"[Too much time looking at the computer screen is] not good for our eyes. LED screens emit a great deal of blue light, and according to the Vision Council, "cumulative and constant exposure to blue light can damage retinal cells."
What's more, even the non-harmful portion of blue light sends a signal to our brains that it is daytime, revving up our heart rate and alertness. It mimics the sun, basically. You do not want to be lying in bed at night, having brushed your teeth and set your alarm, staring into the sun. It's not a recipe for good sleep.
...Exposure to blue light at night has even been linked to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. (It is not entirely clear why; it likely has to do with suppressing the secretion of melatonin.)
There are all sorts of solutions to the blue-light problem. The most obvious is just not to look at screens for two or three hours before you go to bed. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion of my professional work gets done in the two to three hours before I go to bed, so that's not really an option for me.
Hardware solutions include adhesive screen protectors that filter blue light and even orange goggles, if you want to look extra cool after the sun goes down.
But by far the easiest step is just to install f.lux. It's free for Windows, Mac, and iPhones/iPads**. (There's not yet a version for Android, but there are plenty of alternatives; I use one called CF.lumen.)"
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/2/9658952/blue-light-app
11 comments:
I wondered how you blocked my avatar and attendant comments. Now I know. :)
Einstein explained how and why the faintest blue light could do what the brightest, most intense red light could not do, energy-wise. This seems counterintuitive because blue is cool and red is hot.
Did you know that blue used to be the Republican color and red was D? This got switched some time in the 1960's.
If you have a flourescent screen (older displays) probably there's no issue, even if the study is right, which is always doubtful. Every study is wrong.
Has anything on earth not been linked to cancer yet? I think the planet might be a giant tumor, but I would say something like that, because I read last night right here on this blog that if I didn't accept AGW, then I hated all life on earth. I think Gaia hates us, but she's just cranky because she's so fat, and Mars continues to ignore her advances.
I have f.lux (or something like it) on the laptop I use usually while watching (well, sort of watching) TV in the evening with my elderly mom. Sometimes it is annoyingly dulled, but I guess if nothing else it makes me feel like I am doing something to diminish eye damage. (And you can override it if you need accurate colors, I think.)
Sort of OT: Also saw something today about 30 minutes walking outside is better than the gy for losing weight.
Nature, when it isn't trying to kill us, is good for us.
gy = gym
Block chick? Never.
Agree color is confusing. In a flame the bottom is orange, the middle blue, the top white, which is the hottest part. Yet in art and interior décor, red and orange are considered warm, so should not be used where you want to enhance calm feelings. And vice versa for blue and green.
Once I bought three or four sample quarts trying to find the perfect medium-dark blue for my son's room. One was dark but bright...how does that happen? One was dark but had a pea green to it, kind of like the sea. One was perfect.
rh, glad you said that, as I've only been looking at LED screens for the last few years, not the entire 11 I've been on the net. Macular degeneration runs on my mom's side.
bago, I had to laugh way back when someone noted that even sunshine causes cancer.
Yesterday reading the GW thread I was thinking global warmists are really more of a nature cult. Nature is glorified to the detriment of Man, forgetting that Man is part of nature and not the enemy.
JAL yeah the screen color change will take getting used to. Kind of like wearing sun glasses while driving. I see that unless you adjust the settings it's a normal screen during the day.
I don't know that you can distinguish led from flourescent screens by eye, unless the flourescent bulb begins to dim in which case a part of the screen starts to go brownish, say when it gets hot, if it's beginning to fail.
Dell Latitude E6400's are LED, E5400's are flourescent, which you can only discover by reading about replacement screens and a replacement bulb is mentioned.
New tends to be led, I suppose.
I doubt it matters to the eye, in any case.
Post a Comment