Serious question, is blue light filter actually better for sleep or is it placebo?

I used blue light filter on my phone every night for like 2 years straight because everyone said it helps you fall asleep faster. But last Tuesday I was at a hotel and my phone died so I just read a paperback instead and honestly I passed out way quicker without the filter. Now I'm wondering if I trained myself to associate the orange tint with bedtime or if I was just wasting battery life the whole time. Has anyone else tried ditching the filter for a week and noticed a difference?

4 comments

4 Comments

lopez.quinn11d ago

Thats part of a bigger thing I've noticed where we try to tech our way out of problems when the simple fix works better, like how @jenny_hall said just lowering brightness helped her more than expected. The filter probably just makes the screen feel less harsh, but your brain still knows its a screen and waits for that dopamine hit instead of shutting down.

the_sam12d ago

Flip that whole thing around. You fell asleep faster with a real book because your brain wasn't getting any blue light at all, not because the filter was useless. The filter still blocks some of the harmful blue wavelengths, it just isn't a total blackout like a dead phone. Try two weeks where you use the filter but also dim the screen to its lowest setting and see if that changes anything. I bet you'll crash harder than with the paperback because your body still gets the signal without the full screen brightness blasting your eyes.

jenny_hall12d agoProlific Poster

Totally agree. Last week I tried lowering the brightness and it helped way more than expected.

drew_reed6211d ago

Wait wait wait, people are actually falling asleep faster with a real book? That's crazy to me. I mean, I get that blue light is a thing, but I honestly thought reading on a phone with a filter would be close enough. Are you telling me the physical act of holding a paper book and turning pages actually makes that big of a difference in how fast you nod off? Did you really fall asleep like twice as fast or something?