You’re lying in bed. You’re tossing and turning. You can’t fall asleep. Not wanting to waste your time doing nothing, you get up and turn on your computer/laptop. The screen comes on and…
BAM! You’re blinded by the harsh blue light of your screen, leaving you squinting until your eyes adjust to the sudden brightness.
Sounds familiar? I too have fallen for the flashbang that is our screen. The problem is not only with the sudden attack of blueness from out of the dark, but also the strain caused to our eyes when using our gadgets for a long time.
Fret no more, as there is a solution in a freeware program called F.lux. It’s lightweight and runs in the background, leaving you in peace while it does its magic.
F.lux works by adjusting your computer’s screen in relation to the time of day. While you may argue that you can just turn down your computer’s brightness to minimize strain, the problem lies in the blue light your computer emits while it is turned on. According to studies, this sharp blue light is associated by our bodies to the brightness of the day and being exposed to this 24/7 inevitably messes with our bodies. Further, this strains our eyes which associate night time with dark time.
What F.lux does is it adjusts your screen’s color temperature to match your surroundings. On automatic mode, it leaves your computer bright and sharp during the day and then gradually shifts it to a warmer and more pleasant hue of red at night. You can also manually tweak it to always have your screen nice and warm the entire day. It also has a handy disable button for doing color-sensitive activities like watching movies and photo and video manipulation.
It will only take a short while for you to get used to your screen’s new hue. Personally, after I spent some time with it, I couldn’t imagine going back to my non-F.lux days. If you’re on Windows, Linux, Mac, or iOS, head on over to https://justgetflux.com/ and install this free app now. Your eyes will thank you for it.