6 ms·

There’s a lot to learn about how blue light affects our eyes

101 points by ALee 7y ago

ddingus 7y ago
Android 9, and maybe 8 but I never checked, offers an opacity setting. I leave the filter on, and the setting to a point where I see an overall display color temp close to the old NTSC value: 6,500k. Being an 80's kid, values centered on 6,500 were common. I remember the shift upward becoming more common. It was intense! For people who were viewing during the cooler periods, warmer displays are something one can feel. It is a lot like the feeling one gets when stepping outside after a long, device free, period indoors. A 6,500 ish display temp presents an orange tint when compared to most device defaults seen today. For me, this is almost unnoticeable after a brief time. I adapt quickly and basically become unaware. A nice, darker phone theme helps. I really like the warmer settings, but they do have an impact on me. Sleep and eye fatigue. For most things I find I just do not care and will save a really warm session for a movie, or other special time.
oblib 7y ago
I bought a monitor with a "Low Blue Light" feature built-in. At first I didn't use it, but after reading up on it I decided to give it shot. I have three monitors on my desk so I reduced the blue on the other two manually. It was a bit hard to get used to at first, it seemed to make things a bit more green to me, but after about a week I switched it off and it only took a few minutes to notice the difference. My eyes felt a lot more strained with it turned off. If I were doing graphic work I suppose I'd have to turn it off, but I'm not so I don't worry much about how it effects the little bit of UI work I do.
- morpheuskafka 7y ago
  Do these monitor features have any advantage over f.lux, Windows/Apple Night Light, or similar software implementations that work on any monitor?
  - CGamesPlay 7y ago
    The obvious one is they work for input sources that don't support those software programs, e.g. game consoles, TV hardware, etc. (Now why you would WANT that feature on those input sources is none of my business.)
  - smileybarry 7y ago
    Well, for one thing they (at least in ASUS's case) appear to do the opposite of Night Light / flux by subtracting the blue channel rather than increasing the red channel. This means at first the image looks a tad green/yellow-er, but you get used to it much more than Night Light's red tint. I've had it for a year now, mostly on the highest level (certified as "70% blue light reduction") and I still sometimes check that it's on. (But once you see the onscreen UI in a blue-ish white it's very obvious) My eyes also get a lot less fatigued with it on compared to OS features/flux, even after tuning my monitor & room brightness accordingly with a colorimeter. A lot of it might come down to certification and blue light reduction methods at the monitor level. In ASUS's case they claim to be certified by TUV Rheinland[1]. [1] https://www.asus.com/Microsite/display/eye_care_technology/ https://www.asus.com/Microsite/display/eye_care_technology/
hypertexthero 7y ago
Lots more information about this in Richard Feynman’s Color Vision lecture: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_35.html http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_35.html
- pcl 7y ago
  Wow, I just read the first section (four or five paragraphs) and learned two new things already. Is this representative of Feynman’s writings? The level of both clarity and information is impressive.
  - kace91 7y ago
    If you haven't yet read Feynman, you're in for a treat. It's not common at all to find someone with both great domain knowledge and great communication skills.
aresant 7y ago
Mentioning Flux - a free blue light reducing app that is beautiful and functional - as I’m always surprised how many people haven’t heard of it. Takes exactly 5 mins to get used to it and after working with flux on I’m amazed how overwhelming default monitor settings feel. https://justgetflux.com/ https://justgetflux.com/
- ksaj 7y ago
  On Windows the pointer remains white so once you get used to the rest of the screen (a few minutes the first time, and pretty much instantaneous thereafter), the pointer appears to take on this very potent blue. Switching flux off at this point is damn near blinding, so it is definitely having a profound effect.
herf 7y ago
(f.lux author here): the initial part of this press cycle was effectively scare-mongering, and was later mostly retracted by Karunarathne. See https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/17/17724658/screen-time-blue-light-blindness-science https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/17/17724658/screen-time-blue... This (older) article says: "we don't spend that much time staring at the sun". But just seeing the blue sky gives your retina about 50x the dose of blue light (hazard) as a normal LED display. Blue light hazard is generally considered to be "reciprocal" which means for most doses, you can measure total energy (power * time). So it is easy to argue that one hour spent outdoors (not staring at the sun, just doing normal stuff) gives you more dose than 12 hours at a computer. So for light seen during the day, nobody has yet shown that seeing a computer is harmful, and the risk should be lower than spending an hour outdoors. At night, it's another story, and there is not clear evidence here. The retina experiences daily circadian rhythms, and so risks to your eye may be enhanced by bright light seen at night. Less light at night is good for your circadian clock, and it is almost certainly good for your eyes too.
- aresant 7y ago
  Flux is amazing I just posted below, always surprised this is not a default install for devs. thank you for the authorship!
- teamski 7y ago
  OT: I used flux ages ago. You seem still to be active since you intro'd yourself als the flux guy. Out of curiosity, why should anyone still use flux nowadays when all OSes have time-based red-shifting built-in?
  - randomvectors 7y ago
    I still find it better than the built-in night-shift on MacOS.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - Mountain_Skies 7y ago
Freestyler_3 7y ago
My normal glasses have the blue light filter, not my sunglasses though.
Ace17 7y ago
"But ophthalmologists aren’t worried. The blue light emanating from the sun drastically overpowers any rays coming from your screen. And so far, all of the research on how real human eyes react to blue light has failed to link screens to permanent damage of any kind. Blue light’s most concerning effects still seems limited to sleeplessness." OK, so what else is there to learn?

