Apple's Night Shift May Have Zero Effect On Sleep (macworld.com)

eggboard writes: While blue light emitted by monitors and mobile displays has been widely cited as a cause in disrupting people's circadian rhythm, the evidence is thin: a narrow range of blue spectra might not be the problem (it may be a more complicated interaction), brightness may be more important, and Night Shift's (and f.lux's) effects are probably too negligible anyway. Apple's Night Shift feature lets you adjust the color temperature of your display to the warmer end of the spectrum. Apple notes, "Many studies have shown that exposure to bright blue light in the evening can affect your circadian rhythms and make it harder to fall asleep."

Comments

It is good for some users

[Required Snark]

I have a friend who has to use light therapy every day. She can't view any screen for an hour or so before she goes to sleep. When she gets up in the morning she uses a blue enhanced light. She also has a lamp with a therapeutic spectrum at work. If she doesn't take these precautions then she has sleep problems and that causes migraine headaches. This is a real big deal for her.

I can easily see how this could be of use to some users. These problems are idiosyncratic, so it varies between individuals. Making a blanket statement that it of no use is basically willful ignorance. It makes a quick headline, and helps no one in the long run.

Re:Duly noted.

[drinkypoo]

Sadly all we get in the west are those stupid Philips Hue bulbs that change to a variety of pointless colours.

Sadly, you have no idea what you are on about. Using the API, you can switch to any color you like, and you can get as complicated as you like with it. And F.Lux has support for controlling Phillips Hue, so you can have it happen automagically through that or other means. What a surprise that you of all people are talking bollocks.

Re:Duly noted.

[AmiMoJo]

Shame that system sucks though. The bulbs are dumb and forget their state when powered off. The colour reproduction for warm white is crap. You have to use a PC or smartphone. They use radio and the range is really bad, so you need to build a mesh. It's 2.4ghz too so good luck if you live in a contested area.

Worst of all we can't trust Phillips. They tried to block third party devices not long ago. At least IR remotes are generic and easy to clone.

The Hue has so many of the problems that typically affect smart devices. Proprietary, incompatible, untrustworthy. Who wants to open an app to control their lightbulb? I have an app that can control my TV and I never use it, the remote is much easier. And of course, the Phillips remote doesn't have a button for warm white, you need to manually program it every time.