As much as I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally, it has done wonders for my sleep. I set them to slowly dim over a 45 minute period at night and slowly turn on over a 45 minute period in the morning. I have consistently gotten 8+ hours of amazing sleep and fall asleep + wake up so much easier now than I ever have before.
> I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally
Only a few years ago, one could program MagicLight bulbs pretty easily. It seems their newer versions use a different protocol that hasn't been reverse-engineered, so you're stuck using their crappy phone app. I would probably consider spending a reasonable amount on bulbs if I could self-host -- mostly because I want arbitrary control/fine-tuning of them.
> As much as I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally
Have you checked DigiblurDIY's Youtube channel, Discord server and subreddit? Some of these can run alternative firmwares like Tasmota, OpenBeken or ESPHome.
As much as I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally, it has done wonders for my sleep. I set them to slowly dim over a 45 minute period at night and slowly turn on over a 45 minute period in the morning. I have consistently gotten 8+ hours of amazing sleep and fall asleep + wake up so much easier now than I ever have before.