Slashdot Mirror
Study: Light-Emitting Screens Before Bedtime Disrupt Sleep
jfruh writes: Tablets and e-readers are more convenient in many ways than paper books, but many people have complained that the physical experience of using them isn't as good. And now we have some specific quantification of this fact: a study has shown that people who read text on a tablet before bed don't sleep as well as those who read a traditional book (abstract).
Same. I'm on 3200K during evening, 3000K before bed. Using the laptop before bedtime no longer affects my sleep, not even the least. The problem with blue light preventing melatonin production is long gone.
There's always the brightness control. I suspect most people set it too high.
No. That has much less to do with it than the frequency of the light. There is specific blue wavelength that triggers circadian rhythm. Essentially, if you are looking at a screen before bed, you are screwed. (and this seems to include me too)
220V incandescent in a 120V plug tends to produce the light you need to get to sleep. So if you want to read, get a 40W 240V bulb on ebay from China, and use it in your 120V light fixture. It will be a dim, orange 10W bulb, but more than enough to read by. And doesn't disrupt melatonin production.
If you are in 220V country, well, not such an easy solution. Needs a dimmer switch.
And yes, has to be incandescent. CFS, LED, all are terrible. Unless you wish to light your book with red LEDs!
I understand what you are getting at. I'll use an iPad Retina or laptop during the day to check technical books, reference manuals and other documentation.
However when reading at night its generally a more traditional book (history, sci fi, etc) on a Kindle PaperWhite, in my opinion, its equivalent to a paper book but more convenient. I feel it is a better experience even when compared to the lightest color tablets. Certainly it will vary from one technical field to another but I've had surprisingly good results when reading programming and software development books on the PaperWhite, not as good as a higher resolution color tablet but better than I expected and acceptable with respect to the illustrations and diagrams and such. Then again I haven't tried something like the latest edition of Foley and van Dam (a computer graphics text).
I see the refresh you speak of but its less than turning a paper page of a real book. As for the time you believe you are saving, maybe the faster refresh of a color tablet is not a win once you consider the sleep disruption and also the lowered productivity that results?