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Pretty sure this is all snake oil — both f.lux and Night Shift. I don't doubt that blue light affects our brains. But I see no evidence that color filter softwa

Pretty sure this is all snake oil — both f.lux and Night Shift. I don't doubt that blue light affects our brains. But I see no evidence that color filter software has any impact. If the issue is the number of blue photons per square millimeter of our retinas, why isn't it being discussed as such? This means screen brightness and distance from your face would have a much bigger impact than a color filter. I personally think the f.lux team knows this and that's why their FAQ is devoid of any questions about effectiveness. FWIW the only person I've known to use f.lux is an insomniac who barely ever sleeps and is always tired.

UnoriginalGuy 10y ago
I cannot say I follow. You acknowledge that blue light does affect our brains and sleep patterns, but then dismiss a solution which limits the amount of blue light while toting an alternative which also acts to reduce the amount of blue light (brightness & distance). Brightness is meant to apply evenly across the entire color spectrum of a display (it doesn't in reality but that is a convenient fiction without getting into the weeds). Color filters on the other hand reduce the luminosity of only blue light which can be independently measured (see the link). I know plenty of people who use f.lux and tons more who use Night Shift on iOS devices. My wife is one of them, wakes up in the middle of the night and uses her phone, goes back to sleep a lot sooner after they added Night Shift than before. Obviously all anecdotes are anecdotes but study after study have shown that blue light negatively impacts sleep, and blue filter glasses have been shown by at least one Harvard study to help aleve the impact.
coldtea 10y ago
>Pretty sure this is all snake oil — both f.lux and Night Shift. I don't doubt that blue light affects our brains. But I see no evidence that color filter software has any impact. A color filter such as in Flux and NS removes blue light. >If the issue is the number of blue photons per square millimeter of our retinas, why isn't it being discussed as such? This means screen brightness and distance from your face would have a much bigger impact than a color filter. No, it doesn't mean that at all. Or rather, it does, but it's a moot point. All you're saying is: you can reduce blue light with an orange filter, but you can also go away from your screen or dim it so you can't see it. Or even not use a computer at all. While all of those things hold, the "orange filter" achieves the same thing (removing blue light) without affecting our ability to work regularly on the computer (increased distance, less brightness, etc). I'm not sure how people come up with such logic errors. >FWIW the only person I've known to use f.lux is an insomniac who barely ever sleeps and is always tired. It's not worth much. It's not supposed to cure insomnia (which has 2000+ different causes), just to keep up with the natural light changes and improve sleep.
- andromeduck 10y ago
  It would help if it could dim the displays over HDMI whatever or some driver mechanisms
qqg3 10y ago
Its also really good for your eyes, bright, blue screens in dim rooms causes excess eye strain.
pizza 10y ago
> If the issue is the number of blue photons per square millimeter of our retinas, why isn't it being discussed as such? This means screen brightness and distance from your face would have a much bigger impact than a color filter. Although I'm no ophthalmologist, I think this is not likely. AFAIK there are retinal nonlinear cascading effects in the detection of light; if you double the distance, you should get 1/4 the incidental photons, but I think you will effectively perceive a less drastic change in reception than > 1/4 of the light, and so downstream a monotonic smaller difference in circadian rhythm disruption? > FWIW the only person I've known to use f.lux is an insomniac who barely ever sleeps and is always tired. They would be better off getting more sleep, but it seems like a distraction to say that because f.lux doesn't cause them to sleep, it's not effective. One could just as readily argue that the people who use it well are unlikely to praise their fine-tuned daily sleep hygiene, or that the insomniac's sleep would probably be worse without f.lux, or that they're a hypochondriac, or that f.lux causes insomnia, or any other similar speculative conclusion.. Why would the f.lux team be hiding any uniquely-possessed information for (experimentally) showing how they have duped their users??
crottypeter 10y ago
If you move back from the monitor or dim the brightness your pupils will dilate to let more light in.
gitaarik 10y ago
Try it for a while, then switch back to not using it, I'll promise you, you'll notice the difference!
thomastjeffery 10y ago
It's not snake oil. It's simply more comfortable to lower the amount of blue light you are staring at. Is it the one perfect way to stop insomnia? Of course not! That is not what it claims to be.

