If you have an Allay Lamp, you’ve likely already experienced some of the positive effects of its patented, narrow-band green light. Even still, when we talk to our community members, we find that many of them are enjoying more benefits from the light than they ever expected.
In this article, we want to share some of the many ways you can use your portable, dimmable, and side-effect-free Allay Lamp to improve your quality of life — from soothing and potentially preventing migraine symptoms to enjoying better sleep, higher productivity, and more. Chances are, you’ll find some new and even life-changing uses for something you already have!
1. Soothe your photophobia.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Use your Allay Lamp to find soothing relief from photophobia, which might otherwise make activities like work, reading, or even relaxing unbearable. It’s as simple as minimizing other light sources, flipping on your Allay Lamp, and adjusting it to your preferred brightness.
Why It Works
Photophobia is an extreme sensitivity to light that can cause pain or discomfort for those who experience it. It’s a symptom of several conditions ranging from a variety of retinal degenerative diseases to meningitis, migraine, and COVID-19.
The science behind the Allay Lamp actually originates from groundbreaking research that demystifies how light exacerbates headache. In 2010, a team led by Dr. Rami Burstein published a paradigm-shifting study that, for the first time, identified the physiological basis of why light makes the headache feel unbearably painful: a pathway originating in intrinsically photo-sensitive retinal ganglion cells that get activated mainly by blue light.
Building on this discovery, Dr. Burstein embarked on another five years of research to understand whether all colors of light have the same aversive effect on the headache. His research team exposed participants to various wavelengths of light - white (regular room light), blue (light emitted by TVs, cell phones, and computers), green, amber, and red - and observed that only a narrow band of green light did not worsen the headache. To date, the only source of this unique narrow-band green light available to patients is the patented Allay Lamp. Our many customers find that the Allay Lamp eases rather than worsens their headache, likely because it calms down activity in hyperactive neurons in the brain.
2. Find relief during a migraine.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Turning your Allay Lamp on in the midst of a migraine attack can reduce photophobia, relieve the headache intensity, and in many cases, lessen other debilitating symptoms of migraine. For best results, eliminate other light sources by drawing your curtains and turning off other lights.
Why It Works
In the study described above, Dr. Burstein worked with groups of patients who found that most light makes their headache more painful. In doing so, he discovered that light affects much more than just the headache.
His research suggests that additional pathways between the eye and the brain can explain how narrow-band green light may help those experiencing difficulty finding words, understanding what they hear, remembering what they just learned, and more. This may be why so many of our customers find the Allay Lamp soothing, relaxing, and comforting well beyond its alleviating effect on their headache.
3. Reduce migraine frequency.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Recent research suggests that using narrow-band green light for one to two continuous hours every day may potentially help reduce the number of migraine attacks you experience per month by 50% or more. (We recommend one to two hours before bed each night with other sources of light turned off for maximum results.)
Why It Works
Dr. Burstein’s work related to photophobia and migraine has paved the way for a wave of promising research into the broad spectrum of narrow-band green light’s therapeutic potential. New research published in 2020 suggests that consistent exposure to narrow-band green light not only soothes symptoms during a migraine attack, but also may reduce the number of headache days per month in both chronic and episodic migraineurs.
The study in question worked with a sample of 29 patients (22 chronic migraineurs and 7 episodic migraineurs) over the course of several months. For 10 weeks, participants were exposed to one to two hours of white-light-emitting diodes daily. They were then given a two-week rest period before another 10 weeks of daily light exposure, where participants were exposed to narrow-band green light as opposed to white light.
The results were astonishingly impressive. Researchers found that the number of headache days per month reduced by at least half in 86% of episodic migraineurs and 63% amongst chronic migraineurs.
4. Provide safe migraine relief for children.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Use the Allay Lamp to soothe and prevent migraine attacks in your kids, all while providing them with a fun, green light they’ll love.
Why It Works
For parents, pediatric migraine treatment presents a dilemma. While there are no migraine medications approved by the FDA for children under the age of 12, some doctors may recommend medications not approved for treating migraine - a practice commonly referred to as “off-label” prescribing. These medications may offer short-term relief for children, but there is still much that needs to be understood about the long-term effects of their usage during what are arguably a child’s most formative years.
