Trouble sleeping? Maybe it's your iPad | Hacker News Reader

Trouble sleeping? Maybe it's your iPad

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24 pointsgeorgecmu30 comments

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For your desktop/laptop, F.lux adjusts your screen color in the evening: http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/

(added bonus: gets rid of the eerie blue glow when you Skype at night)

Yep, I would also post a link to this had I not had two problems with it:

- they don't share source code and provide a binary only

- their binary fails with an error on my linux box.

There's an open-source alternative, Redshift, that does something similar: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

There's a fork of Redshfit, RedshiftGUI, which gives you a GUI if you want one: http://www.mao-yu.com/projects/redshiftgui/

I don't use either, but I've seen the former recommended, and the latter came up a few times while I was searching around to remember what its name was.

I use this on all of my machines (Win/Mac) and it's fantastic. Great little app.

I wish the iPad supported something similar.

Discovering F.lux (via a previous HN thread) has had a dramatically beneficial effect on my life.

Before discovering it I would have difficulty falling asleep 3 or 4 nights a week. Now that hardly ever happens -- perhaps once every two weeks.

I would use F.lux if I could figure out a way to use it and also have my monitor properly gamma corrected (at least during the day), sadly that doesn't seem to be an option.

I started using this at the recommendation of HN. It has literally been lifechanging for me. I now get up willingly and into productive mode before 9 AM better than 3 days a week, which is approximately how many days I willingly accomplished that between middle school and this summer.

Thanks for your comment Patrick! I know from your comments here that you wouldn't take any product and recommend it lightly so I took your word for it and just installed it.

Well, this is a weird transition for now! My screen is all yellow-ish and it doesn't feel quite right. I'll get used to it but at first, this is surprising.

edit: I should add that, though it does look and feel odd for now, it looks softer on the eyes already. It also seems to accentuate the difference of brightness depending on the angle of the screen on my MacBook. So if I type on my lap, my laptop bounces a bit and the variation in brightness is more noticeable.

I literally cannot tell it is running anymore, particularly for days where I am on the computer continuously. Sometimes if I turn on the machine for the first time late the flash of yellow reminds me this was not the way it always worked, but that is about it.

You will get used to it and if you're ever up before dawn and see it change to blue again you'll be even more weirded out. The hardest part is explaining to other people, but even they've stopped noticing.

PS And yes, it lets me get tired at night easier. I physically notice if I disable it for a game or movie.

How long have you been using it?

Not to be just a me too but to attract further attention to it I love F.lux.

Seems to me this was a rather unscientific experiment. If I turned off everything that makes light in my house, of course I'm going to go to sleep at 9 because there isn't anything to do except sleep. I also find it funny that the result was him being in a better mood as apposed to when he stayed up late and didn't sleep as much. du.

At the same time though, theres so much I could get done from getting home till bed time that someone who turns everything else won't be able to.

I find morning people struggle with the idea sometimes that you can naturally wake up around midday or in the afternoon and be even more productive that someone rising with the sun. In the end we all need sleep, when we get it though isn't as important to productivity as some think.

Article is from May 2010. It mentions the iPad because it was brand new at that point in time.

I covered this recently on my blog:

Become a morning person. How to end insomnia for $520.99 http://bit.ly/9PjsHW

LowBlueLights.com just made an ipad filter that fits over the ipad screen and blocks the blue light. http://bit.ly/b63zGi

Remember, you have to both block blue light at night and get bright light in the morning.

My new favorite product for getting bright light in the morning is the Phillips goLITE blu. http://bit.ly/9NXfeX

It's good to travel with and can be set to turn on before the audible alarm goes on, thus allowing you to wake up more naturally.

Can you unshorten those links so people can see the ultimate destinations (and affiliate links) before clicking?

I have to wonder to what degree this sort of thing mistakes specific people's learned adaptation to specific light patterns rather than innate human traits.

As someone who has been spending time on computers into various hours of the morning since he was in middle school, staring into an LCD just before bed is the most natural thing in the world, and I sleep a solid 8 hours a night.

I sleep a solid 8-9 hours a night, but I have a lot of trouble with when that sleep happens. I've been desperately trying to get my schedule on a more normal natural light schedule... without much luck really.

There is at least some evidence that melatonin issues with my 2AM-10AM sleep schedule affect energy and overall health in a pretty significant way.

F.lux was written by a friend of mine from school, who is an awesome hacker and was one of the cofounders of Picasa (acquired by google)

The article needs to be a little clearer. It's not just any light- it's blue light, specifically.

I'm a F.lux user, it dramatically improved my life.

With that frame of reference, I've had no sleep issues from my iPad, which I use to read before bed most nights. In fact, I read in lower light using the ipad than with a conventional book and lamp on the nightstand.

The two main apps I use are iBooks and the Kindle app. Both apps have controls for turning text white-on-black, and controlling the brightness. At night, I read exclusively white-on-black at low brightness.

Additionally, for apps that don't support inverted text, you can bind hitting home three times to invert the colors. Its at Settings -> General -> Triple-click home.

There's an interesting TED Talk about sleep cycles, and the impact of sleep on waking alertness.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html

I watched this the other day and wished that her talk was WAY longer.

I bought yellow filter that clips to my glasses since I find it kind of hard to get individual filters for all possible devices. Also, melatonin helps.

Once I started exercising regularly, my sleep improved dramatically, so I rarely use filter or melatonin anymore.

What effect does a regular CFC-powered lamp have? Is it all light?

Find out what the spectral components are. Blue light is the real offender at work.

I suspect CFC's are worse than incandescents though. CFC light is a much harsher white, and I'm pretty sure that's a sign of significant blue components.

Remember, the bed is for sleep and sex only. Don't read in bed!

Why is sex special?

It's just a phrase that doctors tend to say in relation to good sleep habits and avoiding insomnia. I think the point is to do with not conditioning your brain to stay awake and focused once you get into bed (as reading or watching TV might do). Also I don't imagine a doctor is going to tell you not to have sex in a bed.

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