Frequently Asked Questions

Have Questions? We have answers.

Best Use Q&A

It’s best if TUO’s light is the dominant light near you. TUO Circadian Smart Bulbs work best when you’re within 6 ft (2m) of the bulb. If you have multiple bulbs in the same area, TUO's effects are magnifying so you can be further away. Be especially careful to stay close during your wake mode. This is the mode most impacted by distance.

Use Wake mode right when you wake up. This is the most important time to be exposed to circadian influencing light. This will not only improve your sleep, but will also improve your mood and alertness throughout the day. For users who wake up hours before the desired wake-up time, additional exposure to Wake mode may be required 2-3 hours prior to going to sleep. It may take 2-4 weeks of morning light therapy to see full sleep improvement. This won’t be permanent, so continue usage to maintain your circadian rhythm health.

Use Wake mode in the morning and Active mode throughout the day to improve and maintain focus. If you're slowing down after a large lunch or have an afternoon slump, use Wake mode for 15-20 minutes to get a boost of energy.

Use Wake mode in the morning upon waking to start the day off right. Then use Active mode throughout the day to keep your circadian system stimulated. Additional 15-minute therapy sessions with Wake mode may be required. Simply fire off Wake mode in short bursts when you need a boost.

Use Wake mode for 15-30 minutes upon waking up and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

A few days in advance of travel, begin using Wake mode for approximately 30 minutes for every hour that you will be losing or gaining. If traveling east, use Wake mode in the morning upon waking up for the suggested amount of time (in addition to your normal Wake mode schedule). If traveling west, use Wake mode in the evening to delay your circadian rhythm. You can also do this upon arrival at your new destination.
Stay tuned for app enhancements to help with jet lag scheduling and tips.

Whether it's for work or for play, we all have times where we need to stay awake and alert long past our normal sleep time. TUO's modes can help you do this. Switch to Active mode instead of Calm mode to prevent winding down, and use Wake mode for 15-30 minutes around the time you usually go to bed. If you feel yourself fading, use Wake mode in short bursts to re-focus and re-energize.

Science Q&A

TUO's lighting technology modulates the "dawn detectors" in the retina to create a highly stimulating light at normal room lighting levels (~90-150 lux at the eye) -- this is the only lighting technology that provides any circadian influence at that level. TUO provides influence even as low as ~20 lux. Lighting products that claim to have circadian benefit provide little to no circadian influence at standard lighting levels. Other lighting products require high intensity light, up to 10,000 lux, to provide circadian benefit. TUO's light provides full benefit at less than 250 lux.

TUO’s circadian lighting technology uses spectral opponent modulation. The time averaged spectral power curve looks similar to that of standard LED lighting spectral power curves with the exception of having a “hill” or “peak” in the 420nm range. This stimulates retinal cones under normal room lighting levels and is much less than what is required for static Circadian Phase stimulating light. Typical requirements are between 5000-10000 lux at the retina to have any sort of phase influence. Spectral opponency works because our eyes have "dawn-detectors." These were recently discovered by the University of Washington and are theorized to be how circadian rhythms are set to a day/night schedule. TUO's patented ability to influence these detectors is what makes our product unique.
Read the article that explains this at UW Newsroom: Let There Be Circadian Light.

TUO impacts this by making the lights around you at home and the office healthy for your ideal circadian performance. Screens are generally too dim to affect circadian health.

Web Site Q&A

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Bulb Connectivity Q&A

No, your TUO Circadian Smart Bulbs use your Wifi network and the TUO Life App. We minimize the hardware you need.

Having a Wifi connection is required to use your TUO Circadian Smart Bulbs. This is used during setup and especially when we update your lighting mode based on your circadian schedule. If the bulb loses Wifi, it will work as a regular light bulb with traditional white LEDs until it gets a connection again. For best results, keep your bulb connected to Wifi.

Your TUO Circadian Smart Bulb uses a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) signal to communicate to your phone or tablet on setup. After that, your bulb communicates directly with the cloud via Wifi, just like most other IoT devices in your home and office.

We send a signal via Wifi when there is a user-triggered change or your circadian schedule says it's time to change light modes. TUO does not continuously send signals to your light although there is a fairly constant pulse connecting your bulb to our network. This does not impact your Wifi bandwidth in any noticeable way.

In the TUO Life App, navigate to the room that the bulb is in. Click on the "Wifi" symbol and walk through the steps to connect your bulb to your updated or new Wifi network.

Bulb Q&A

Power your TUO Circadian Smart Bulb off and on at the switch 5-6 times allowing the bulb to momentarily turn on each time before powering off. When the factory reset is initiated, you should see the bulb flash red and then run through its startup sequence. Once this completes, restart the bulb and allow it to boot and reconnect to the app.

TUO’s lighting technology uses spectral opponent modulation to stimulate the retinal cones. This may cause an apparent color flicker which will be more prevalent in Wake mode and visible to some people – this is due to Wake mode being our most stimulating mode. Slightly dimming the mode will reduce the flicker. If flicker appears in Calm mode, the bulb is defective.

It is most likely defective. Even though we test 100% of our bulbs, things can rattle loose during shipping. Please contact info@thetuolife.com if you run into this issue.

The life expectancy of this bulb is similar to that of any LED smart bulb. Our life expectancy is 25,000 hours, and we offer a two-year limited warranty.

Active and Calm modes have a CRI of >80.

App Functionality Q&A

The app to connect to your TUO Circadian Smart Bulbs is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Android Play Store. On your phone or tablet, search for the TUO Life App, download the app and follow the steps in the app to sign up, connect to wifi, set your custom circadian schedule and more.

The TUO Life App creates a custom circadian schedule for your lights based on your current circadian rhythm. Your age affects the amount and type of light that passes through your lens and hits your retina so we adjust for this when we create your circadian schedule to ensure that you get just the right amount of light. Your chronotype (night owl, early riser, rooster) helps us understand how out of phase your current circadian rhythm is so that we can further customize your circadian schedule. Your chronotype can change with time so for best results, make sure to keep your information in the app current.

If you use an auto-populate function on your password field, the app may create an extra character or space in front of the password. Click on the “eye” icon in the password line to verify that it's populating correctly. Keep in mind that our app and our shopping site do not share login credentials. If you haven’t used the TUO Life App before, you will need to sign up to get started.

In the Home screen, select the On/Off Schedules tab at the bottom of the screen and select the (+) to add a new schedule to an individual room, or multiple rooms. Fade in and fade out allows for a gradual increase or decrease in brightness when scheduling the bulb to turn on or off.

Your circadian schedule is your body's clock. This controls when you naturally wake up and when you start to feel sleepy. Your circadian schedule in the TUO Life App is the schedule we use to send different light modes to help you wake up and go to sleep more naturally. This is based on your wake and sleep times, your age and your chronotype (night-owl, early bird, rooster) which you set as part of account creation. These can also be updated in your profile.

No issue other than missing out on the circadian benefits of TUO lighting. Once your circadian schedule is set, just use your lights normally and the TUO Life App will run the right light modes at the right time for you automatically. If you do use a switch, turn the toggle to the ON position in the app and each time the bulb is powered on it will connect to the cloud and automatically go to your circadian schedule.

The circadian lighting modes are designed to look like a white light. You can pick your preferred color temperature range. The circadian lighting technology is independent of visual colors so whether you like bright white or warm candle light - you get to pick your preference.