If you’re like me, you probably end up using your computer most nights, and sometimes staring into your monitor until you pass out. The difference is that I’m working and you’re most probably wanking.
I used to be just like you when I was at uni and spend way more time looking into a computer screen at 03:00 than I do now. I would repeatedly get high and surf the net until the early hours and boy it was fun. The trouble was, I could never get to sleep after a long ass session on the web and therefore always missed my morning lectures – soz Mum.
Now-a-days, I try not to stare into my laptop late at night, as I know how much it messes up my ability to fall asleep. I always put my not being able to sleep down to my brain being over active after playing games, doing work, or reading stupid internet blogs until the early hours. The reason that you can’t fall asleep very well after a late night internet binge has something to do with your brain being over active, and also because you’ve had bright white light shone directly into your eyes while you were concentrating on the screen. If you ever notice someone looking at their iPhone while you’re sitting in the dark cinema, you can see how much glare and bright white light the screen gives off into their face. This is what’s happening when you’re staring at a screen in your dark bedroom. This is what keeps you awake and makes you go back onto your computer because you can’t sleep, then trying to sleep and not being able to sleep because you’ve been staring at your screen etc etc.
Computer screens are made to look good, they give off bright lights and make it easy to see what’s going on across the whole screen. The trouble is, when your room gets darker, the screen’s colours stay the same. This is until I found out about a sweet little App called f.lux.
F.lux automatically changes the colours used by your screen depending on what time it is. It picks up your location when you first install it, and then works off your time zone. Right now it’s 21:08 and my screen has a red tint to it. My screen looks more like it’s surroundings. It’s way less harsh on my eyes and after using it for a few days I’ve noticed that I’m dropping off to sleep much easily after a late night session. So if you’re a night owl who is constantly working away into the early hours but then struggling to drop off to sleep, try installing f.lux and see what difference it makes.
F.lux is available for Mac, Windows, Linux and your (jail-broken) iPhone/iPad. Download f.lux here.
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