a Lumie bedbug glow for bedtime (a review)

I first bought a Lumie bodyclock long before I became a Mum. I liked their unique dawn simulation feature and the thought of being woken by a gradual sunrise in the room. And to be honest, in the midst of a long, long season of infertility, I was reaching desperation point and ready to try anything to reset my body’s natural rhythms. I had read an article by Dr Christine Northrup which talked about female menstrual cycles synchronising with the lunar cycle in bygone days before modern living, diet and stress contributed to hormonal cycles becoming erratic. So I purchased my Lumie bodyclock for my gentle sunrise wake up and twinned it with complete darkness for sleeping (we’re talking total blackout with bin liners taped to the window frame!). Thankfully the sum total of all the little things I changed, but mostly successful fertility treatment, resulted in our beloved Euan. Our Lumie clock then became invaluable for its dimmable light feature for peaceful night wakings and has not had a single night off since (ensuring safe passage to our room for night time visitors!)
We’ve now purchased a brilliant new multi-purpose bedtime light from Lumie for the boys which has been developed in consultation with Sarah Ockwell-Smith, an expert in infant sleep. The Lumie Bedbug is perfect for creating a calm atmosphere while getting ready for bed, for reading stories and can be left on overnight as a nightlight. Whether the Bedbug is dimmed down low for feeding, changing or sleeping or bright for bedtime stories the light emitted is white light which is less disturbing to natural rhythms than other red or blue nightlights on the market.
Our bedtime routine with E has always included dimming the main light to encourage the natural production of melatonin. We’ve then used a cat nightlight from IKEA for torch-like reading which emits a pale blue or green glow. I didn’t realise that this kind of light can be as stimulating as using screens right before bed! So cat light has now been relegated to lighting up dens and daytime play.
When it’s time to sleep the bedbug light can be turned off all together or set to gradually fade like a sunset, from white light to a soothing orange. It can be set to fade off after 15 minutes or fade to nightlight for a reassuring warm glow all night long. If you need to check on your baby in the night the light controls are silent so you can easily increase or decrease the amount of light without disturbing baby. For now Bedbug is in E’s room but we intend to swap bedrooms next year so the boys can share the larger bedroom. It’s good to know the Bedbug lighting will suit their need not to sleep in total darkness and that E’s later bedtime won’t disturb his little brother if he reads by the light of the Bedbug.

Update:. We’ve been staying at G’s folks this weekend and the Bedbug has been invaluable with us all sleeping in one room. The first night I faded it to off and I didn’t twig that each time L woke and cried (5 times by morning) it was because it was too dark for a room he’s not yet familiar with. Tonight he’s just woken to the pale orange glow of the sunset mode and between hearing the cry of “Mumma” over the monitor and walking upstairs to help him back to sleep I found him sat up on the mattress just quietly looking at his friendly Bedbug.