Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Did you ever write until 1 am, and then have trouble getting to sleep?

Not the "Flux" I'm writing about.

There have been assorted studies that show that the relatively blue screen of a computer tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime. In fact, at 6400K, your computer screen is even bluer than sunlight, which is about 5600K. So when you finally close the computer, you're still in daytime mode. It takes a while for your brain to get into night time mode.

The nice people at Flux have written a free app that will change the relative color temperature of your screen so it's warmer -- anywhere from 5600K down to the 2700K of firelight.

(It has absolutely no relationship with Aeon Flux, whose picture is to the right.)

I tried it last night. I only put the color temperature to 4500K because otherwise it seemed just a bit too orange. (The FAQ says it takes some getting used to.) But I did feel a whole lot less wired when I finally stopped working around 11 pm.

The only odd feature of the program is that it depends on your location to determine when to turn the lighting of your computer down to night mode. So the transition happens automatically at sundown. In the depths of winter, I don't particularly want to feel sleepy at 5 pm. But it shouldn't take long before they allow you to set the timer manually.

Check it out.

10:41 AM

4 Comments:

Oooh, I'll have to check this one out. I've started taking melatonin or black cherry juice (supposedly has melatonin & other stuff in it that helps sleep/improve sleep) to improve quality of my sleep. Maybe decreasing monitor stuff will also help with my quantity of sleep.

Numerous studies have been done that have concluded that quantity/quality of sleep helps immune system, weight/body shape and emotional/mood/cognitive quality. Others have even gone so far as to argue that not getting enough sleep/melatonin shortens life and can induce puberty earlier. Apparently aging has more to do with our waking hours than our sleeping hours.

And I'm just blabbering, aren't I?

By  The_Lex, at 4:28 PM  

Well, kids are undergoing puberty way sooner, that's for sure.

I hope getting enough sleep lengthens life span, 'cause that will make up for the vast quantities of time I waste sleeping.

I find that melatonin is great for getting me to sleep, and I need very little, but I do sleep a bit heavier -- have more trouble getting up.

By  Alex Epstein, at 8:28 PM  

Yeah, that's what I heard from my wife about melatonin. She apparently has really weird dreams, too.

Maybe try black cherry juice? My theory is that the water and all that other stuff dilutes the sleepy stuff. Who knows?

Living in the city, I also try sleeping with something, like a shirt, to cover my eyes from ambient light. I usually throw it off at some time during the night, so daylight can wake me up the next day.

By  The_Lex, at 3:27 AM  

I started using it and I feel like when I got to bed very late I actually fall asleep without some trouble now. Thanks!

By  jmulligan, at 11:13 AM  

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