
Phones need 'bed mode' to protect sleep - owlmusic
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34744859
======
tasqa
For Linux users I can highly recommend Redshift[1]. The color temperature
settings seem to differ some from f.lux but everything else works great!

[1] [http://jonls.dk/redshift/](http://jonls.dk/redshift/)

~~~
Mahn
Not just for Linux users: If you are using f.lux on windows but wish that you
could control the temperate on demand (rather than it being automatic
according to the current time) switch to Redshift and don't look back.

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jacinda
And yet Apple recently forced f.lux to take down the sideloaded version of
their iOS app despite the fact that they have no public APIs available to do
what f.lux does.

See here:
[https://justgetflux.com/sideload/#notanymore](https://justgetflux.com/sideload/#notanymore)

HN Posting:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10556375](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10556375)

~~~
allencoin
I haven't done any mobile development, so forgive my ignorance. But the
concept of a program not being "allowed" on my device is bizarre to me.

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Zelphyr
It's not that the program isn't allowed. It's that the program uses
unpublished API's which Apple doesn't allow.

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allencoin
I see the difference here now. Thanks!

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upofadown
When reading about circadian light it helps to remember that the actual
biological research is still a bit thin. There are a couple of studies out
there that show that light of other wavelengths reduces the effect of the blue
light on melatonin. Since the problem is normally caused by the bright white
areas on the screen it is possible that all that is required is to turn down
the overall brightness at night.

Incidentally, this effect might explain why people complain that typical
office lighting isn't bright enough to cause sufficient melatonin suppression
during the day.

~~~
walterbell
This is the obvious change immediately made by anyone whose health is
affected. If the lowest level of brightness were sufficient, users would not
need to seek out apps like f.lux.

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spuz
People get addicted to their phones to the point that it disrupts their sleep
and harms their health. A bed mode is not going to change that. People need to
recognise the damage their habits are doing and work to change them.

~~~
jacobolus
Actually a bed mode will make a substantial difference.

Looking at phones or laptops or whatever screens at nighttime suppresses
melatonin, which leads to people not feeling sleepy when they should, which
makes them much more likely to continue looking at their screen than if they
became as tired as normal.

It’s certainly possible to stay up doing something without blue light (e.g.
reading by candlelight or a dim incandescent flashlight), but blue light makes
a huge difference, and actively fights people’s ability to exercise self
control.

Working to change habits is all well and good, but instead of telling someone
who habitually binges on candy and cookies to stop eating any snacks at all,
period, it would be a more successful intervention to take the candy and
cookies away and fill their refrigerator with carrot sticks.

~~~
spuz
In my experience, using a screen colour app just encourages me to use my phone
more not less. Even with these apps a phone will still emit a large amount of
blue light and having the light source so close to my face I still notice it
disrupts my sleep.

If you believe using your phone late at night is harmful to you at all then
why continue to maintain a that behaviour? Wouldn't it be much more beneficial
to your health to avoid screens altogether at night? I'm not saying that it is
easy but I believe it's a good healthy goal to aim for just like getting
exercise and eating well.

To your point about unhealthy eating habits I totally agree. I just don't see
phone addiction normally talked about as often as diet and exercise which is
why I wanted to mention it.

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icebraining
_If you believe using your phone late at night is harmful to you at all then
why continue to maintain a that behaviour?_

Paraphrasing from one of your previous posts, "if you really have to question
every action that might be harmful then you would never go outside, put
anything in your mouth, go to the bathroom etc. Your question really only
makes sense when considering activities that have a relatively high risk of
harm in which case the answer has to come down to two things. Firstly how
harmful is this activity? And secondly, how much harm am I willing to take?"

If a bed mode is enough to make the disruption to one's sleep negligible, why
not use the phone late at night?

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wodenokoto
While I do think my Mac is overly blue, I also think that f.lux is
ridiculously yellow. I've turned down the yellowness considerably compared to
the defaults, and still find myself turning it off in the evening, because
suddenly everything becomes washy yellow.

~~~
jacobolus
If you allow your eyes to adapt, the yellowness really isn’t a big deal,
unless you’re doing something color sensitive like making art. Just stop
worrying about precisely what colors are on screen.

Even if you’re casually looking at photographs, watching a television show, or
playing a game, your eyes can compensate pretty well for a significant
reduction in the amount of blue light, and you can have a perfectly acceptable
experience.

Note, you’ll also want to dim or turn off other lights at night. In particular
white LEDs of CCT ≥4000K are terrible at night, both wrecking night vision and
disrupting sleep rhythm.

If you’re in an otherwise dark room, you can turn your display brightness as
low as it will go and turn f.lux to its orangest possible setting and still
browse the web, answer emails, write code, etc. perfectly fine. At such an
extreme setting you might not be able to effectively enjoy photographs or
movies anymore, but maybe right before bed isn’t the best time to look at
photographs anyway.

~~~
mcintyre1994
I find f.lux unusable for quite a few TV shows on Netflix on my Macbook. I
don't have an issue with the colours, but it introduces artefacts in very
bright areas which are really annoying. Sure I probably shouldn't watch
Netflix before bed, and I don't when I need to be up early etc., and I
probably could fiddle with settings to fix it - but it is noticeable and
annoying.

