"Our findings suggest that using dim, cooler, lights in the evening and bright warmer lights in the day may be more beneficial," study lead, Dr. This indicates that we should be doing the opposite of what Night Shift does. The study's experiments confirm this, with blue colors producing weaker effects on the mice's circadian rhythm than (equally bright) yellow colors. Thus, our bodies are more likely to associate blue light with bed time. The logic behind the study, which is based on experiments performed on mice, is simple: we encounter more yellow light during the day (because, you know, the sun), while twilight is more blue. The study was published in Current Biology and can be found here.
#Night screen mode android#
And basically every Android phone maker soon followed suit with a similar feature.īut a new study by researchers from the University of Manchester (via The Guardian) suggests that features like Night Shift might be doing more harm than good. It reduces the blue light emitted by your phone/tablet's display, which should, ideally, reduce the strain on your eyes while you're using the device late at night. 2016, Apple introduced a new iOS option called Night Shift. Nougat’s built-in Night Mode or apps like Twilight are a great way to give it a go for yourself.In Jan. The ideal solution is probably to not use your phone (or watch TV, do other screen-related functions) right before bed, but let’s be real here: no one is going to do that. There’s plenty of research out there that suggests filtering blue light from your device will help you sleep. If you decide you need more than what Twilight has to offer, then give the more advanced apps a shot. That said, both CF.lumen and f.lux have significantly more features that Twilight, though the latter is the most similar to the stock setting with a few more tweaks available.įor what it’s worth, I would recommend giving Twilight a shot before jumping into much more advanced options like CF.lumen or f.lux. It’s worth noting that both CF.lumen and f.lux require rooted handsets, while Twilight doesn’t.
#Night screen mode how to#
RELATED: How to Root Your Android Phone with SuperSU and TWRP There are three popular light-filtering apps available in the Google Play Store: CF.lumen, f.lux, or Twilight. I get it-non-Nougat users (or users with 7.1) want in on this sweet Night Mode action too! Fret not, boys and gals, there are some options out there for you, too. Sleep well! Non-7.0 Devices: Try These Third-Party Options Come sunset, your device should automatically activate Night Mode.
Just follow these instructions, and drag the “Night Mode” toggle in. You can stop here, but if you’d like to add a toggle to the Quick Settings shade, you can also do that. It’s neat. You can also use night mode to set the brightness-just slide the “Adjust brightness” toggle. For example, the display will show a lighter shade of yellow around sunset, but will be much darker around midnight. Like I mentioned earlier, it will also change the amount of blue light being filtered depending on the time of day. This will use your device’s location to automatically turn on Night Mode as it gets dark outside.
The screen should immediately turn yellow.įor a more effective approach to Night Mode, however, just use the “Turn on automatically” toggle. It’s noted in the Play Store listing for Night Mode Enabler that if you’re having issues getting it to work, tap the word “On” in the upper left, not the toggle on the right. It should automatically open a new menu within the System UI Tuner and show a toast notification at the bottom that reads “Yay, you should now have a quick toggle for Night Mode available.” You’re so close now.īefore adding the toggle, you can go ahead and turn on Night Mode to see what it’s all about. Once the app has finished installing, open it up and tap the “Enable Night Mode” button. But fret not, for everyone else, we also have a few third-party options. The thing is, many Android devices don’t have a built-in night mode feature-we’ll cover the ones that do down below (as well as a workaround for devices running Android 7.0). And once you’ve adjusted, it’s actually pretty nice-I personally find it to be incredibly soothing to look at. It can be a little jarring at first, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it. Both these features give your screen a red tint to remove the blue light spectrum from your display, making it easier on the eyes in dark environments. On iOS devices, you can use the new Night Shift feature. On desktop computers, you can use an app called f.lux. RELATED: Artificial Light Is Wrecking Your Sleep, and It's Time to Do Something About It This also supposedly leads to poor sleep, which leads to poor health. Here’s how to combat that on your Android phone. They say that blue spectrums of light are bad for your eyes, especially at night when you’re more likely to be looking at your phone in a dark environment.