Parents in search of safe, non-pharmaceutical alternatives to migraine treatment for their kids now have a viable option thanks to the Allay Lamp. Completely non-invasive with zero negative side-effects in children or adults, Allay Lamp’s narrow-band green light may provide effective migraine prevention for kids. Plus, children are bound to find ways to have fun with the green glow of the light.
5. Switch from blue light to green light before bed.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Minimize blue-light exposure from devices and switch to narrow-band green light in the hours before bed. This keeps your circadian rhythms in alignment and allows you to enjoy higher quality sleep.
Why It Works
Digital devices aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but the blue light emitted by their LED screens may lead to a number of detrimental health effects. In fact, research has suggested that:
- Blue light negatively affects sleep quality.
- Blue light is damaging to the eyes.
- Blue light causes skin to age more rapidly.
- Blue light exacerbates photophobia.
- Blue light contributes to age-related disorders.
- Blue light may accelerate neurodegeneration.
- Blue light may increase risk of certain cancers.
Many of these effects are the result of after-hours blue light exposure, as it throws our natural circadian rhythms out of balance. Circadian rhythms are the 24-hour cycles that govern our internal clocks. These internal clocks are crucial for telling the body when to carry out specific processes we depend on for our health. The circadian rhythm that is most commonly known is the sleep-wake cycle.
Since the sun emits blue light, it tells our bodies when it’s time to wake up and when it’s time to go to bed. When we use blue-light-emitting devices after sundown, we introduce a signal that’s in direct contradiction to our sleep-wake cycle and other circadian rhythms, which can lead to the negative health effects listed above. Since the Allay Lamp only emits narrow-band green light, it does not contribute to circadian disruption, making it the perfect nighttime light.
6. Illuminate your reading with the Allay Lamp.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Use the Allay Lamp or Allay Desk Light to provide the light you need to read, adjusting the brightness as needed.
Why It Works
Most of us depend on blue or white light to illuminate our reading at night, which can exacerbate migraine symptoms and photophobia. The light you’re using could even trigger a migraine attack if it has a flickering quality. The Allay Lamp provides plenty of flicker-free illumination for reading, while soothing both photophobia and migraine symptoms, so your reading doesn’t have to get cut short.
7. Give kids a night light with added benefits.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
A simple switch to Allay as a night light can lead to better quality of sleep for your children, while also soothing and even preventing migraine attacks in kids with pediatric migraine.
Why It Works
Many younger children sleep with a night light, but as we mentioned earlier in this post, the light it emits can have a negative effect on their health. If it’s an LED night light, it emits blue light that diminishes your child’s quality of sleep. If it’s not an LED bulb, it is likely still emitting white light, which can have an exacerbating effect on migraine symptoms and photophobia for kids who experience pediatric migraine.
In contrast, Allay's narrow band of green light soothes the brain and helps promote a full night of restful sleep.
8. Use your Allay Lamp or Desk Light while working.
How to Use Your Allay Lamp
Opt out of other light sources such as fluorescent lights or LED desk lamps in your workspace by replacing them with the Allay Lamp or Allay Desk Light.
Why It Works
If a migraine strikes in the office, fluorescent lights and natural light flooding through large windows do little to help. For migraineurs, an attack during work often means an end to the work day. If you’re someone who has experienced this, you’re far from alone: on days of an attack, 9 out of 10 migraineurs report being unable to continue on with their work. A whopping 157 million work days are lost every year to migraine episodes. In the U.S. alone, this directly and indirectly costs the economy about $14 billion annually. For migraineurs, the situation is further complicated by the stress that comes with having to play catch-up from unforeseen time off. ( Stress is one of the five most prevalent migraine triggers.)
But as more companies move to a remote or hybrid work model following the COVID-19 pandemic, it presents a unique opportunity for migraineurs to create environments that are more conducive to migraine management. Switching to narrow-band green light as a source of illumination for your workspace, coupled with blue-light blocking apps available on both computers and smartphones, has the potential to soothe and even prevent migraine attacks.
Ready to reap the benefits of the Allay Lamp?
Looking for more Light Reading from our team?
- Green Light Therapy: Everything You Need to Know
- The Science Behind The Allay Lamp
- Understanding the Effects of Blue Light
