Energize Yourself With Pocket Sky’s Innovative Blue Light Therapy
When you can’t have caffeine for medical reasons or just don’t like the taste of coffee, getting an energy boost without the help of potentially unhealthy stimulants can be a challenge. But it’s easy to underestimate just how much of an effect light has on our cycles of sleep and wakefulness, and how we could use its influence on us to our advantage.
Now, a new product called the Pocket Sky — a light you wear over your eyes like eyeglasses — claims that it can help you “activate yourself with light, anytime, anywhere.”
We may have entered an era in which we no longer rise and go to bed along with the sun, but that doesn’t mean that our bodies’ circadian rhythms have caught up. We’re surrounded by artificial lighting at almost all times of the day and night, whether that means working under fluorescent lighting long after sunset or sleeping with the tiny lights of cell phone screens and other gadgets glowing all around us. Not getting enough exposure to natural daylight can also disrupt our internal clocks and interfere with our moods.
Just like pitch darkness can help us fall asleep at night, sometimes we need a little extra kick of light to stay awake during the day. The Pocket Sky works by using soft blue light to suppress the production of melatonin (the sleep hormone) and naturally enhance wakefulness. The creators of the odd-looking device say it can also positively influence one’s performance and sense of well-being.
Winner of a 2019 Red Dot Design Award, the Pocket Sky looks a bit like Google Glass, which may not be the best news in the world, but thankfully you don’t have to wear it in public for long periods to reap its benefits. In fact, it only takes 20 minutes a day of shining this blue light over your eyes to “lift your mood and power you up.” It could be especially useful to people who travel across time zones frequently, allowing them to manually reset their internal clocks to match those of their present locations.
“Performance consultants of the NBA have started using it some time ago: therapy with colored lights to better adjust to a new time zone and to get players up to their full potential as fast as possible,” reads a press release about the Pocket Sky’s Kickstarter campaign. “A small startup from Austria had the idea to make benefits of blue light therapy available to private people. Performance issues, shift work, seasonal affective disorder (“winter blues”) and jet lag are among the daily problems of many that the development team has set out to solve.”
“After many years of development, designing, and intensive testing, Pocket Sky is now available on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter: the smallest, most user-friendly and, according to the jury of the Red Dot Award 2019, most stylish light therapy on the market. The funding goal on Kickstarter was reached within less than five hours on May 9th.”
The Pocket Sky folds down into a compact carrying case that doubles as a charging unit, requires no app to be used, and runs for two weeks on a single charge. When you put it on, it starts its sequence by emulating a sunrise. After twenty minutes, it shuts itself down automatically. The flexible frame is one-size-fits-all.
If you’re interested in grabbing one up for yourself, make sure to check out the aforementioned Kickstarter page, where you can save up to 52 percent off the expected retail price by backing the campaign.
