We have had some very unusual things arrive in the office at GadgetHead but this is one of my favourites. In 2007 a couple Finnish guys began on working on ways to deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which is a big problem in Finland in the winter months as some parts of the country can receive as little as 4hours of sunlight a day. Traditionally the way SAD is treated is by spending time in front of a light box and letting your eyes and skin receive a UV free dose of replica sunlight, now I don’t have the space here to explain why this works (there are plenty of published papers and websites dedicated to that) but it turns out that the light therapy can also be received through the ears.

As more and more people began to feel the benefit of light therapy it started getting used for treatments other than SAD such as jet lag and so the Human Charger was born. The Human Charger is used in conjunction with an app that tells you when to pop the ear buds in your ear and receive your 12 minute dose, you might have a slight glow about your ears but other than that it is discrete and comfortable to use. There are other products out there that involve wearing an eye mark or glasses to receive the light treatment but this seems like a bit of an inconvenience and nightmare for the self-conscious. There is so much to like with the human charger it is beautiful, simple to use with a one button operation system, comfortable and innovative but does it work? I still feel that the jury is out on this one, I used it exactly as instructed and it may have sped up the jet lag recovery process but I didn’t have any obvious breath taking results. If you are regularly hopping time zones the science says this product will help you and with jet lag being such a horrible debilitating thing it is definitely worth a try. RRP £179

3 out of 5

Buy now

Pros

Looks great

Discrete

Easy to use

Comfortable

Cons

Pricey