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associate with blue light we tried to think of some funny stuff
and kept coming up with police lights in the rearview mirror just kept popping up
i guess that says a little something about mine and john's driving records
speak for yourself john no what we're really here to talk about is blue light
apps that filter blue light have been available for pcs and smartphones for
years and it's gotten to the point where iOS and Android now even offer the same
functionality built in but why is blue light suddenly something to avoid i mean
it's just regular light and it isn't like you're staring into the sun and
exposing your retinas to all that lovely uv radiation and like mutating and
developing superpowers well the main concern about blue light
is its ability to disrupt your sleep cycle also called a circadian rhythm
specifically when blue light hits your eyes it can inhibit the body's ability
to produce melatonin a hormone that regulates sleep now scientists aren't
sure exactly why this happens but they think it's because blue light is
relatively high in energy compared to other colors that is to say it has a
shorter wavelength than red yellow or green light and when you're up and about
during the day because you have to go to work or go to school or head off to a
crossfit class blue light from both natural and artificial sources can help
you feel energized and focused
but at night when your body naturally wants to start shutting down blue light
instead tricks the part of your brain responsible for sleep into thinking it
needs to stay awake this problem has been amplified in recent years as more
and more of us stay up late staring at gadgets that give off lots of blue light
such as our computer and phone screens those
hooligans if you think back to grade school physics white light that we see lots of
in our web browsers and mobile apps contain all the colors of the spectrum
including blue and modern led displays often use a base of blue leds combined
with different chemicals called phosphors to produce white and of course
if you're looking at an amoled phone display you're directly exposed to
plenty of blue pixels to make matters worse those fancy new led lights we're
all installing in our lamps and ceiling fans also put out light that's more
skewed towards the blue side of the spectrum than those old incandescent
bulbs were so just having the lights on in your room before you go to bed might
keep you from falling asleep as quickly as you did in the good old days
mom used to read us a bedtime story
of course all this can not only cause tiredness but the attendant health
problems that accompany chronic sleep loss such as a weakened immune system
poor memory and weight gain there are some studies that even suggest
that the higher energy blue light can trigger chemical reactions that
permanently damage your eyes photoreceptors irreversibly degrading
your vision over time though more research on this specific issue is
needed as the links between blue light and actual eye injury are much less
clear than the ones between blue light and
poor sleep there's good news though the solution looks to be rather simple move
to amish country just kidding you don't really need to change your habits that
much so if you're like me and tend to lay in bed with your phone late at night
turn the brightness down and enable your phone's blue light filter this will make
your display appear much warmer so your body won't be trying to tell you to stay
awake if you're on your pc instead there are blue light filtering glasses and
monitors with built-in filters or failing that Windows 10 has a built-in
night light in its display settings that will reduce the amount of blue light emitted by your display and another
trick is to try and use light bulbs advertised as warm with lower color
temperatures on the box these will push your ambient lighting back towards the
red end of the spectrum as well it might be annoying to not be able to see things
in quite the correct colors before bed but it will at least keep you from
having to explain to your boss why you keep yawning during that meeting he
makes you sit through every monday morning i'm glad we don't do one of
those that calls for a punch into the face no
no he missed thank goodness
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