I'm a sleep researcher, and I love these portable smart lamps for falling asleep and gentle wake ups

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

• Casper Glow Lights are gesture-controlled smart lamps that help you fall asleep and wake up.
• Portable and simple to operate, they make good night lights or bedtime reading lamps.
• The warm glow helps you avoid exposure to blue light, which can interfere with quality sleep.

As a sleep researcher who knows the importance of good quality sleep, I always look into the science and benefits behind the products I test out and review. While writing our guide for the best sunrise alarm clocks, I discovered the Casper Glow Lights, a unique set of lights that are portable, attractive, and can also help you improve your sleep quality.  

Research studies have shown that exposure to blue light (found in some household light bulbs and most electronic devices) later in the evening can restrict the natural production of melatonin and negatively affect circadian rhythms, the flow of hormones that tell us when to go to sleep and wake up. If you wake up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water or run to the bathroom, you'll often have to turn the lights on, which can significantly disturb your slumber and the ability to fall back to sleep.

The Casper Glow Lights are designed to be gentle on the eyes and conveniently transported around the house to set the mood for bedtime. They're perfect as night lights and a great replacement for bright overhead lights or reading lamps later in the evening. 

Design and specs

The Casper Glow Lights are a pair of simple yet innovative devices. Each light is a 5.25-inch tall and 3.75-inch thick portable and wireless cylinder made from durable diffused polycarbonate. They don't take up much space on a bedside table and only weigh about nine ounces each, so you can place them and take them anywhere you want. They charge wirelessly via contact with a small charging base. 

They're built with warm white and amber LED lights and movement sensors that make them easy to control.

Review of the Casper Glow Light

The Glow Lights can be instantly used as soon as you open the box. The instructions are short and simple, and the devices are controlled by intuitive gestures. Flip each light to turn it on or off, twist to dim or increase the brightness, and shake to turn on a diffuse night light. The lights operate on a timer: 45 seconds for the night light and 30 minutes for the reading light, but there is also a pause button that you can use to leave the light if needed. 

You can use the lights without their accompanying Casper Glow app, but I highly recommend downloading the app for iOS and Android devices (available on the Apple App Store and Google Play). The app has a few other customizable options that make the Glow Lights even more useful. I downloaded the app and synced my iPhone to my Glow Lights via Bluetooth; it was a very effortless process. The app gives you the option to set wake-up times, sync other Glow Lights together, and adjust the brightness. 

I set my wake-up schedule in the app to repeat every weekday at the same time. The Glow Lights brighten up gradually over 30 minutes by default, though there is an option to choose how long each light stays on after it has reached total brightness. You can also sync multiple lights for a beautiful light show right in your bedroom. My paired Glow Lights set a tranquil atmosphere that helped me wind down. The app also has an option to name your lights if you have more than one (the default names for mine were Sparky and Beanie). It's a fun feature that makes it easier to differentiate the two.

Falling asleep to the Glow Lights was very relaxing; they set such a calming mood with mellow warm lights that prepare your body for deep rest. The default cycle starts out as brighter light that gradually dims. They work well as reading lights for a few minutes, which is great because as soon as it's too dim to continue reading, you know to put your book down and close your eyes. (You can choose to pause it too if you want to continue reading.)

I love that each light is portable; the night light is activated with a simple wiggle, and cruising through the house with the light at night when I had to use the bathroom or get a drink of water felt much more calming than turning on the overheads. 

Waking up in the morning with the Glow Lights was also a very enjoyable experience. The lights got bright enough over time to successfully and gently wake me up, and I felt refreshed and ready to tackle my day.

Casper designers intentionally developed this device as a smart light to help you fall asleep and to create a pleasant wake-up experience. It's based on science and its simplicity and ingenuity make it an exceptional product, which is how it made it to our top picks in our buying guide.

Cons to consider

The device lacks many of the key features that other sunrise alarm clocks provide. It does not make any alarm sounds and instead focuses solely on light therapy. Even though the lights are bright enough to wake up light sleepers like me, the Glow might not be the best option for heavy sleepers who require a sound alarm to wake up, or for those who like more robust features to help you fall asleep.

If you're interested in something with more features, you should take a look at the Hatch Restore or the Philips Smartsleep Connected. 

Even though its basic functions work without the app, you need the app to schedule wake-up times, which means you must have a smart device with Bluetooth capability if you want the light to wake you up. 

The bottom line

I recommend this product to those who want to avoid turning on bright lights in the middle of the night, and to those who like simpler, sleeker, and effortless devices. I really like the Casper Glow Lights because they're exclusively designed to lull you into slumber and gently wake you up, with no superfluous extra features. They're conveniently portable for nighttime awakenings, they look great anywhere in the bedroom, and are fun to carry around the house in the evening.

Ultimately, they can be a perfect addition to your bedtime routine. I think most people will be pleased with how well they work and how much they can improve sleep quality.

Pros: Beautiful warm lights, portable, pairs with multiple Glow Lights for a bedroom light show, intuitive and easy to operate with simple gestures
Cons: Lacks sound, requires smartphone app for expanded features like setting sleep and wake times