Casper Glow Light Review: The $129 Nightstand Light is Awesome

I’ve loved my pair of Casper Glow Lights for the year that I’ve had them, but they’re not a practical purchase for most ($229 for a pair).

The idea behind these lights is that they’ll improve your sleep.

They start bright, then slowly dim for 30 minutes to “cue your body for bed,” then slowly brighten in the morning to wake you up more efficiently than an alarm.

How They Work

• When you flip the Glow Light upside down, it turns on and then slowly dims as time elapses. It’ll turn off when you flip it back.
• If you press the top, the light stays in its current state and stops the automatic dim.
• When the light is on, you can twist it to the right to dim, or to the left to brighten. The lights are battery-powered, so they don’t need to be docked at all times.
• If you shake the light gently, it turns on dimly. This is great for when you wake up in the middle of the night and need to go to the bathroom or get water without waking anyone up.

Things I Love

• They feel like a premium product due to their weight and sleek polycarbonate finish.
• The Glow Light doesn’t have a top or bottom. It’s perfectly symmetrical. Either end can act as the on or off mode.
• The light is easy on the eyes at night. It’s a nice warm white, that looks yellowish.
• You get seven hours of light before it needs to return to the dock, but you’ll want to leave it on the wireless charging pad most of the time.
• The lights are fully functional without using an app.
• You’ll get extra features if you use the app:
• A pair of lights can be synced together.
• You can schedule alarms. The light will slowly start to brighten 30 minutes before your wake up time, then get to full brightness at your wake time. Then, you can set the lights to linger at full brightness for 30 minutes. Two Glow Lights can go off together or the alarm be set on an individual basis.
• When it’s bedtime, you can pick your default brightness level and how long you want the dimming period to be. When I come into the bedroom at night, I flip over the light on my side of the bed and it dims for 30 minutes until it’s completely off. I’m usually dead asleep by the time the light goes completely off. I don’t know what it is, but it’s super relaxing.

Things I Hate

• One light probably isn’t powerful enough to wake you up if you’re not facing in the direction of the light.
• $229 for a pair of bedside lights is a lot of money. It’s not a rational decision, but if I had to do it again, I would.
• There’s no support for Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit, or any other smart platforms. Integrations aren’t necessary, but it’s something that I expect for $229.
• You can’t schedule them to turn on. You can only manually turn them on by flipping them.
• After about eight months, my charging dock stopped working, but Casper hooked me up with a new one for free.

Missing Features

• Other nightstand lights have white noise generators built-in.
• Casper Glow only has one color, but others have multiple colors.

Alternatives

• Philips SmartSleep Connected displays multiple colors and has a speaker. You can wake up to unique sounds, like birds chirping, along with the light brightening. It also monitors your bedroom’s temperature, noise, light and humidity levels.
• Philips Wake-Up Light is a cheaper version of the SmartSleep Connected that has multiple colors and a speaker, but it doesn’t monitor your bedroom’s data.
• AUKEY Bedside Lamp is great if you want something that like looks like the Casper Glow Light for a quarter of the price. You won’t get gradual dimming or an alarm function, but it’s an affordable alternative.