We live in a day and age where we are constantly plugged into our devices. Think about what you do when you’re bored. Watch YouTube videos on your tablet or scroll through social media to see what your friends are up to. I recently gave up social media for the month and I still find myself instinctively going to my phone when I’m bored to keep myself occupied.
The best part about giving up social media for a month is that I’ve stopped looking at my phone right before I go to bed. I have a bad habit of scrolling through Instagram to soak up as much dumb videos and memes as possible. Not only did I feel pathetic for wasting an hour of my sleep on this fruitless exercise but I would have trouble going to bed. This is a common phenomenon and is attributed to the backlight of the devices we love so much.
The backlight of electronic devices emits something called blue light that has a profound impact on your body. Blue light has a very short wavelength which produces a higher amount of energy. This results in effects such as boosting alertness. This is great during the day but its the last thing you want to expose yourself to when you’re getting close to going to bed. Blue light can prevent the production of melatonin which is a hormone that helps you fall asleep. In general, all different wavelengths of light can prevent the production of melatonin but blue light is the most effective at doing this because of its short wavelength.
The basic gist of this information is that you should limit the amount of blue light that you are exposed to before you go to bed. The best way to do that is to put away all electronic devices an hour before you go to bed. The reality of life is that this isn’t always possible. You might have a deadline to meet or just work more effectively late at night. You should consider restricting the blue light that is emitted from your display. A popular option is called f.lux which does this by adapting the color of your computer’s display based on the time of the day. Did you know that Windows 10 already has this functionality baked into its OS? Here’s how to activate it.
How to activate Night Light in Windows 10
- Click Start
- Click Settings
- Click System
- Click Display
- Click Night light settings
- Click Turn on now
Shortcut: Just type Night Light into the Cortana search bar located at the bottom bar of your screen.
You can use the slider under “Color temperature at night” to adjust to a different color. You can schedule the night light feature to turn on from sunset to sunrise or set your own custom hours.
Nothing is better than going to bed and waking up feeling refreshed. As hard as it is, bedtime should be the time where you unplug from the Internet and get some quality ZZZ’s. If you’re a workaholic or on a time crunch for work, go ahead and try Night light. It will help out immensely and its so easy to use.