For hot cognition, steller sleep, and relentless libido...
Having heard and read so much about the transformative power of infrared light, I was delighted when the Bulgarian customs office cleared my Bodylight Mini Red from EndAllDisease.com. Switching it on for the first time, I thought, wow that's beautifully brilliant red light! Check out this unboxing video...
I used it for the first time with my wife, we just laid down together in front of the light for about 20 minutes. I'm not sure if it had much of an effect on my sleep, although I did wake up about an hour earlier than normal the next day.
I've been using it for 6 months now and it's become a cornerstone of my daily biohacking, here are my observations and how I'm using it...
Waking up, heroically
Almost every day we use it a few times, first thing in the morning I get naked, sit in a comfy chair and blast my balls with red light for about 15 minutes while doing energetic breathing exercises with my Heartmath device, then I readjust the light so it shines on my face and body for about another 10 minutes while reviewing foreign language vocabulary (or whatever I'm learning) with the SuperMemo app.
The effect I noticed first was the libido enhancement, after about a week of blasting my balls with red light. One night I woke up feeling very horny with a raging boner, I woke up my wife and banged her righteously (which she appreciated!) I haven't had my testosterone levels tested but since I've been using the red light, I've been feeling more energized and motivated.
Red light is a Nootropic
Red light does have a subtle Nootropic effect when you shine it directly on the crown of your head, I'll often do a mid-day session lying down on my bed with the light directly against my head while I meditate with the Heartmath Inner Balance sensor. I find the two to be synergistic biohacking technologies, the Heartmath device gives me something to do while I'm getting my brain blasted by red light. 15 minutes of infrared light on your head, especially in combination with meditation listening to Brain.fm's Halosync-style tracks unleash a sublime state of enhanced cognition, creativity, and "coherence" lasting an hour or two. I hit my top HRV coherence score thanks to red light therapy.
I got the Bodylight Mini along with Heartmath's emWave and Inner Balance. Since I got the three biohacking devices I've noticed that I've been a lot more consistent with the habits in my Coach.me dashboard, this speaks to the motivational power of sunk cost - when you spend money on something, particularly a tool for empowering health and personal growth you become just a lot more motivated to practice your healthy habits.
Lamp
The Bodylight Mini has a 50,000-hour lifetime, which is pretty impressive, which means that you could run it for about 12 hours a day for a decade! So we just use it as a lamp in the evenings, it is brilliant enough that pointing it at the ceiling bathes the whole room in a cool red glow. We just switch on the red light, not the infrared when we use it as a lamp. If you want great, rejuvenating sleep it's important to avoid junk light for 2-3 hours before bedtime, the kinds of lights we all have in our homes expose us to blue light after sunset which disrupts the circadian rhythm and actually causes premature aging. This pristine light primes us for great sleep.
Sleep hack
I've experimented with a number of sleep hacks - Magnesium, CBD, C60, etc - and shining on the red light on my body for 15-20 minutes has an equal effect, as far as I can tell. I'll set by the edge of the bed and shine it on my back (about 6-12 inches away) while I cuddle with my wife. The red light assuages the bit of back and neck strain that I often have after a long day of working on my computer (yes, I know, I need a standing desk!) Often, I'll drift off to sleep this way, then I roll over, switch off the light, and get some awesome sleep.
Pain relief?
Fortunately, I don't have any pain issues but my father-in-law had five herniated disks, he was in a lot of pain and had to undergo a difficult surgery. Then he began doing red light therapy daily. After two months he experienced great pain relief and restoration of mobility and canceled the second surgery that his doctors told him he would need. That's a major win!
How does it feel? Sort of like sunbathing, the red light has a soothing, relaxing effect and the light's cooling fan produces a quiet hum.
I'm pretty pleased with the durability of the device; it's never not worked right. We have "drop tested" it; we accidentally dropped it on the floor twice, and it hasn't broken or had any issues. The cord that came with the device did break after a few months, which was very cheap to replace. The second cord has now frayed a bit - these cheapo, made-in-china power cords, seem designed to fall apart in about 90-days, frustratingly!
Living in chilly Eastern Europe, I'm bereft of the sunlight we humans need for a few months out of the year, so I'm thankful to have this thing! I added Red Light Therapy as a daily goal in Coach.me.
I once wrote an article entitled, The only Biohacking device I’d buy about Heartmath's devices and I'll have to update that article because this red light certainly counts as a biohacking device and the more I use the Heartmath devices the more ambivalent I am about them. My Bodylight mini is $270 which might seem a little spendy compared to health supplements, but the more you read up on the science of photobiomodulation, the more you'll see that's it's a pretty fantastic value. Really good supplements are going to run you $40-$70 dollars and they'll be gone in a month or two whereas this red light will empower your health in a number of dimensions for years!
