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Your Computer Or iPad Could Be Disrupting Sleep

Posted by kdawson on from the bright-idea dept.

Crash McBang sends in a CNN report on electronics and sleeplessness and asks, "So, what do Slashdotters do to get a good night's rest?" "More than ever, consumer electronics — particularly laptops, smartphones, and Apple's new iPad — are shining bright light into our eyes until just moments before we doze off. Now there's growing concern that these glowing gadgets may actually fool our brains into thinking it's daytime. Exposure can disturb sleep patterns and exacerbate insomnia, some sleep researchers said in interviews. ... Unlike paper books or e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle, which does not emit its own light, the iPad's screen shines light directly into the reader's eyes from a relatively close distance. That makes the iPad and laptops more likely to disrupt sleep patterns than, say, a television sitting across the bedroom or a lamp that illuminates a paper book, both of which shoot far less light straight into the eye, researchers said."

7 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. f.lux by kemenaran · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's what f.lux is for. It changes the temperature of your screen according to the time (sunrise/sunset). It works under Mac, Linux, Windows ; a real gem.

    1. Re:f.lux by beakerMeep · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yep this is exactly how it works. It sets the color temp to 3400K(closer to red) at night and 6000K (closer to blue) during the day.

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      meep
  2. Re:Of all the bizare complaints about modern eletr by balsy2001 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The article claims that the light intensity is less from the other source. It is about distance and intensity. You usually don't sit 6 inches from your TV or lamp like you might with an iPad. The intensity of light (from a point source) is a function of r^2.

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    GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
  3. Re:Of all the bizare complaints about modern eletr by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Informative

    But there is a difference in physical size of the light sources as well, and if you adjust the luminance (cd/m^2, probably fairly independent of the size of the screen, be it a TV or an iPod) of your TV and your laptop to be the same and if you watch both from such a distance that each of them covers the same solid angle, your eyes receive equal irradiation from both of them.

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Re:hmm by Larryish · · Score: 3, Informative

    True dat.

    Before I got married I did most of my sleeping on a cot in the computer room and I can honestly say that, in regards to sleep, the hum of servers is as good as rain on a tin roof.

    Also the clicking of hard drives let me know if somebody was accessing my FTP site. My ftpd didn't allow for ratios so I went through the logs by hand to make sure people uploaded first.

    RelicNet FTW!

  5. But, but, but by justinlee37 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I can't jerk off to internet porn in the living room! People are out there!

  6. Re:Freakin' Mac "Like Paper" look to blame by MacAnkka · · Score: 4, Informative

    ctrl+alt+command+8 negates the screen on a mac. I, too, have used that feature during night a couple of times and it does help.