101 points by ALee 7y ago

Android 9, and maybe 8 but I never checked, offers an opacity setting. I leave the filter on, and the setting to a point where I see an overall display color temp close to the old NTSC value: 6,500k. Being an 80's kid, values centered on 6,500 were common. I remember the shift upward becoming more common. It was intense! For people who were viewing during the cooler periods, warmer displays are something one can feel. It is a lot like the feeling one gets when stepping outside after a long, device free, period indoors. A 6,500 ish display temp presents an orange tint when compared to most device defaults seen today. For me, this is almost unnoticeable after a brief time. I adapt quickly and basically become unaware. A nice, darker phone theme helps. I really like the warmer settings, but they do have an impact on me. Sleep and eye fatigue. For most things I find I just do not care and will save a really warm session for a movie, or other special time.

oblib 7y ago

I bought a monitor with a "Low Blue Light" feature built-in. At first I didn't use it, but after reading up on it I decided to give it shot. I have three monitors on my desk so I reduced the blue on the other two manually. It was a bit hard to get used to at first, it seemed to make things a bit more green to me, but after about a week I switched it off and it only took a few minutes to notice the difference. My eyes felt a lot more strained with it turned off. If I were doing graphic work I suppose I'd have to turn it off, but I'm not so I don't worry much about how it effects the little bit of UI work I do.

morpheuskafka 7y ago
Do these monitor features have any advantage over f.lux, Windows/Apple Night Light, or similar software implementations that work on any monitor?
- CGamesPlay 7y ago
  The obvious one is they work for input sources that don't support those software programs, e.g. game consoles, TV hardware, etc. (Now why you would WANT that feature on those input sources is none of my business.)
- smileybarry 7y ago
  Well, for one thing they (at least in ASUS's case) appear to do the opposite of Night Light / flux by subtracting the blue channel rather than increasing the red channel. This means at first the image looks a tad green/yellow-er, but you get used to it much more than Night Light's red tint. I've had it for a year now, mostly on the highest level (certified as "70% blue light reduction") and I still sometimes check that it's on. (But once you see the onscreen UI in a blue-ish white it's very obvious) My eyes also get a lot less fatigued with it on compared to OS features/flux, even after tuning my monitor & room brightness accordingly with a colorimeter. A lot of it might come down to certification and blue light reduction methods at the monitor level. In ASUS's case they claim to be certified by TUV Rheinland[1]. [1] https://www.asus.com/Microsite/display/eye_care_technology/ https://www.asus.com/Microsite/display/eye_care_technology/

hypertexthero 7y ago

Lots more information about this in Richard Feynman’s Color Vision lecture: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_35.html http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_35.html

pcl 7y ago
Wow, I just read the first section (four or five paragraphs) and learned two new things already. Is this representative of Feynman’s writings? The level of both clarity and information is impressive.
- kace91 7y ago
  If you haven't yet read Feynman, you're in for a treat. It's not common at all to find someone with both great domain knowledge and great communication skills.

aresant 7y ago

Mentioning Flux - a free blue light reducing app that is beautiful and functional - as I’m always surprised how many people haven’t heard of it. Takes exactly 5 mins to get used to it and after working with flux on I’m amazed how overwhelming default monitor settings feel. https://justgetflux.com/ https://justgetflux.com/

ksaj 7y ago
On Windows the pointer remains white so once you get used to the rest of the screen (a few minutes the first time, and pretty much instantaneous thereafter), the pointer appears to take on this very potent blue. Switching flux off at this point is damn near blinding, so it is definitely having a profound effect.

herf 7y ago

(f.lux author here): the initial part of this press cycle was effectively scare-mongering, and was later mostly retracted by Karunarathne. See https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/17/17724658/screen-time-blue-light-blindness-science https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/17/17724658/screen-time-blue... This (older) article says: "we don't spend that much time staring at the sun". But just seeing the blue sky gives your retina about 50x the dose of blue light (hazard) as a normal LED display. Blue light hazard is generally considered to be "reciprocal" which means for most doses, you can measure total energy (power * time). So it is easy to argue that one hour spent outdoors (not staring at the sun, just doing normal stuff) gives you more dose than 12 hours at a computer. So for light seen during the day, nobody has yet shown that seeing a computer is harmful, and the risk should be lower than spending an hour outdoors. At night, it's another story, and there is not clear evidence here. The retina experiences daily circadian rhythms, and so risks to your eye may be enhanced by bright light seen at night. Less light at night is good for your circadian clock, and it is almost certainly good for your eyes too.

aresant 7y ago
Flux is amazing I just posted below, always surprised this is not a default install for devs. thank you for the authorship!
teamski 7y ago
OT: I used flux ages ago. You seem still to be active since you intro'd yourself als the flux guy. Out of curiosity, why should anyone still use flux nowadays when all OSes have time-based red-shifting built-in?
- randomvectors 7y ago
  I still find it better than the built-in night-shift on MacOS.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Mountain_Skies 7y ago

Freestyler_3 7y ago

My normal glasses have the blue light filter, not my sunglasses though.

Ace17 7y ago

"But ophthalmologists aren’t worried. The blue light emanating from the sun drastically overpowers any rays coming from your screen. And so far, all of the research on how real human eyes react to blue light has failed to link screens to permanent damage of any kind. Blue light’s most concerning effects still seems limited to sleeplessness." OK, so what else is there to learn?