Gyroscopic Investing

First off, I want to thank Grosso for pointing this out a few days ago in another thread.

If you use a computer at night, you will benefit greatly from this little program. For well over the past decade, I've been staying up late, working on my laptop. I never got tired when everyone else did. Until I switched on F.Lux — based on Grosso's recommendation.

Here's a description of the program, from the manufacturer:

Ever notice how people texting at night have that eerie blue glow?

Or wake up ready to write down the Next Great Idea, and get blinded by your computer screen?

During the day, computer screens look good—they're designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn't be looking at the sun.

F.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better.

f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.

Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. F.lux will do the rest, automatically.

To be honest, I heard about F.Lux a few months ago. But, I ignored it thinking that it was mostly about aesthetics. It's not.

It turns out that if you stare at the default blue light of your computer screen at night, you probably won't feel as tired as you should. I've been using F.Lux for the past few nights and my body is finally returning to normal. I can feel myself getting tired when I'm supposed to, and I'm waking up more refreshed than ever.

Thanks again for the tip, Grosso — you've changed my life!

GRosso...how dare you...them are fightin' words

I'm glad it helped.  I also noticed a big difference when I started using it.  It's amazing how something like the brightness of your computer screen could have such a profound effect on our sleep, and therefore our mood, health, enjoyment of life, etc.

Although here I am typing this at 11:45 PM.  :-[

Edit: typos...I'll blame it on daylight savings

Neat idea. I just loaded it up on my machines. As a lifelong night owl, we'll see how it works.

I just loaded it to my Mac.  It dimmed my screen for tonight.  We'll see how it goes.

Thanks, GRosso!  I'm guilty of loading up on far too much screen time so I think this will be perfect for me.  The concept makes a lot of sense.

I can tell you that f.lux is not actually dimming your screen. If it were that simple, the ambient light sensor on MacBooks would be all you needed.

According to the f.lux FAQ...

Isn't this exactly the same as the Macbook ambient light sensor?
No, though they do work together nicely. The ambient light sensor measures the brightness of the light in your room and adjusts the brightness of your screen based on that. f.lux changes the color of your screen and warms it up according to the type of light you're using and the time of day. f.lux doesn't use ambient brightness to adjust colors. You might be in a dark room with very cool light, you wouldn't really want your monitor to look warm, but you would want your display to look dimmer. We've found that when your screen colors match the color of your ambient light correctly, you don't need to adjust monitor brightness as much.

It's the color temperature that matters. We use very warm lighting in our house 2700K. (It's confusing because the higher your "K", the "cooler" the light is. So, 2700K is a very "warm" incandescent — even though it's written as a lower temperature.)

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The closer your home lighting, and screen, is to daylight (noon sun is 5500K), the more your brain thinks that it should be awake. Most computer screens and LCD displays are actually calibrated to 6500K — which is whiter (i.e. "cooler") than the sun!

Now, consider how sleepy and relaxed you often feel after reading a book under incandescent lamps. I don't believe the warmer lighting is what makes you sleepy. More likely it's the absence of cooler light (high "K" lighting and higher "K" LCD screens) in the evening that makes you sleepy. But, if you spend your evenings staring into a very "cool" LCD screen — as I have done for the past decade — your brain will never get sleepy when it's supposed to.

And, I'd be willing to bet that if you use "daylight" bulbs (with high "K" numbers) in your house, it's possible that your brain might not let you get as sleepy when you're supposed to. Though, it likely depends on how much time you spend staring directly into cooler light (as one does with LCD screens).

A decent book on sleep in the modern age is Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival (I agree with most of the reviewers, although I am no longer a low-carber).  The discussion on sleep is good but the rest is mostly alarmist info to help sell the book.  Another good tip the book points out is to eliminate all sources of light from your bedroom.  Use blackout curtains, place a t-shirt over your alarm clock, etc.

I have gotten my sleep to the point where I'm tired by 10:00, in bed before 11:00, then wake up without an alarm clock at 7:00.  It is possible to sleep "normally".

There is no option to calibrate to Tungsten (2700K) in Windows, right?

escafandro wrote: There is no option to calibrate to Tungsten (2700K) in Windows, right?

F.Lux does it automatically for you.  I had completely forgotten I had it installed on my computer until I mentioned it in the doctor thread, yet it continued to do its job in the background.

Goomby, that is really interesting that it is the colour temperature and not the brightness that makes all the difference.

Thanks for this, Gosso and Gumby. I just loaded it in my eye mac and sent it to my girlfriend, another night owl computer user...we'll have to see if I we get to bed earlier.

Article from the Washington Post: Less sleep = More calories

Those in the sleep-deprived group consumed an average of 549 more calories more per day than they did when on their regular sleep schedule. Neither the sleep-deprived group nor the control groups expended more calories during the eight-day study period.

I noticed, using F.lux, that the amber glow of the computer screens at night made us both a little sleepier and so we got to bed an hour earlier than usual.

Gosso wrote:Goomby, that is really interesting that it is the colour temperature and not the brightness that makes all the difference.

Whoops. I totally imagined an "r" in your name. Sorry about that! It's "Gosso"... got it.

But yes... it's the color that's most important.

See:

NYTimes: In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light

NIH/EHP: What's in a Color? The Unique Human Health Effects of Blue Light

...this is all linked from f.lux's website: http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html

Gumby wrote:

Gosso wrote:Goomby, that is really interesting that it is the colour temperature and not the brightness that makes all the difference.

Whoops. I totally imagined an "r" in your name. Sorry about that! It's "Gosso"... got it.

But yes... it's the color that's most important.

See:

NYTimes: In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light


NIH/EHP: What's in a Color? The Unique Human Health Effects of Blue Light

...this is all linked from f.lux's website: http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html

Excellent, Gumby! It really makes a lot of sense that lighting and type so strongly influences our cycles and health.

lazyboy wrote:It really makes a lot of sense that lighting and type so strongly influences our cycles and health.

...and if you think about it, this has been happening for as long as there have been sunrises and sunsets. The atmosphere scatters cool, blue, sunlight during the day and reddish sunlight at twilight.

Gumby wrote:
Whoops. I totally imagined an "r" in your name. Sorry about that! It's "Gosso"... got it.

Haha...no worries.  ;D

Those were good articles.  It makes you appreciate the hormonal balance and cycles that our bodies are constantly trying to control.  If new trigger signals are placed into our environment then this will impact everything downstream.

I am seriously considering buying a kerosene lantern to use at night.  Not only would it make me a "badass" but it would be better for my health (unless the kerosene fumes mess you up  ???)

Edit: typos