This was an interesting read, but it’s only discussing blue light filters as they affect melatonin and thus sleep cycle. It doesn’t say anything about other reasons to use them, which for me are:
Blue LED light is linked to long term macular degeneration, it may also have negative effects on the retina in the shorter term.[1] It’s not completely clear to me whether these effects would also be basically unhindered by a blue light filter, as the article describes; it gives me no reason to think they would but I’m not a neuroscientist.
When I’m already using a dark theme with my screen at minimal brightness (as suggested by the article), using a filter lowers the total luminance even further (as suggested by the article).
It feels less straining on my eyes; maybe that’s purely psychological but hey I’ll take it.
It’s cozy :3
Given this the article title seems sliiiightly grandiose, but perhaps most people are really only in it for the melatonin thing.
I’m in the same camp. The supposed blue light/sleep correlation was briefly in the news about 10-15 years ago, and even then it felt like it was as much woo-woo “science” as the paleo diet. Since then, pretty much any blue light study I’ve read has been focused on risks to our vision. My ophthalmologist has been recommending blue light filters for my glasses for a few years now, and I can confidently say that they’ve helped a lot with screen fatigue. But that’s a physical filter, not a display color filter. For those, in my opinion the main reason to use one is because you like the color gradient better.
This was an interesting read, but it’s only discussing blue light filters as they affect melatonin and thus sleep cycle. It doesn’t say anything about other reasons to use them, which for me are:
Given this the article title seems sliiiightly grandiose, but perhaps most people are really only in it for the melatonin thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_effects_of_high-energy_visible_light#Blue_LED_light_hazard ↩︎
I’m in the same camp. The supposed blue light/sleep correlation was briefly in the news about 10-15 years ago, and even then it felt like it was as much woo-woo “science” as the paleo diet. Since then, pretty much any blue light study I’ve read has been focused on risks to our vision. My ophthalmologist has been recommending blue light filters for my glasses for a few years now, and I can confidently say that they’ve helped a lot with screen fatigue. But that’s a physical filter, not a display color filter. For those, in my opinion the main reason to use one is because you like the color gradient better.