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Q. I like to use my phone before I go to sleep. I check email, read Facebook and play games to relax and get my mind quiet.
But I’ve heard that the light from my phone can affect my sleep and I have to admit, I’m not sleeping as well as I used to.
Do you have any advice on how I can keep using my phone before I go to bed but get a better night’s sleep?
A. You’re not alone. Many people like to use their phones or tablets before they fall asleep, but the light from devices can affect sleep patterns.
You may be able to reduce the effect your phone has on your sleep by filtering the blue light on its screen. Recent studies have shown that within the light spectrum, blue light is especially disruptive to sleep.
See, Harvard Health Letter, Blue light has a dark side.
One study in the UK showed that blue light actually works as a stimulant. Drivers who were exposed to blue light became as alert as those who drank two cups of coffee. Daily Mail, How a blue light in your car ‘is as good as coffee at keeping you alert at the wheel’.
If you want to keep using your device at night, try a blue light filter to help you sleep. By filtering blue light from the screen, you will be reducing the most stimulating light in the spectrum. While not as effective as keeping your device turned off, blue light filters may help you sleep better.
Updates to the iPhone, iPad, and Amazon Fire tablet have added blue light filters to help address sleep issues while using these devices at night. Blue light filter apps are also available for Android devices. These filters work across all apps on your device so you don’t have to adjust your settings for each app.
Don’t miss => 10 Free Apps to Help You Sleep Better — Infographic
Night Shift – iPhone and iPad
When iOS 9.3 was released by Apple, iPhone and iPad users got Night Shift, a blue light filter. Night Shift is available on most iPhone and iPad devices, including the iPhone 5s and later, and the iPad Air and later.
Using Night Shift
Night Shift can be set up to turn on the filter automatically every night or you can turn it on manually at any time.
To enable Night Shift to turn on automatically every night, go to:
Settings => Display & Brightness => Night Shift
On the Night Shift settings screen, slide the switch to schedule Night Shift.
The schedule can be set for Night Shift to go on and off at specific times, or at sunset and sunrise. If you choose sunset to sunrise, your iPhone/iPad will figure out when sunset and sunrise are in your location.
In Settings, you can also turn on Night Shift manually until tomorrow and adjust the color temperature of the filter.
Night Shift in Control Center
Night Shift can also be turned on and off in Control Center on your iPhone and iPad.
=> See, 13 Super Shortcuts for Your iPhone – in Control Center
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Control Center panel. The eclipsed sun icon is for Night Shift. Tap it to turn Night Shift on or off at any time.
Blue Shade – Amazon Fire Tablets
In an update to Fire tablets at the end of last year, Amazon introduced Blue Shade to filter blue light.
To turn on Blue Shade on a Fire tablet, swipe down from the top of the screen and tap Blue Shade. Adjust the color by tapping on Settings => Display => Blue Shade. You can drag the slider bar to change the color from red moonlight to yellow candlelight.
Blue Shade does not have an automatic setting, it must be turned on and off manually.
Blue Shade is available on Fire HD 6 (4th Generation), Fire HD 7 (4th Generation), Fire HDX 8.9 (4th Generation), Fire (5th Generation), Fire HD 8 (5th Generation), and Fire HD 10 (5th Generation).
Twilight App – Android Devices
Twilight is a free app that filters blue light on your Android device screen. This app can work automatically throughout the night or you can control when it turns on and off.
In the app settings, you can adjust the intensity of the filter, the color temperature, and the time the filter turns on and off.
As day turns to night, Twilight adds its filter, then removes the filter as the new day dawns. You can also turn the filter on and off manually.
Twilight works across all apps, though some app settings might be disabled when Twilight’s filter is in use.
This video explains how Twilight works to help improve your sleep:
Twilight is available free for Android devices in the Google Play store.
Your Thoughts
Do you like to use your phone or tablet before you go to sleep? Have you noticed your sleep has been affected by looking at a screen at night? Have you tried a blue light filter?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Blue Eye image (edited) courtesy of Felicity Berkleef via Flickr and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn,
Happy Monday 🙂
Informative post indeed! Yes, I have noticed that if I stay online for too long, though not using my phone, but my laptop, and then try to sleep, I cannot sleep till after a while, and perhaps for the very reasons mentioned above. One doesn’t realize, but we use gadgets all day through, especially when we use our phones, computers/laptops, and even while watching television for long hours.
