This week’s Thrive in Five is about the incredibly named Human Charger – it was devised by a Finnish company called Valkee. In Finland they have incredible hellishly long winters, so they were desperate to find a way they could try and get the equivalent of natural light into their days. They discovered there were photo receptors in the ear canal that help get light through to the brain. It doesn’t need to be light received from the eyes and the retinas, but you can, with the help of this device, get that natural light onto the brain.
And the Human Charger was created.
You simply plug the earpiece into your ears, and then you click the ‘on’ button on the device and it will administer a 12-minute dose of UV-free, blue-enriched white light – it’s essentially the same as turning your face to the sun or to natural light.
Why would you want to use a Human Charger?
Jet Lag – it’s been medically approved for jet lag. You start by using this before you travel across multiple time zones, and then when you land in your destination. The app prompts you as to when you might want to do that, depending on your location and your destination time.
It’s also medically approved for seasonal affective disorder. If you’re somebody that wakes up at 6:00 in the morning when it’s dark outside now we are in Winter and you are sitting in an office where you’re subjected to junk light and very little natural light, and then you come home and it’s dark – when are you going to get your natural daylight apart from pockets during the day?
That’s where the Human Charger comes in. You’d use it in the morning, and you’d use it in the evening as well, but mainly in the morning and possibly throughout the day.
It’s also useful for increasing energy (although there’s no science to back this up), but that’s what I use it for. I use it for travel, for combating jet lag, and I use it to get a little bit more energy throughout my day – and I would highly recommend it.
It’s a great device and I think it’s a hot tip, if you struggle with seasonal affective disorder, getting enough natural light in the day, or if you’d like more energy, or you travel frequently across multiple time zones.
You can find out more about the Human Charger here.
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