 5 minutes to 60 minutes and select a sound to fade away as the light dims.

Big News:

This is Philip’s first wake-up light with a RelaxBreathe feature, that aims to help you relax and unwind by following a breathing programme guided by light and/or sound.

It has two alarm profiles and you can set the time, light intensity and wake up sound you want to use for each of the two profiles.

The tap to snooze button on the top of the light will snooze any sound (but not light) for nine minutes.

Of course:

As is the case with most wake-up lights these days you can use this as a bedside lamp – it has 25 brightness settings (the default setting is 18).

It has an FM Radio with five preset stations and an AUX socket so you can connect an external device to it, for instance, your phone, and play music from that.

This also has three nature sounds to wake up or fall asleep to.

Note:

This was originally branded as the Philips Somneo Sunrise Wake-up and Sleep Therapy Light but has since been renamed as the Philips SmartSleep Sleep and Wake Up Light – I have no idea why!

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The Good

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First things first…

The main selling point of any wake-up light is obviously the sunrise simulation and this is, as we have come to expect from Philips, top quality.

The light is warm and feels crisp without being overwhelming, and you can customise it entirely.

It starts at a soft, subdued, red tone and gradually increases in brightness to orange before it reaches a bright yellow.

The good thing is…

The light is bright enough to wake you and fill the room, but it feels very natural and not at all harsh or overwhelming when you do wake up.

On a similar vein:

The sunset simulation, which helps prepare your body for sleep by slowing decreasing the light, works equally well.

Again it is completely customisable and gives you a lovely calming and warm orange glow to lull you to sleep.

With both the sunrise and sunset simulation you can wake, or fall asleep to, sounds as well.

Now one thing the Philips SmartSleep offers is something called light guided breathing.

Needless to say when I read this I was intrigued…

As I alluded to above these are essentially breathing exercises. You select from one of seven programs and then you follow the light or sound cues to take breaths – the idea being that, almost like a form of meditation, it will help you relax and unwind and fall asleep.

It is actually very effective, and is a way to switch the brain off and tune in to the light/sound and calm yourself down to sleep.

Some of the programs also feature rain or ocean sounds which in themselves are incredibly calming.

Beyond that:

There are some very thoughtful design touches that really benefit the user.

It has a wonderful ‘soft light’, so if you wake up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature all you need to do is tap the top of your wake-up light and a dim light will instantly come on.

It provides enough light to find your way in the dark, but isn’t bright enough to wake you up. Tap the top of the wake-up light again and it turns off.

What is more:

The time display will automatically adjust according to the light level in your room, and it is pretty easy to read without being too bright.

Best of all you can turn the time display off completely. I really struggle with any kind of ambient light at all, so this is a big feature for me.

It has a nice snooze feature – just tap the top of the wake-up light to snooze any sound for nine minutes

Digging even deeper:

You can personalise this exactly to your needs. There are multiple light settings – so you can choose how bright you want the light to go to in the morning when it wakes you up.

You can also choose how long the sunrise or sunset duration is, and from the sounds options as well.

Talking of radio the FM radio has a really good sound quality.

And here is the kicker!

This has a USB port on the back so you can even use it to charge your phone!

And talking of sound…

I haven’t touched on that too much, but you can wake up, or fall to sleep to nature sounds as well. The sound either gradually increases or decreases smoothly, to or from a pre-set level, depending upon whether you are waking up or going to sleep.

This also doesn’t have a battery-back up as such, but it does have what Philips call PowerBackUp+ which is active for eight hours. This means that if there is a power cut the clock retains the basic functions, so will remember your settings and keep the time.

The light and nature sounds won’t work, but it will still emit a beeping alarm at your set time

One final thing:

One thing Philips seem to have the knack for is developing stylish looking product, and this is no different. It has a modern, sleek style design and looks really good.

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The Bad

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I am not going to lie…

This has so many features and settings you might find it slightly overwhelming at first.

And this isn’t helped by the fact that the menu buttons and controls are identified by symbols/icons rather than text descriptions.

It is difficult to navigate and confusing at first.

If we are being picky:

There are a few small adjustments that could be made. 

For instance the only way to turn the sound alarm off is by pressing the touch button on the screen front, which means you need to look directly into the bright light. 

There isn’t also a one-stop button to turn off the alarm before it rings – you have to go into the menu and turn it off. This is annoying and it would have been great if the snooze button on top of the light could also be used for turning the alarm off completely rather than snoozing it.

Also whilst the Philips SmartSleep allows you to set two different profiles for your alarms, there is no calendar that differentiates between weekdays and weekends, you have to manually turn one off and the other one.

What is more:

This would benefit from a few more sound options, as this only has three natural sounds to wake up to. It is a shame it doesn’t have an option to connect via bluetooth as well, as this would make it easier to control the light.

You also can’t wake up to music from a connected device.

In addition to that:

This is on the larger side so it will take up considerable size on your bedside table – it measures around 5 inches in diameter and 8 inches tall.

And the bottom line is:

This is pricey – no two ways about it, and you have to remember the internal light is not replaceable, so when it burns out (I am not sure how long it lasts – it could last 50 years for all I know!) you need to buy a whole new unit.

But of course you do get a top quality wake up light from a massively trusted brand.

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The Beautiful

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As is the case with all the Philips Wake-Up Lights this looks great! Sleek, modern and stylish.

As mentioned it is quite big, but it should fit into most bedrooms nicely.

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How Does It Compare To Other Philips Models?

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Name	HF3470	HF3500	HF3505	HF3510	HF3520	SmartSleep HF3650/60	SmartSleep HF3670/60
Sunrise simulation duration	30 min	30 min	30 min	Adjustable (20-40min)	Adjustable (20-40min)	Adjustable (5-40min)	Adjustable (5-40min)
Colors in sunrise simulation	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Orange, Yellow	Red, Orange, Yellow	White, Orange, Yellow, Amber	White, Orange, Yellow, Amber
Sunset simulation				✔	✔	✔	✔
Reading lamp	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Adjustable display	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Maximum light intensity	200 lux	200 lux	200 lux	300 lux	300 lux	310 lux	315 lux
FM radio	✔		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Number of wake-up sounds	2	1	2	3	3	7	8
Number of alarms	1	1	1	1	2	3	4

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And Does It Work?

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Philips give us plenty of statistics to show that their wake-up lights make a real difference, for instance:

• 92% of users feel this wakes them up pleasantly
• 88% say it is a better way to get out of bed
• 79% of Philips SmartSleep users say they fall asleep easier with the RelaxBreathe function
• 90% of users report that SmartSleep makes them wake up more naturally 

You can read more about these claims on the Philips website.

Research has proved that wake up lights have a beneficial effect on sleep, waking, mood and energy. There are numerous studies proving this but here are just a few:

• Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel
• Department of Psychology, University of Westminster
• Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London
• Department of Biopsychology, New York State Psychiatric Institute

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Conclusion

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Other Options

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This is a really nice Wake Up Light and justifiably just edges out the Philips HF3520 as my second favorite wake-up light on the market. The HF3520 is slightly cheaper though so might be an alternative for you to consider as it still offers a great sunrise simulation.

My favorite is the Philips Smart Sleep Connected – which is similar to this but with even more functionality – I love it!

If you would like to leave your personal review or experience of this product, or if you have any questions, please leave them below. I would love to hear your feedback!

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