Can This $800 Dyson Lamp Really Help You Sleep Better?

Dyson recently launched four new products: A task lamp, a robot vacuum, an upgraded cordless vacuum and a personal tabletop fan. Of all their new products, I was most curious about the task lamp. Designed by Dyson’s chief lighting engineer, Jake Dyson (son of company founder Sir James Dyson) the Lightcycle costs a steep $800 for the desk version (a floor version retails for $1,200). But in return for the steep price, it promises A LOT—including helping you to sleep better. It's available in two colours (white/silver and black) and features customized lighting based on your geographic location and time of day (for instance, it reduces sleep-disrupting blue light at night) and motion-sensing technology that aims to conserve energy. So is the Dyson Lightcycle really worth it? I spent two weeks trying it to find out.

Unboxing the Dyson Lightcycle

The Dyson Lightcycle desk light weighs a whopping nine pounds, but requires minimal assembly—I had it up and running in 15 minutes, thanks to the very clear, illustrated instructions. Once the light was set up, I downloaded the Dyson Link app and paired the device without any issues.

What makes the Dyson task lamp worthy of its eye-popping price tag?

A light bulb that lasts for decades

Thanks to the heat pipe that runs inside the arm of the Dyson Lightcycle, its LED bulb can last for up to 60 years without needing to be replaced. (Essentially, the heat pipe is made of copper and conducts excess heat away from the bulb, cooling it down and thus prolonging its life.) The bad news? Once the LED light bulb does burn out, the entire arm of the lamp will need to be replaced. 

It reduces the blue light before bed

Once the lamp is connected to the app, it’ll ask you to enter a few key details like where you live and in what room the lamp will be located. Once the app has those details, it synchronizes the lamp with your geographic location and time of day. As a result, the lamp knows to reduce blue light (this is the light generated by digital devices like smartphones or tablets which can negatively impact sleep) at crucial times, like just before bed.

Easy operation via an app—and lighting customized to your geographic location

I’ve resisted incorporating smart appliances into my home, but I have to admit that the app connectivity of this lamp may be my favourite feature. Once the Lightcycle is paired with the Dyson Link app, you can operate the lamp from your phone—turning it on or off, programming when you’d like it to turn on in the morning and switching between different lighting styles (warm light for relaxing before bed, bright light for studying, or play with the warmth/intensity for a custom lighting experience).

It's very intuitive

The Lightcycle tracks the "colour temperature and brightness" of the daylight where you live in order to mimic that light in your workspace; it also has a sensor that detects fluctuations to background light, which allows it to maintain a consistent level of brightness.

It’s super adjustable...

...and super easy to adjust. The vertical arm of the lamp can be rotated a full 360 degrees and the horizontal arm can be shifted up or down and left to right.

It can charge your phone

The arm of the lamp has a micro USB-C charging port incorporated into its vertical arm.

It senses motion

The motion sensor located on the underside of the horizontal arm of the lamp will automatically dim and then turn off after two minutes of inactivity—which is great for conserving energy, but less great if you forget to out it in "sleep" mode and your cats continue to trigger the motion sensor all night long, annoying your partner to no end.

The verdict

While I didn’t notice a marked improvement in my sleep from the pre-bed warm lighting, I did appreciate having a lamp that I could turn off remotely from my phone. It’s also reassuring to know that I wasn’t exposing myself to any extra blue light when I was curling up with a good book before bed. The Dyson Lightcycle has a lot to offer and as intuitive as it is, there's still a definite learning curve compared to a traditional lamp. Like Dyson’s other products, this lamp is very well made and it’s clear how much thought and research has gone into developing it. But $800 is A LOT. If you’re willing to spend that much money, and take advantage of all its features, it’s definitely worth considering. But if you just want to reduce blue light before bed, look into a pair of blue-light blocking glasses—many retail for $30 or less.