Never knew about Twilight, which I am going to check out soon after now and install it to see the difference on my phone. Anyone would love the extra hour of sleep, as mentioned in the video! Have to tell my kid’s about this too.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Good point, computer monitors and TV screens can emit blue light that disturbs our sleep patterns too. The more we’re aware of this issue the better steps we can take to get a peaceful night’s sleep.
I hope this helps you and your daughters sleep better, Harleena.
This is great info…..thank you!
Hi Gloria, I’m so glad you found this helpful. I hope you get better sleep tonight and every night!
Hi carolyn,
I am having a habit of reading something on my iPhone especially before sleep and sometimes can’t be able to read something on my phone. so it also disturbs my sleep as well. After this, I also start using dim light vision as suggested by some of my friends. so this information is very useful for those who love to read on a phone. The Apps mention in this post is very helpful.
Nice sharing
Arpit
Hi Arpit, Good point. We can turn the brightness of our screen to dimmer but that won’t help with the blue light problem. By filtering the blue light we can block the light on the spectrum that’s most disruptive to our sleep.
I hope this helps you get a better night’s sleep, Arpit.
Hey Carolyn,
Thanks for sharing this. I keep my phone by my bed and am in the habit of checking my social media before going to bed. I think I’m going to download this android app to reduce on the bad lights. Thank you!
Bren
Hi Bren, Yes, I was so excited when I got this question from a reader. I’m guilty of this too. But since I started using a blue light filter my sleep has been much better.
I like that there are free options for these devices. I hope this works for you too, Bren!
Sounds great. I do not really have any problem now, but have been on meds for years, I am 65 and was an insomniac before. Now, I have other problems such as eye strain.
However, it is a lovely thought to be free of medication and sleep normally again, so since I am on a habit and health changing trip by non-medical methods, this fits the bill beautifully.
Like many others, I cannot do without my phone. I use an Android so the Twilight app will have to do for now. The orange colour cannot effect my text reading, but will not suit images, so maybe it will be text only at times nearing sleep.
Thanks for the tip Carolyn, I use many of your tips and apps constantly.
Hi Nicholas, I’m so glad this was helpful to you. Yes, you can adjust the intensity of the filter so if you’re looking at images you can fade out the filter a bit. You’re right, these filters are a free, readily available tool to help you sleep without medication. Definitely worth a try!
Improper sleep affects on our heath in many ways, so does in our works. I hope the night shift stuff works as much as we expect. Anyways, thanks for the info.
Hi Rocco, Yes, getting a good night’s sleep can make a big difference. These blue light filters may help to give you a better night’s sleep. These filters are free so you can try them to see if they work well for you.
Hey Carolyn,
The starting question is the a problem for me too. I also tend to use my device for some end of the day jobs. And facing the sleeping issue for quite a sometime. I was not aware about blue lights though.
Thanks for sharing about these handy apps. Will surely try Twilight soon. Take care.
Hi Manidipa, Yes, sometimes tech has an affect on us we don’t even realize. We’re still learning, as these gadgets are still somewhat new in our lives. This blue light effect is a fairly recent discovery so many people aren’t aware of it.
How great is it that we now have blue light filters we can use easily and for free! As long as we know they’re available, we can set them up and use them to work best for us.
I hope Twilight helps you get better rest, Manidipa.
Carolyn,
You are the best! You continually come up with truly great & relevant content that helps all of us! I hate to miss any of your posts as I always learn so much! As a life long insomniac I certainly appreciate you pointing out help on my I-devices I didn’t even know I had. I just changed my setting on my IPad & IPhone. I am curious does my iMac have something similar that you know of?
Thanks for such useful and fun info that makes all our lives better. Simply you are the best my dear friend!
Hugs, Ed Spinelli
Hi Ed, Wow, thank you for your kind words. That’s why I write these articles, to help others, so it’s great to hear when an article truly is helpful to someone.
f.lux is a program for computers to filter blue light. You can find it at the fl.ux website. I hope that helps you too!