UnoriginalGuy 10y ago

I cannot say I follow. You acknowledge that blue light does affect our brains and sleep patterns, but then dismiss a solution which limits the amount of blue light while toting an alternative which also acts to reduce the amount of blue light (brightness & distance). Brightness is meant to apply evenly across the entire color spectrum of a display (it doesn't in reality but that is a convenient fiction without getting into the weeds). Color filters on the other hand reduce the luminosity of only blue light which can be independently measured (see the link). I know plenty of people who use f.lux and tons more who use Night Shift on iOS devices. My wife is one of them, wakes up in the middle of the night and uses her phone, goes back to sleep a lot sooner after they added Night Shift than before. Obviously all anecdotes are anecdotes but study after study have shown that blue light negatively impacts sleep, and blue filter glasses have been shown by at least one Harvard study to help aleve the impact.

coldtea 10y ago

>Pretty sure this is all snake oil — both f.lux and Night Shift. I don't doubt that blue light affects our brains. But I see no evidence that color filter software has any impact. A color filter such as in Flux and NS removes blue light. >If the issue is the number of blue photons per square millimeter of our retinas, why isn't it being discussed as such? This means screen brightness and distance from your face would have a much bigger impact than a color filter. No, it doesn't mean that at all. Or rather, it does, but it's a moot point. All you're saying is: you can reduce blue light with an orange filter, but you can also go away from your screen or dim it so you can't see it. Or even not use a computer at all. While all of those things hold, the "orange filter" achieves the same thing (removing blue light) without affecting our ability to work regularly on the computer (increased distance, less brightness, etc). I'm not sure how people come up with such logic errors. >FWIW the only person I've known to use f.lux is an insomniac who barely ever sleeps and is always tired. It's not worth much. It's not supposed to cure insomnia (which has 2000+ different causes), just to keep up with the natural light changes and improve sleep.

andromeduck 10y ago
It would help if it could dim the displays over HDMI whatever or some driver mechanisms

qqg3 10y ago

Its also really good for your eyes, bright, blue screens in dim rooms causes excess eye strain.

pizza 10y ago

> If the issue is the number of blue photons per square millimeter of our retinas, why isn't it being discussed as such? This means screen brightness and distance from your face would have a much bigger impact than a color filter. Although I'm no ophthalmologist, I think this is not likely. AFAIK there are retinal nonlinear cascading effects in the detection of light; if you double the distance, you should get 1/4 the incidental photons, but I think you will effectively perceive a less drastic change in reception than > 1/4 of the light, and so downstream a monotonic smaller difference in circadian rhythm disruption? > FWIW the only person I've known to use f.lux is an insomniac who barely ever sleeps and is always tired. They would be better off getting more sleep, but it seems like a distraction to say that because f.lux doesn't cause them to sleep, it's not effective. One could just as readily argue that the people who use it well are unlikely to praise their fine-tuned daily sleep hygiene, or that the insomniac's sleep would probably be worse without f.lux, or that they're a hypochondriac, or that f.lux causes insomnia, or any other similar speculative conclusion.. Why would the f.lux team be hiding any uniquely-possessed information for (experimentally) showing how they have duped their users??

crottypeter 10y ago

If you move back from the monitor or dim the brightness your pupils will dilate to let more light in.

gitaarik 10y ago

Try it for a while, then switch back to not using it, I'll promise you, you'll notice the difference!

thomastjeffery 10y ago

It's not snake oil. It's simply more comfortable to lower the amount of blue light you are staring at. Is it the one perfect way to stop insomnia? Of course not! That is not what it claims to be.