If you want to surprise someone with a unique gift, a Himalayan salt lamp may be the way to go. Salt lamps are becoming ever more increasingly popular for a variety of reasons, but you may not have heard of them before. So before spelling out what benefits of salt lamps, a quick introduction.
Himalayan salt lamps are made from, you guessed it, Himalayan salt. This special pink salt is mined from a specific region of the world in Northern Pakistan, and found nowhere else. It was formed more than 250 million years ago!
A chunk of pink salt is carefully hollowed from the centre in order to turn it into a salt lamp. So every time you see a pinkish orange salt lamp you are actually looking at a dinosaur rock!
The ultimate night lights!
As unique and interesting as the history of salt lamps are. They are more than just rocks, in-fact they have multiple benefits. One of the best uses of salt lamps is as night lights.
The reddish orange colour that salt lamps emit when turned on, is the same wavelength frequency as that of a sunset, and studies have shown that this kind of lighting is the best for promoting a healthy circadian rhythm (our internal sleep clock).
On the other hand blue and violet light does the opposite and disrupts our sleep. Unfortunately, all of our handheld devices, smartphones, tablets and TV’s emit a lot of the blue/violet spectrum of light. Salt lamp’s are a great way to neutralize some of this harmful light.
Salt lamps are often bought by parents with children who have trouble sleeping, or by patients of insomnia. Just remember to get a salt lamp with a dimmer switch so you can adjust the brightness to your liking.
Nature’s air purifiers.
Have you ever been inside a salt cave or salt room? Salt cave’s have been used for treating breathing difficulties for 100s of years. Since the 1850s in Poland, and even before that in the Himalayas, yogis and patients often visited salt caves to clear their breathing passages.
This is because salt, in large quantities, cleanses the air. Although a salt lamp can’t have the same effect as a salt cave or room, it still helps clean the air and many salt lamp owners experience improved breathing after getting one or more salt lamps.
The way a salt lamp does this is by drawing in moisture from the room (a natural property of salt). The microscopic water droplets that are sucked in by the salt lamp, carry with them trapped particles of dust and pollen, thus leaving the air dry, crisp and clean.
It’s all about aesthetics!
Apart from the different benefits salt lamps offer lets not forget that they also simply look gorgeous as home décor.
Salt lamps are extracted from the salt mines and carved using good old axe and chisel. Without any chemicals or additives, salt lamps retain a beautiful earthy, rocky look, with partial transparency to light and an even more beautiful glow once turned on, what’s not to love about salt lamps?
They can be combined with different coloured bulbs as well, and even come in different varieties, from dark red, to pink, to the rare white Himalayan salt and the even rarer grey Himalayan salt.
All in all salt lamps make a great gift for any age group, and have uses that apply to almost everyone. When buying a salt lamp, make sure you are going for an authentic salt lamp that has “made in Pakistan” written somewhere on the packaging. Follow this simple rule and you can’t go wrong!
By Eddie Gillani,
The Salt Lamp Shop
