Blue light has a negative impact on our sleep and our eyesight. With the development of tablets and smartphones, we are constantly bombarded with blue light. To protect yourself from it and preserve your health, we have a few solutions to offer you.
The growing use of smartphones and tablets puts this light at the heart of the media storm. According to a study, prolonged exposure to blue light accelerates the degeneration process of your eyeball and permanently destroys precious cells.
Likewise, if you are having a bad night, perhaps your use of new technologies is to be called into question. Watching Netflix or checking Facebook before going to sleep is clearly not recommended. Exposure to bright light in the dark can cause sleep disturbances, the researchers say. So, here are some tips indicating how to filter blue light from your screens.
The blue light problem
Exposure to this low wavelength blue light is caused by any backlit screen but also by the sun. If during the day this is beneficial to us, it is because this light keeps us alert and awake. It is also thanks to the star that our life cycles have been functioning since the dawn of time. We live according to the solar phases, we wake up when it gets up and we fall asleep when it goes to bed.
This is why these screens contribute to disrupting our sleep. They trap our brains which, by these luminous projections, think that it is still daylight. As a result, they stop the secretion of melatonin, which is supposed to prepare your body for a night's rest. Another study also reveals that, placed on a car dashboard, an LED projecting a blue light would reduce the risk of falling asleep at the wheel.
Solutions to filter blue light
Some developers have been able to find a solution, or at least a short-term solution that could provide a improvement to this blue light problem in cases where, you refuse to put down your smartphone or tablet before closing your eyes. Android indeed offers options from Nougat that dim the light. Here is the procedure to activate them.
- See you in the settings from your Android smartphone
- Then go to display
- First go to brightness adaptation. This mode will adapt the brightness of your screen to your environment and your activities. This option will reduce blue light throughout the day and reduce eye strain.
- Go back
- Then press night lighting
- Choose Activate now. This option will color your screen amber red. Via the slider, you are free to define an intensity.
Android applications also offer filters capable of attenuating or even eliminating the emanation of blue light. The advantage is that these filters are activated in the dark but not in broad daylight. Once the sun has set, the filter will help reduce the temperature of your screen. Obviously, this does not happen without a few small drawbacks: your screen will display a tint yellowish due to the presence of the filter, the screen contrast will be a little reduced and some buttons will not work perfectly (you will have to close the application to activate them).
Surprising or even embarrassing at first, you get used to it quite quickly, especially since the difference in the eye area is really felt. The negative effects of blue light are totally blocked, the brightness is softened and as a result your eyes will thank you.
Android applications to filter blue light
Twilight
Probably the best Android app out there. The application will gradually reduce the intensity of the colors by increasing their red tints. It will dim your screen brightness until you have reached the desired intensity and color levels. quasi-imperceptible.
The vividness of white changes to a slight gray and then in a matter of moments, while you are focused on reading on your screen, the color intensity will have been lowered to the maximum without you noticing it. . Twilight is able to constantly make adjustments thanks to light sensors integrated into your smartphone. You will no longer have to go back to the settings once the parameters have been established during the first configuration. The paid version costs € 2,99.
CF .Lumen
This application is for rooted smartphones. If Twilight was not enough for you, CF .Lumen should provide you with further settings since it is not only intended for blue light attenuation no, it can also help color blind people for example. Its other advantage is that, running on a rooted phone, CF .Lumen has the ability to directly influence the screen. Twilight affixed a red filter on the entire interface here, the application use a custom driver able to control the colors displayed by the screen.
Potentially more efficient than Twilight, the rendering also seems more qualitative, for example not causing loss of contrast. The content consulted is easier to read, the effects appear less messy. The application uses your geolocation to know what time it is at home. By default, it will activate the Sunshine Color Filter during the declining phase of the sun. From 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., it will enter the extreme Sleep Color Filter mode turning all the settings to red. CF .Lumen is also available for free but to avoid advertising, the paid version is also available.
As with any rooted application, during its installation it will ask you to install several custom drivers resulting in a restart. If you plan to uninstall the application later, remember to remove these drivers through the application settings beforehand. CF .Lumen can also work in non-rooted mode, but will be Twilight-like use.
Alternative solutions
For people having trouble getting used to the red / yellow screen, other alternatives can be proposed. These solutions will perhaps flow more from source but it is always good to repeat them. First of all, if you are used to using your tablet in bed and in the dark, go for your smartphone. The light area will be smaller.
Lower the screen brightness as much as possible and if they allow it, activate the night mode of the applications you use. EBook applications, for example, have night modes inverting black and white or apply a sepia filter to reduce the intensity. There are also Android tutorials to lower your screen brightness even further. You can also try the Lux app. F.Lux is also a solution for your Windows computers.
If you spend long hours in front of a computer screen, for business or personal reasons, we recommend that you invest in a pair of glasses capable of filtering blue light. There are excellent models, intended primarily for gaming, on a site like Amazon. Do not hesitate to send us your comments on this subject if you know of other tips explaining how to filter the blue light from our screens.
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