The screen on your mobile device or computer normally emits a blue light that's fine for daytime use but can disrupt your sleep at night. That's because blue light stimulates your brain and fools it into thinking it's daytime, potentially keeping you awake if you use your device before bedtime.
While several studies have found that blue light can hinder your sleep, other studies have found the impact to be minimal, at least in small doses. With the data still inconclusive, limiting your exposure before bedtime is still worth trying, especially if you have difficulty falling asleep.
On your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Display & Brightness. Tap the Night Shift setting, which alters your screen to display colors of a warmer color temperature, filtering out blue light.
Blue Light Filter: The app allows you to easily adjust the color temperature by choosing from among several preset options. The app even provides tips on the best temperature to make sure you fall asleep as you would normally. You can also tweak the intensity and the brightness of the filter.
sFilter: This app allows you to manually turn on a blue light filter or schedule it to turn on and off at specific times of the day or night. You can change the color, opacity, and brightness of the filter. You can even create a shortcut icon or widget, so you don't have to open the app to enable the filter.
Twilight: The app advises you on the right color temperature as you move a slider. Set the filter to always be enabled, run from sunrise to sunset, or turn on and off at specific times.
If you use a Windows 10 or Windows 11 device before bedtime, you can bump into the same trouble trying to catch a good night's sleep. But Microsoft's Night Light feature can paint the screen with a warmer color. In Windows 10, go to Settings > System > Display and toggle the Night light switch to turn on the feature.
Click the Night light settings link for additional settings. Use the slider to adjust the temperature of your screen. You can also put the feature on a schedule from sunset to sunrise or set it to go on and off at specific times.
In Windows 11, open Settings > System > Display and select Night light. Click the Turn on now button to activate the feature. You can then adjust the color temperature by moving the slider on the Strength scale.
You can set up Night light so it automatically goes into effect at the right hours. Turn on the switch for Schedule night light. Here, you have two choices: Sunset to sunrise or Set hours. To set it for sunset to sunrise, you must have already enabled Location services in Windows.
If you prefer to set specific hours for Night light, click Set hours. Click the time under the Turn on line to set the start time. Then click the time under the Turn off line to set the time it stops. Night light will now automatically kick in when you need it and fade away when you don't.
Do you also suffer from eyestrain while staring at the computer? If you think it's too much work to set up these blue light filters on all your devices, blue light glasses can also help. We run through how they can help and which pairs might be best.
Have you ever had trouble falling asleep or gotten itchy eyes after a long day at the computer? As you probably know, all modern screens emit blue light, which can affect eye health and cause sleeping problems. But no need to panic! We have a few tips to help you protect your eyes and take better care of your vision.
What is blue light? Have you noticed that your eyes get tired when you spend too much time in front of the computer? Sure you do, since you are the one who has to deal with the headaches, the super dry eyes, and even blurred vision at times.
Although inconclusive, scientific studies also suggest a connection between blue light exposure and macular degeneration, which the leading cause of vision loss in the US! As the years go by, the natural protective layer starts to become more and more permeable to UV and HEV rays that easily penetrate to the retina due to their shorter wavelengths.
In recent news, a Taiwanese woman developed a hole in her retina after years of using a smartphone outdoors and Dr. Hong, a doctor of Ophthalmology at Fooyin University in Kaohsiung, believes that the combination of the blue light emitted from the cellphone, and the ultraviolet light emitted by the sun led to this condition.
It seems as though blue light is both extremely beneficial and extremely dangerous. The best thing to do is to find ways to optimize the blue light intake during the day and regulate the exposure as the sun goes down. Thankfully, even NASA is invested in helping with this!
To make matters worse, white-light LEDs are known to suffer from degradation over time, thereby causing an increase of blue emission. This degradation happens primarily through the bleaching of phosphors so that they no longer efficiently absorb blue light, thus leading to further eye strain.
You are now fully aware of the different sources of blue light as well as the various health risks associated with it, so if you want or need some computer time after sunset hours, you would be wise to invest in a blue light filter for your PC.
Such options include computer screens with integrated blue light filters capable of reducing blue light emissions and allowing for maximum user customization with different levels of protection and accurate RGB color balance.
You can set the filter to different levels depending on the viewing scenario. Most users prefer to max out the filter (0-25) when reading or using text-based applications, making it easy on the eyes.
For web browsing or work-related tasks, you might want to allow in some more blue light by setting the filter to 25-50. These daily activities should remain comfortable with this level of blue light reduction.
When the main activity is related to high-definition multimedia, you can set the filter to 50-100. At 70 you receive better color balancing with sufficient blue light reduction without visible change in color.
As mentioned above, NASA developed special LED modules for the ISS (International Space Station) in order to help keep astronauts healthy during their stay in outer space. The former NASA scientists who came up with this ingenious solution are now devoted to bringing the same technology to the general public. These modules shift the peak output according to the time of the day and use an emission spectrum that closely imitates that of the sun during the day, while eliminating the short wavelengths from blue and green light when in pre-sleep mode.
Other valid alternatives, if your primary purpose is to reduce digital eye strain, include the use of third-party software such as f.lux or Iris, as well as blue light blocking eyewear. Please refer to a professional when choosing eyewear that filters or blocks blue light as these products may include magnification and specific optical centers.
Although proper eyewear seems to be most effective against the harmful effects of blue light, there are at least three aspects to consider. First of all, the price, which is heavily dependent on the quality of the lenses. Secondly, the fit, which needs to be tight or else blue light still reaches the eye. Lastly, most blue light blocking glasses are difficult to use when overlaid against regular prescription glasses. All in all, PC monitors with built-in blue light filters present the most convenient solution when compared to these options.
Another perfectly valid way to give your eyes some well-deserved rest while staying productive during long hours in front of a computer display is using the Pomodoro Technique. This technique breaks down the day in 25-minute sprints with small breaks in-between. These breaks help the brain to process new information, and since blue light will not be received during that time, it also helps prevent digital eye strain.
f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.
Obviously, a "blue light filter" on monitors filters out parts of the blue light. But I wondered what exactly happens and what corrections / filters I would use in photoshop to replicate it on an image.
The reason for that is that not for the first time I forgot that I still had the filter on my monitor on when I did my editing and color correction on an image - in the end, I was super happy with how everything looked.
A few hours later I realized my mistake and saw that with the monitor on standard mode (and thus the blue light back in) the image looked far worse. This is not even the first time this thing has happened to me, haha.
Now, I would just like to get exactly the look back that I had with blue light filter on, but of course baked into the actual image so that it looks like that everywhere and on any screen. I tried pushing some random sliders like "tonal correction", "selective color correction", etc. but not only is this kinda vague, it also never quite achieved the look I get from my monitor.
Here at Ocushield, we care about your health. That's why we've built a community network of experts in eye care, sleep and blue light to understand the problems fully and find viable solutions to keep us safe and well.
Dhruvin studied extensively the role blue light has in the eyes physiology and circadian rhythms whilst studying to become an optometrist. This allowed him to build the research backed Ocushield products we have today. Alongside this he spent many years working in clinical practice, from hospital practice to community settings where he further developed his clinical skills.
Having learned about the dangers of blue light very early on in 2013 meant, I have been following blue light research closely over the years. The research/knowledge base has increased dramatically compared to what was available in previous years. Now we have epidemiological studies, clinical trials and peer reviewed papers all on how blue light affects our health.
760c119bf3