Make your PC, MAC or newish iPhone more night friendly

masraum · 09-04-2016, 05:51 PM

Looking at bright screens at night can screw with our circadian rhythms. Our brains see the bright light and don't think it's late and we can have a hard time getting to sleep, etc....

You can install a small app on your Windows PC, Mac device or Linux box called f.lux that will automatically dim and change the color of your screen to a warmer color to help your eyes and brain adjust to thinking it's night. It's also nice to not have the harsh light on your eyes.
https://justgetflux.com/
Reduce Eye Strain and Get Better Sleep by Using f.lux on Your Computer

f.lux is cool because you tell it where you live and it will automatically determine what your sunrise and sunset times are and adjust the times throughout the year. I believe it also dynamically changes the brightness and darkness getting gradually darker and warmer as it gets later. I was told about f.lux about a year ago. Unfortunately, I can't use it because I have a USB display adapter and f.lux won't work with those (at least, not the one that I have).

This ability (not f.lux) is now (for 9.3) built into IOS, and it's called "Night Shift". You can have it set the times automatically by sunrise and sunset by your location as with f.lux or your can schedule the change by time. You can also adjust the warmth of the screen while in night shift mode. I do have it turned on for my phone and ipad and I like it.

How to Enable Night Shift On Your iPhone for Easy Nighttime Reading

Oh Haha · 09-04-2016, 06:18 PM

I've told my wife this for a long time now. She likes to read her kindle in bed and then wonders why she can't fall asleep. I'll show her this app.

sc_rufctr · 09-05-2016, 01:19 AM

I just installed it on my laptop. It's night time here!

Thanks.

masraum · 09-05-2016, 05:32 AM

cgarr · cgarr's Garage

This is great!.........for you know what

flatbutt · 09-05-2016, 05:11 PM

Great! Many thanks!!

sc_rufctr · 09-05-2016, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cgarr

This is great!.........for you know what

Romantic lighting?

HardDrive · 09-05-2016, 05:54 PM

Often times when I can't sleep, I get the urge to look at photos of women doing things that are illegal in every state except Kentucky. But I find the jarring light from the phone a disruption. Now, thanks to f.lux, I can watch Black Beauty make it with a coed, and not be distracted by glaring light that disrupts my circadian rhythms. Progress at last.

masraum · 09-05-2016, 06:01 PM

I love this place.

69 Soft Targa · 69 Soft Targa's Garage

Wonderful! Thank you.
I'm working right now, it's bedtime, and I knew the bright screens were an issue.
Nice of you to pass it along.

I enabled my phone but did not know this was available.

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

UPDATE: 10/02/2018

I finally got around to doing uploading this on my old computer, and seems to be working.

The FAQ section of the website is pretty good.

I wanted a dim screen before 6:00 PM, so I told it I was getting up 3:15 AM in the morning or something like that.

The Melatonin I was taking to get to sleep wasn't working so well as I've been doing some evening AutoCad lately.

I hope this cures my ills.

My newer computer has an evening dimming feature to filter out blue light built-in. I probably will not load the program on that computer.

https://justgetflux.com/

Eric Coffey · 10-02-2018, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kach22i

My newer computer has an evening dimming feature to filter out blue light built-in. I probably will not load the program on that computer.

All Win10 machines with latest updates have this now.
It's called "Night Light" under Display Settings.

masraum · 10-02-2018, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

All Win10 machines with latest updates have this now.
It's called "Night Light" under Display Settings.

Yeah, built into Apple phones and iPads, but I have the f.lux app installed on my wife's laptop. I suppose I could check to see if they've added anything to Mac OS to do it natively yet.

TimT · 10-02-2018, 02:53 PM

The latest Android release also has this built in... called "night light" in Android 9.0 "Pie"

May have been included in later 8.0.x releases

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

Yea, my newer computer is Windows 10, with built-in non-blue light settings.

The old XP just keeps on working like a tank, I now have it set to a "low eye strain" setting or something like that.

The "low eye strain" setting seems to have eliminated my sleeping issue. I was looking really tired there for a while, not even exercising was helping, and the work outs were half hearted.

Back to good full power work-outs again.