Click the second icon in the toolbar and choose RGB Sliders from the pop-up menu.Click the box next to Color (highlighted above) to open the color picker.Now we want to set the maximum shade of red: Move the Intensity slider all the way to the right.Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Color Filters.We’re going to add a toggleable color filter on top of Night Shift to eliminate even more: Thankfully, the Mac has a built-in way to do that.įirst, turn on Night Shift as described above, which removes some blue light but not all. To do that, you need a red filter, since red is the opposite of blue on the color wheel. Night Shift reduces blue light but doesn’t eliminate it. I wanted to eliminate blue light with the flick of a switch. Initially, I tried f.lux, the classic open-source app that Apple Sherlocked with Night Shift, but it’s tuned for gradual blue light reduction throughout the day. With that last idea in mind, I looked for something stronger. ![]() All this got me thinking-what if Night Shift doesn’t block enough blue light? The researchers also noted that screen brightness was also a factor. And while Night Shift’s effects weren’t significant with respect to melatonin suppression, they did show a slight improvement. (Melatonin is a hormone that helps you sleep, and exposure to blue light suppresses it.)īut this was a small study, almost certainly conducted on college students whose sleep schedules and habits aren’t representative of older or younger people. The researchers found that when Night Shift was enabled, the participants’ melatonin levels were slightly less suppressed, but there wasn’t a significant difference between settings. They tested four conditions across four nights: LED goggles that emitted a lot of blue light, Night Shift set to less warm, Night Shift set to more warm, and a dim light control with orange goggles. In a 2018 study, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had 12 young adults look at iPads between 11 PM and 1 AM. That way, there is only a brief minute during the wee hours in which Night Shift is off.īut Night Shift may not be all that effective. If you want to leave it on all the time, there’s a trick: for Schedule, choose Custom, and set the time from 4:00 AM to 3:59 AM. To try Night Shift on the Mac, go to System Preferences > Displays > Night Shift, and select Turn On Until Tomorrow. ![]() (Of course, if you need accurate color representation on your screen for graphics work, you won’t be able to use Night Shift.) Reducing Blue Light on the Mac with Night Shift Night Shift, introduced in iOS 9.3 and macOS 10.12.4 Sierra, gives you a free and easy way to experiment with blue light filtering. Apple has acknowledged this problem and provided a baked-in solution. There’s a tinge of pseudoscience to some of the claims, but even Harvard Medical School points to these effects, recommending red lights and blue-light blockers at night, such as special glasses or screen filters.Īnecdotally, as someone who stares at screens all day and much of the night, I’ve been dealing with increasing eyestrain, dryness, and headaches as I get older. The science isn’t settled, but there is a growing body of research that links blue light exposure from screens to sleep problems that may, in turn, contribute to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. I’m hitting the gym, tracking health with my Apple Watch, and experimenting with countering the effects of blue light exposure (for more on my health experiments, see “ How I Finally Embraced the Apple Watch as a Fitness Tracker,” 7 February 2022). Perhaps it’s a cliché, but I’ve made health the focus of this new year. Protect Yourself from Blue Light with Digital Color Filters
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |