Night Mode Could Actually Be Worse For Your Sleep Pattern, Study Finds (cnet.com) 41
According to a new study published in Current Biology, the "night mode" on your phone could actually be worse for your sleep pattern. Scientists say the blue light, which is significantly reduced when night mode is enabled, could be telling our brain that it's night time because it resembles the colors of twilight. From the report: According to the study, brightness levels are more important than color when it comes to stimulating the body clock. However, when the light is equally dim, blue is more relaxing than yellow. This makes basic sense: daylight is yellow, twilight is blue, and sunrise and sunset are pretty reliable ways to tell your body clock what time it is. Of course, at this point, we only know it works on mice -- and mice don't have phones. "We think there is good reason to believe it's also true in humans," says Dr Brown, lead author of the study.
There is perhaps a more obvious truth to be drawn -- if your phone is telling you to switch to night mode, it is time to put down your phone. It is not the color of the screen that is keeping you awake; it is all the stuff your phone offers as an alternative to sleep at 2am. There is only one real night-mode switch: the off button.
There is perhaps a more obvious truth to be drawn -- if your phone is telling you to switch to night mode, it is time to put down your phone. It is not the color of the screen that is keeping you awake; it is all the stuff your phone offers as an alternative to sleep at 2am. There is only one real night-mode switch: the off button.
Actually... (Score:1)
Daylight is white, not yellow. It's the reason a sheet of paper looks white when you hold up in the sunlight. Just ask Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Re:Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)
Daylight is white, not yellow.
The sun looks yellow for the same reason the sky is blue: Rayleigh scattering [wikipedia.org].
The shorter wavelength (blue) light scatters, leaving the longer wavelengths to go straight through the atmosphere.
If you hold a paper in daylight it looks white because you are getting yellowish light from the sun and blueish light from the sky.
But if you use a long tube to illuminate the paper with only direct sunlight, it will look yellow.
Re:Actually... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Actually... (Score:1)
That's not how eyes work (Score:2)
It's the reason a sheet of paper looks white when you hold up in the sunlight.
Nope.
Not at all.
Absolutely wrong.
That's not how eyes work.
Cones in your eyes (like most other sensors in your body) don't work on an absolute scale (they're not directly telling your brain's visual cortex"there are exactly N billion photons of wavelength ${RED} that arrived here"), instead signals are compared.
(With the eyes, this happens on the top layers of the retina, with most other sensors it happens in the spine) and what your brain process is the difference.
(There's a reason why "convolutional neural
Cool. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
We're missing something here... (Score:2)
There should be a way to put night mode away during daytime, then automatically switch at night....
Re: (Score:3)
Only light source (Score:1)
That only makes a difference if it's your only light source
But yes. Before sleeping we should do things that are less stimulating. But then there's fucking which can put you to sleep after, so there's that to consider.
Re: (Score:2)
Before sleeping we should do things that are less stimulating.
Review last week's staff meeting minutes.
Re: (Score:1)
Before sleeping we should do things that are less stimulating
writing OPENGL backed drivers is perfect for this! You certainly wont be up all night thinking about it!
Translation (Score:1)
Credibility (Score:1)
Science: blue light is bad for sleep
Also Science: blue light is good for sleep
Yeah, ok.
Re: (Score:2)
Well (Score:2)
At work I am using blue blockers and dark mode on any program that does dark mode correctly. I don't know about sleep, but my eyes seem much less fatigued compared to not using blue blockers and dark mode. When I swap to a program that doesn't do dark mode correctly, without blue blockers, it just burns into your brain. It is fairly tolerable with blue blockers on.
Re: (Score:1)
Dark mode KILLS my eyes. There just isn't the right kind of contrast. I hate it.
Placebo Effect (Score:5, Interesting)
Try your phone with and without nightmode, and see which one helps you sleep better and stick with it.
Whether it truly works, or is just placebo effect is irrelevant for you, the only relevant thing for for you is if it helps you sleep better and fall asleep faster. Let the boffins argue the science...
Re: (Score:1)
I want to post something snarky about how difficult of a thing this is to do but I just can't pull it together. Do what works for you. Don't do what doesn't work for you.
Want to know what works for me? It doesn't matter.
Missing the point (Score:2)
I don't use night mode because it helps me sleep, I use night mode because it's not as bright, more comfortable to look at, and saves battery life on OLED displays.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't use night mode because it helps me sleep, I use night mode because it's not as bright, more comfortable to look at, and saves battery life on OLED displays.
Yep. Me too. Though I could imagine having a display that doesn't hurt the eyes, might prompt you to use your phone more in bed, and thus keep you up longer. Still I prefer it to having my eyes burned by bright blue light.
Clearly no one has a clue (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have looked at a lot of ... (Score:1)
... shit in my 74 years and some of it was blue and some of it was yellow and some was all colours, as in white and none as in black.
Maybe that explains why I'm bald headed?
The *other* sure sign to put the phone down (Score:2)
When the battery runs out, but the clock radio wakes you up for Monday morning...
Re: (Score:2)
When the battery runs out, but the clock radio wakes you up for Monday morning...
The old Nokia phones would still wake long enough up to sound an alarm, even if they had shut down the night before due to low battery.
(because you have gone a whole week without recharging)
I miss 'em sometimes.
i dont spend that much time on my phone (Score:1)
OK great, but.. (Score:1)
I use night mode because the bright light bothers my eyes. I read ebooks on my phone and have no problem ignoring the notifications and other crap, but I guess that's just me. I never understood these people who can't put down their phones or just ignore the notifications.
In mice... (Score:2)
In nocturnal rodents. Meanwhile, humans have been regularly using fire for 125,000 years. The hotter fires are still cooler than the sun's surface and therefore redder. And when would be the likeliest time to be staring at a fire? In the evening, long after the last blue light of day is gone.
Having your eyes seared is more relaxing? (Score:2)
I use nightmode because it is less painful to the eyes when ambient light is weaker. I can't see blue light as more relaxing to anyone, because IT IS MORE PAINFUL.
Night Mode..sleep (Score:2)
I call bullshit. (Score:2)
I had massive problems staying in rhythm with naturay day and night cycles for most of my life. It ruined everything.
And it only got better when I had no PC for several months and only used my phone. For which I had both dark mode and a more yellow color temperature enabled at all times.
Plus I also turned off the lights in my room early, and in the summer, didn't turn in the lights at all. But now I do, and it still works.
My problems are solved. Yet I still use my phone in bed with "night mode" enabled.
I ju
Re: (Score:1)
Glad to read you found relief with those changes. I, following the same course, did not. The caveat: "your results may vary" applies.
Night mode isn't supposed to help you sleep (Score:1)
ORLY (Score:1)