What is Blue Light? How to Protect your Eyes from Your Devices - DIY in 5 Ep 145

Опубликовано 30 апреля 2021, 17:00

If you are a fan of late-night screen time you should know that you will want to protect your eyes from blue light. Blue light is a type of light emitted by screens that stimulates your brain. It does so in such a way that can cause eye strain, headaches, and your brain can even be fooled into thinking it’s daytime, which can be a problem if you like to work late at night or look at your phone before you fall asleep. Researchers are constantly releasing new studies on the potential harm of blue light and while there have been some studies that suggest this isn’t truly to blame for your insomnia as much as people think, regardless, these tips and tricks are so simple that it’s worth a go if you are a late night browser or often experience headaches or eye strain after a long period of computer or phone use.

20-20-20 Rule
The first hack to think about isn’t even a tech solution! The 20-20-20 rule suggests that anyone using a device for an extended period of time should look away from the screen every 20 minutes - at least 20 feet away - for at least 20 seconds. It may be difficult to start this practice, but it is a healthy habit to get into if you can manage it. If you fall into a void of work/gaming tunnel vision, then there are other options to try from a tech standpoint that are easy and totally free.

iOS Settings
Let’s start with mobile solutions since most of us are guilty of late night or simply too much phone use. If you are an iPhone user, the Night Shift feature allows you to filter out blue light and adjust the warmth of the colors on your display. It will automatically do this at sunset and return your screen to it’s normal display settings in the morning. To enable Night Shift, simply open Control Center, press Brightness Control and tap the symbol that looks like a sun or if you want to go through settings, go to settings, Display & Brightness, and toggle Night Shift. In settings, you also have the option to set specific schedules if you don’t want sunset and sunrise to be the startpoint and endtime, or manually turn it on and off as it suits you. If you do not see the Sunset to Sunrise option in your settings, you may need to turn on the Setting Time Zone option in your Location and System Services.

Android Apps and Settings
For Android users, this will differ slightly depending which manufacturer your phone is from. For Samsung phones, this feature is called Eye Comfort Shield or Blue Light Filter and you can access it from your quick settings. For Pixels, this feature is called Night Light and is available in your Display settings. Both of these features allow you to adjust the intensity level and start/stop times. For other Android options, check your Display settings, and see if your phone has this type of feature albeit under a different name. If your phone does not have this feature built in, there are third party apps like Blue Light Filter, sFilter and Twilight: Blue light filter that will get the job done just fine.

Settings for Windows and Mac Displays (not covered in the video)
Both Windows and Mac have settings you can adjust as well. In Windows, toggling on the Night Light setting will shift your display warmer and you can adjust the schedule and temperature settings as well. To enable or adjust Night Light, just go into Settings, System, Display and you’ll find it under Color. On Mac, if you are using MacOS Sierra or newer, click System Preferences, Displays, and Night Shift, which will open up a tab where you can configure schedule, temperature and more. And for Chromebook users, there’s a Night Light feature as well which you can find by clicking the system clock and toggle the button on and off. If you want more customization over schedule and color, you can adjust that in your Device Settings under Displays.

Blue Blocker Glasses
For the gamers out there or workaholics using full screen applications, sometimes fullscreen applications will automatically override any night light settings you have enabled. If this is you, know that some monitors will now come with built in blue light filtering. And if none of these solutions work for you another option is blue light filtering glasses. There are varying levels of filtering, with stronger options traditionally having more of a yellow tint than others, and they come in all shapes, sizes and prescriptions too. I have light blue light filtering in my everyday glasses, prescription Gunnar clearer lensed glasses for long computer sessions while streaming and some intense blockers if I’m not streaming and playing super late.

Conclusion
Between glasses, hardware solutions and software solutions, and the 20-20-20 rule there are many different ways to protect your eyes from blue light. What’s your preferred solution? Let us know in the comments.