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Can orange glasses make you sleep better?
- Filligree 11y agoIf you don't want orange glasses, try f.lux (Windows, Mac) or redshift (Linux). Either one accomplishes much the same effect by adjusting the (apparent) color temperature of your screen depending on time of day. It distorts colors, if you fancy yourself a photographer, but your eyes will thank you.
- grayfox 11y agoWas my first thought as well - does f.lux not scratch an itch that a physical pair of lenses does?
- Zikes 11y agof.lux isn't as portable, as it doesn't cover TVs, smartphones, LED bulbs, etc.
- tempestn 11y agoYou can get, for example, Lux Auto Brightness for Android though. Helps me since I read in bed on my phone before going to sleep. Edit: the name notwithstanding, it does more than adjust brightness, including filtering color temperature, much like f.lux
- Zikes 11y agoCertainly, there are solutions for each, but glasses seem to be the only universal solution so far.
- scott_karana 11y agoGP's point was that glasses do everything. Nobody is going to port flux to your lightbulb, or TV. ;) Why install N pieces of software when 1 piece of hardware will do?
- wlesieutre 11y ago>Nobody is going to port flux to your lightbulb Maybe not your lightbulb! https://justgetflux.com/news/pages/bigupdate/ https://justgetflux.com/news/pages/bigupdate/ (#10)
- scott_karana 11y agoI knew someone would post that ;) Kudos!
- tempestn 11y agoWell, I find the app more comfortable than glasses when lying in bed...
- cmiles74 11y ago"Twilight" for Android works well for me.
- higherpurpose 11y agoI'm not sure if it's in Android 5.1 or just a feature of CyanogenMod (12.1) but there's a feature in there to also change the color at night, and I find it less aggressive than f.lux, which I like.
- platz 11y agoI've used these tools, they simply don't filter enough blue coming from the display, dispite such tools that try to limit the light genereated, compared to tinted glasses
- panglott 11y agoNeat, I don't need to figure out how to wear it over my prescription glasses. But then, I can't install it on the TV ;)
- Lost_BiomedE 11y agoI used flux for a few years and it helps. For me, the glasses were more effective. Maybe because I live with my partner and a light would be flipped on at some point.
- WalterSear 11y agoThey don't. They might reduce eyestrain (I have it installed on all my computers, fwiw), but they aren't effective enough on their own to help with sleep. In psychology grad school, I learned that a single blue photon hitting the back of the is sufficient to cause a measurable shift in melatonin output. Note: measurable is not the same as deleterious, but flux doesn't even eliminate all the blue light your computer is putting out, let alone the other sources in your house. The only solution, baring blacking out all your windows, or removing all modern light sources from your house, or replacing them all with red lights, is 0.3-0.5 mg of melatonin a few hours before bed. Note: it's sold in the stores in 5 mg tablets - an order of magnitude too much. http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin
- bsg75 11y agoWhat is the result of the typical over-the-counter dose, often 3-5 mg?
- drzaiusapelord 11y agoI take 5mg every weeknight as a insomnia treatment. I start getting sleepy about 45-60 minutes after taking it. If I fall asleep then, I'll sleep the entire night.
- eikenberry 11y agoI found that the higher doses lead to me falling asleep fine but I tend to wake up in the middle of the night. I assumed the pill was getting my melatonin to high and when it went back to natural levels it triggered my waking up. I've been using 1mg lately (the lowest I can find) and they work much better. Still help make me drowsy, but without waking up in the middle of the night.
- WalterSear 11y agoI've found that 0.3 mg will have me waking up very briefly in the night, but that my sleep is still refreshing. I assumed that this might have something to do with the 'dual sleep' that humans are ostensibly supposed to have had, before electricity came along. I recommend experimenting with amounts (I break my pills up) and finding the amount that works for you.
- dates 11y agoI Jailbroke my iphone just to install f.lux on it, I definitely recommend it!
- stefantalpalaru 11y ago> It distorts colors, if you fancy yourself a photographer I was actually bothered by the uneven distortion so I created multiple display profiles with a monitor calibrator at different color temperatures and then wrote a simple tool to load them at the appropriate time: https://github.com/stefantalpalaru/iccloader https://github.com/stefantalpalaru/iccloader
- TimPC 11y agoApparently you can study 13 people and get it blogged about on the ny times. Talk about ridiculous sample size, 13 person studies can say just about anything if the researcher gets lucky because variance is the biggest factor. Interesting random thought -> the number of PhD's who become professors in some fields is well below the margin of error on a study, it would be interesting to see how many people are getting Professorships from having interesting results that eventually fail to replicate. If this number is overwhelming it could be the PhD system in those fields is almost a lottery where having variance trump data is the most likely way to get a professorship.
