Is Your Screen’s Blue Light Keeping You Up at Night?

Television screens, phone screens and computer screens all emit blue light that can make it very difficult to sleep. Your brain often perceives blue light as being similar to the light of the Sun. As such, this light has the effect of making your circadian rhythms misread the time of day and can lead to restlessness.

What should you do to keep this blue light from keeping you awake late at night? There are a few ways you can keep your screen in check. Let’s get into a few.

Screen Blue Light Keeping You Up Late

Put the Phone Down

The most surefire way to keep blue screen light from interfering with your sleep schedule is to simply practice more discipline. When it’s getting close to time for bed, just put your phone down. A good way to incentivize this is to plug your phone in to charge across the room, not beside your bed. That way, it’s too far for you to mess with.

Keep Distractions out of Your Room

Reserve your bedroom for sleeping. Consider not having a TV in your bedroom, or a laptop or tablet. Keeping these things in the same space you sleep in could make you more likely to interact with them instead of going to sleep.

Consider, instead, having a game room or a rec room in your house where you store these electronics. That way, when you go to bed, your room is free of distractions that could keep you up.

Activate Night Mode

Most devices have some kind of night mode that allows you to alter the amount of blue light their screens emit. Many newer smartphones do this automatically. You can download add-ons for Windows that perform this function for your computer, as well.

Using dark mode on apps and UIs can be helpful, too. Dark modes tend to use dark blue or black background colors to keep the overall brightness of their interface down. This makes them easier on the eyes late at night!