Can The Bon Charge LED Blanket Improve Your Wellness? I Tried It To Find Out

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I don’t not consider myself not a woo woo person. As a shopping writer, I’m not exactly immune to trying the latest wellness fads and figuring out how to optimise my health.

I’ve tried sleep headbands, greens powders, and fitness trackers. So when BON CHARGE launched its new method, a guided wellness experience designed to help integrate recovery and biohacking into your daily life, I was desperate to try it out.

The method, led by ‘personal trainer to the stars’ Flik Swan, is intended to complement the brand’s offering of red light therapy and PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field, FYI) devices.

Hosted on YouTube, Swan leads users through an immersive wellness routine that correlates with their product of choice, blending functional strength training with breathwork, relaxation techniques, and recovery.

To give you a taste of what that actually means, if you’re already the proud owner of a BON CHARGE PEMF mat, Swan will guide you through a sound bath meditation, or if you’re inclined to a red light therapy panel, you’ll do a 360 sculpt workout while it shines on you.

Personally, I was curious about the brand’s red light therapy blanket and face mask.

When they first arrived at my house, my first thought was: holy fuck, what have I got myself into?

The blanket alone arrived in a huge box, which was propped up ominously in my room during the heatwave until I had the strength to unbox it.

The BON CHARGE website promises that the blanket delivers lab-grade infrared and near-infrared light across your body, which is supposed to help support muscle recovery, healthier looking skin, better sleep, and relaxation when used as a sleeping bag.

But, after finally lugging the blanket (which weighs a cool 10kg, BTW) up the stairs, I knew I had to start with Swan’s sculpt and stretch routine before getting snug.

Created for time-poor professionals, this 20-minute routine aims to support flexibility, mobility and daily performance rituals by delivering the red light around your whole body as you stretch and flex.

After lying the blanket flat on the floor and connecting all the different wires, the blanket can be easily unzipped to create a red light therapy mat.

I’d just been to the gym that morning, so it felt like the right time to test whether the blanket could help improve my recovery and avoid the next-day stiffness I so often experience after doing strength training.

Swan instructs you to turn the red light up to intensity level five, before she talks you through a series of toe taps, leg raises, lunges and stretches.

The instruction manual (which you have to search online; there isn’t one included) encourages you to wear the goggles included while using the blanket.

However, Swan doesn’t mention this during the video or wear them herself, so I decided to just go without so I could actually see what I was doing during the routine.

And thank god I did. I don’t know if I set the mat up right, but it kept slipping and sliding around on my wooden floors, making it feel quite unsafe while I was lunging in a variety of uncompromising positions.

Although 20 minutes on the mat felt extremely ‘active’, as the brand warned me it might, I wish the video had gone on for longer, as Swan only holds each pose for a matter of seconds.

That meant that not only was I trying to balance on an unstable surface, but I barely had time to settle into the pose before being moved on to the next one.

Add to that the fact I was trying to avoid looking at the light, and it was over before I knew it. I’ll spare you photos of myself doing it, because no one needs to see that.

Now, I was hoping the method would help me stretch after a session at the gym. But instead, I felt like I’d done another workout, which is something to be aware of it you’re after a more relaxing experience.

To balance out the lack of relaxation, I then decided to try the BON CHARGE method for the red light face mask.

Instead of having to move around, this routine combines red light therapy with lymphatic drainage massage and a manifestation ritual.

As an avid user of skincare devices, I love the ritual of sculpting and massaging my face.

And, let’s be real, I love lying down, so this method was a much more enjoyable routine for me, and one I could see myself coming back to.

It also adds an interesting mindful elements into using a skincare device that I’ve not seen done elsewhere.

While usually I’ll pop on a face mask while watching Real Housewives and call it a night (or a 10 minutes) this requires you to focus on your breath, think about your body, and integrate your skin with your overall wellness routine.

Naturally, I felt much more grounded after the method, and my face even felt less puffy thanks to the neck and head movements Swan recommended.

After not noticing much of a difference the day after doing the BON CHARGE method with my blanket, I decided to try it the OG way: by lying in it like a sleeping bag.

The reviews on the website claim that it helped with better sleep, improved their recovery, and skin.

Here’s where I have to admit I was a little sceptical. Immediately, the set up of it all pissed me off because it was decidedly not relaxing trying to figure out how to plug in the multiple cables while also having a heavy ass blanket in my bed (not to mention the time I spent putting it away again).

But once I was all tucked up in my blanket, with a book, and had it set to the second intensity, I was immediately eating my words.

Within seconds, I could feel my body relaxing. A pain in my foot started throbbing and then afterwards seemingly disappeared. My eyes were beginning to droop, and after the storing debacle I had one of the best sleeps of my life.

My sore muscles from pilates also dissipated overnight.

• Helps integrate wellness into your every day life
• The red light helps with relaxation and muscle recovery (a little too well)
• The face mask is easy to set up
• I like that you can use the blanket as an exercise mat, but you might need to put an actual mat underneath
• The BON CHARGE method is clear and a new take on wellness

• It’s extremely expensive
• The blanket is heavy
• Instructions aren’t always clear
• I don’t know how you’d store the blanket

Over the last couple of years, our obsession with skin health (not just on the face) and longevity has boomed.

Wellness is now, thankfully, much more holistic, and the BON CHARGE method has done a good job of blending fitness with relaxation and mindfulness.

My second experience with the red light blanket changed my mind almost entirely about what red light was capable of. It certainly helped me to relax, and with my recovery as a whole, just as the website suggested.

Of course, sites like BON CHARGE are focused on longevity, and building rituals over time, so it’s unlikely you’ll see instant results. But, the idea of integrating devices into your training and recovery to make it more active and considered is something people are already on board with.

My main problem with the method was the lack of clear instructions about set up. It would have been helpful to put a mat underneath the blanket to stop it from sliding, but this wasn’t mentioned.

Plus, although the manual claims you should not use red light on tattooed skin, it was almost unavoidable to have my tattooed arms touching the mat during the sculpt and stretch method; I had to keep my arms out of the blanket like a t-rex when I was lying in it the second time.

I also have absolutely no idea how to store this. The blanket is fairly bulky (and did I mention heavy?) which, for me, detracted from the relaxing element of it all when I was huffing and puffing trying to fold it up and fit it back into a small space.

But maybe people who have a spare £1.5k lying around to spend on a red light device have more storage space than I do. The cost might be astronomical; but at least it’s for good reason. This is a serious piece of tech, and one that could change your wellbeing for the better.

Whether it takes one use or years to find out its benefits is yet to be seen, but for me, a good night’s sleep is priceless.

If you’re serious about longevity, and can afford it, it’s worth a try to have your own recovery device at home.