- dwich 11y agoWhile we might be able to draw stronger conclusions from a larger study, the effects on the participants were strong, and the information might benefit the readers directly. So I'd argue it's worthy of inclusion in the wellness blogs area even if it's not really hard science reporting.
- davidw 11y agoI don't know about sleep, but I used to love my orange-ish Oakleys for bike riding in spring/winter/fall in Oregon when the sky is often overcast and dreary. They make things look a bit brighter and cheerier.
- josephpmay 11y agoThis is mostly useless antidotal evidence, however: I started wearing orange tinted glasses about a week or two ago, and I have noticed that they help me feel more tired when I'm trying to fall asleep. However it could just be a placebo. The downside is that I can't do any design work while wearing them, and programming is more difficult because code coloring is really off in Sublime. If I continue to wear them, I'll probably have to change my Sublime theme to something that's easier to distinguish.
- elwell 11y agoWhen staying up to prog, use f.lux.
- michaelchisari 11y agoI can't do any design work while wearing them, and programming is more difficult because code coloring is really off in Sublime Maybe that's a positive. If you're supposed to be winding down for bed, those are two activities you really shouldn't be doing.
- TY 11y agoI've been using yellow tinted Gunnar glasses for about 5 years (wearing them now as I'm typing this)- they do help a lot with eye strain reduction. Prior to wearing Gunnars, I'd often have headaches by 4 pm and my eyes felt dry and quite tired. I was sceptical in the beginning, but these things do help. Easily the best $140 that I spent on ergonomics. http://www.gunnars.com/ http://www.gunnars.com/
- bitL 11y agoI use them for the past two years and can confirm I don't have problems looking at monitor for 12h if necessary anymore. I bought the cheapest ones just to test if I see any difference (at that time around $40) and it seems to be having a surprisingly positive effect on me. The only problem is when I am producing visual art - they have to go away when I am adjusting colors or the results are too cold ;-)
- kazinator 11y agoIn Japan, you can order "PC Lenses" for your glasses at outlets such as Jins. These supposedly filter out that blue light (PC is from Personal Computer: staring at the screen). Link: http://www.jins-jp.com/jins-pc/ http://www.jins-jp.com/jins-pc/ If I search in English, most of the search results are spammy companies selling what look like sunglasses for computer use (e.g. google "compuer glasses"). These are obviously tinted. But these Jins "PC Megane" do not look tinted, or only faintly so. Jins will put these lenses in any frame. I wanted these the last time, but for my astigmatism it would have required a 1 week order, and I was flying out of Japan sooner than that.
- smartial_arts 11y agoInterestingly enough, f.lux[1] has been around for a while (a cool app that adjusts the colour temperature of your screen(s) as the day progresses, based on your lat & long. I also noticed a similar functionality in one of the latest CyanogenMod (CM12) - under "Settings -> Display & Light -> LiveDisplay" - you can adjust colour temps too for day and night times. Not sure if it takes lat & long into account. [1]: https://justgetflux.com/ https://justgetflux.com/
- kristofferR 11y agoEh, isn't there a huge different between just orange glasses and safety glasses that are designed to block blue frequencies? I have the Uvex S1933X glasses, and they're amazing. I have pretty cool LED lighting in my apartment and can make my whole living room any color I want at night. If I set in to pure blue and put on the glasses, it's like being in pitch blackness (except a couple of items glow brightly). It's not like looking at things with an orange tint at all, even though the glasses are obviously orange. That being said - the benefits I get by using them is amazing. It's weird how much of a difference it can make, I get tired quickly after putting them on in the evening. If I forget to put them on I usually end up staying up too late, getting too little sleep and often ruining the next day. Personally I find it way more effective than flux. By the way - blue light isn't just a negative thing, but also a huge positive. In the morning I use a Philips goLITE BLU HF3332, and it really improves both my energy and mood quickly after just a few minutes of usage. Those two simple items, a blue light and a pair of blue-blocking glasses, have improved my life significantly. Try it out (especially the glasses, it's just $9).
- Mc_Big_G 11y agoAnecdote time: My home gym is outside (Bay Area) and I had to stop wearing my blue blocker sunglasses during workouts because I feel significantly weaker when wearing them. I can't say why.
- touristtam 11y agoHow about we take a step back and realize that, maybe, to stop using any screen 30-60 min before sleep might achieve the same result?