~~~
jacobolus
Yeah, it somehow screws with full screen QuickTime video playback. I think in
those cases the video player is trying to bypass some of the standard OS
display processing and send data straight to the screen to save power, or
similar.

I’ve found VLC doesn’t have an issue, but I’m not sure if you could use VLC to
play Netflix videos.

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tdkl
Or people just need to put the phone down before going to sleep. Every non-
infantile responsible adult is capable of that.

How hard can it be ?

~~~
mahouse
You did not read the article... It's not about putting down the phone, it's
about the light it emits.

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skrebbel
Maybe he did. The blue tones are no problem if you simply don't look at the
damn thing all evening.

~~~
walterbell
Or if you install software to control color temperature.

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mrweasel
Or you could just put the phone/tablet/computer aside an hour or two before
bedtime. It's probably not a popular solution, people get defensive when you
suggest they put their phone away.

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DrScump
Anybody know if f.lux is working on an Android version? Their FAQ is mute on
the issue.

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ChanceTheCoder
There is something like f.lux for Android. It's called Twilight.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
Twilight seems less thorough than f.lux and more like a simple filter. When
f.luxs runs on my desktop, the blacks are still black. On Twilight, they get a
red tint to them.

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carterehsmith
For those wearing glasses, you can opt for special coating that filters some
of the blue light out.

The one I got was ~$40 option when I last ordered new glasses, and was branded
"digital protection glasses" and "Kodak BlueReflect".

~~~
jacobolus
Orange safety glasses entirely block those wavelengths. This kind of thing:
[http://amzn.com/B003OBZ64M/](http://amzn.com/B003OBZ64M/)

If looking through your glasses doesn’t make everything look significantly
yellower/oranger than usual when you first put them on, then it’s not blocking
too much blue light. You can try to find a spec sheet with the spectral
transmission distribution to get a full idea.

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pilif
My brain must be wired up differently, but the best way for me to fall asleep
is by watching youtube videos on my iPad. When I'm sufficiently tired, it's a
matter of minutes before I'm asleep.

~~~
dalke
I believe that discovery was made decades ago, given the stories I've come
across of people who fell asleep to 'The Late Show' with Carson, back when
that was the last broadcast of the day.

Ahh, here are two links which mention those days:
[http://www.salon.com/2014/02/18/how_jimmy_fallon_and_the_roo...](http://www.salon.com/2014/02/18/how_jimmy_fallon_and_the_roots_brought_hip_hop_to_late_night/)
and [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-
entertainment/w...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-
entertainment/wp/2015/08/12/finally-nightly-johnny-carson-tonight-show-
episodes-are-coming-to-tv-but-only-for-some-people/) .

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RivieraKid
I don't understand why Google hasn't implemented this yet. It's easy to do
that and has a huge value. I always had to root my phone just to do this.

~~~
jzwinck
Dictating what is "easy to do" is an insult to software producers everywhere.
If you'd like to know more about how "simple" things can take lots of effort
to deploy in heavily-used production software, consider reading Raymond Chen's
Old New Thing blog for a while.

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kmfrk
The Do Not Disturb feature with defined DND times goes a long way on iOS.
Definitely recommend it, and yes, receiving notifications at 2AM can be a
total pain.

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ck2
It's called the power off button?

Seriously, what is wrong with people, turn the thing off.

Future "news": Food needs to stop being so tasty so people don't eat too much.

~~~
Tenhundfeld
I and most of my acquaintances no longer have a traditional landline phone. My
smartphone is the only way to contact me in an emergency. If friends or family
need to reach me to extricate them from a bad situation or come to the
hospital, etc., I want to be reachable. It's only happened a few times in my
life, thankfully, but I don't like the idea of being completely unreachable
until I wake up and turn my phone back on.

That said, I could turn off wifi and cellular data, but that's one more thing
to remember to do every night. I suppose if you find the temptation
overwhelming, it could be worth it though.

My point is just that turning off the phone is not as simple of a decision as
you make it sound.

~~~
ck2
touching "airplane mode" is too hard for you?

it's a pull down, one click if you set it up right

also, some phones with 5.1 or 6.0 can change modes automatically depending on
time of day and can turn off mobile data and wifi - you can leave voice
enabled for "emergencies"

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EdwardCoffin
Are you claiming that airplane mode will let people receive emergency calls? I
am pretty sure that is not the case.

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ck2
Sorry I had two thoughts in that last post.

If you need emergency calls, you can just turn off wifi and mobile data which
leaves voice (and I think sms) intact.

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Tenhundfeld
Did you read my comment? That's exactly what I said, right? You can turn off
wifi and cellular data to just get calls (and sms).

Your comment acted like turning off the phone was the obvious solution
everybody was missing, and my point was that it's more complicated.

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nicerobot
Isn't that the "do not disturb" settings in iOS?

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bluehex
No the article is talking about the blue light affecting hormone production.
"Do not disturb" does nothing for that.

