After the first week of setting up Philips Hue lights in my bedroom, I was fantasizing about an ability to have them slowly fade out at night. I thought perhaps it could signal me to start getting nice and sleepy for bed. Well, it turns out this is totally possible and fairly easy to set up — and the end result is pure relaxation.
If you haven’t bought the Philips Hue lights, then you can get started by buying the starter kit on Amazon which comes with 2 bulbs + Hue Bridge hub. All you need is the free Philips Hue app for iPhone and of course some working Hue lights to control. You can set the amount of time it takes to fade, what time they begin to fade, and even have the lights fade in as well. Here’s how.
How to Fade Out Philips Hue Lights
Open the Philips Hue app to view your list of connected lights or organized rooms. In the bottom navigation bar, tap the Routines tab.
You’ll see three presets: Home & Away, Wake up, and Go to sleep. For our purposes, tap the “Go to sleep” one. If for whatever reason you want your lights to fade out even if you are not going to sleep, you can still select this preset.
Tap the + icon at the bottom right to begin a new “Go to sleep” routine. By default, this routine will change the color temperature of your lights to a warmer hue and gradually fade them out for the amount of time you specify. This only affects lights that are already turned on at the time the routine begins. Additionally, if you don’t have Hue lights that support color temperature, your white bulbs will just fade out without changing color.
Select the time you want the fade out to begin as well as the days that this routine should be active. Then tap Fade out to choose the amount of time you want the lights to fade out for. You can choose either 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes or 60 minutes.
Tap Where? to select up to four rooms where you want this routine to take place, or choose Home for your entire residence. Finally, tap Save at the top right to complete your fade out routine.
Create Your Own Custom Routine
If you want different amounts of time to fade out your lights or don’t want the warmer hue, you should create your own routine instead of using the “Go to sleep” preset.
To do this, tap “My routines” on the main Routines tab. Press the + icon to begin crafting yours. Once again, you need to pick a time for the fade out to begin and the days this goes into effect.
However, you now have options for both types of fade. You can have these lights go on instantly at the specified time, or fade in/out for a period of time. Tap Fade to choose a period of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes or instant. If all the lights in the room are on, the effect works as a fade-out. If they’re all off, the effect works to fade them in.
Lastly, select either your entire Home or the individual rooms where this routine applies and tap Save.
