The case for managing your light, levels and colour

This is based on F.Lux software.....this is a Mac application but I'm sure there must be a PC version

Based around a discussion of the application and it's science base. We are all using a lot of computer time and many screens are heavy on the blue end of the spectrum...this application and other stratagies can help you manage the effects and perhaps help reduce your health risks.



Here is the link....it's kludgy as hell.



https://justgetflux.com



from a professional photographer who tried it

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That software... I'll pass. The brightness auto-adjust on my iMac and mobile devices is enough. I don't want to futz with the colour temperature of my iMac screen, it's just fine regardless of the time of day - and the last thing I need is artificially skewed colour temp when I'm processing my photos.

That's why there is an exemption for any particular application.



When it's in the photo app colour reverts.....when reading or working online in general the shift away from blue has an important biological role to play in sleep.



Take it or leave it....the scientific basis is very sound for managing diurnal cycles.



This is the flip side of course - it can help night workers stay awake and alert but at a risk to their health, something well documented but until recently the underlying reasons were unclear.

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Blue LEDs to reset tired truckers' body clocks Eerie blue LEDs in truck cabs and truck stops could be the key to reducing accidents caused by drowsy drivers, say US researchers. They say bathing night drivers in the right light can increase their alertness by resetting their body clocks.

more

http://ift.tt/10ZfuZX

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Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed Scientists at John Carroll University, working in its Lighting Innovations Institute, have developed an affordable accessory that appears to reduce the symptoms of ADHD. Their discovery also has also been shown to improve sleep patterns among people who have difficulty falling asleep. The John Carroll researchers have created glasses designed to block blue light, therefore altering a person's circadian rhythm, which leads to improvement in ADHD symptoms and sleep disorders.

http://ift.tt/10Zfv00



This is a very active area for workers who must work late night shifts and has numerous biological impacts - Nuclear plant workers must stay alert and there are other health implications around melatonin.

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Evening blue light exposure linked to increased hunger Date: June 2, 2014 Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine Summary: A new study suggests that blue-enriched light exposure immediately before and during the evening meal may increase hunger and alter metabolism. Results show that blue-enriched light exposure, compared with dim light exposure, was associated with an increase in hunger that began 15 minutes after light onset and was still present almost two hours after the meal. Blue light exposure also decreased sleepiness and resulted in higher measures of insulin resistance

Here is a summary from Harvard

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Blue light has a dark side Light at night is bad for your health, and exposure to blue light emitted by electronics and energy-efficient lightbulbs may be especially so. Until the advent of artificial lighting, the sun was the major source of lighting, and people spent their evenings in (relative) darkness. Now, in much of the world, evenings are illuminated, and we take our easy access to all those lumens pretty much for granted. But we may be paying a price for basking in all that light. At night, light throws the body's biological clock—the circadian rhythm—out of whack. Sleep suffers. Worse, research shows that it may contribute to the causation of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. But not all colors of light have the same effect. Blue wavelengths—which are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times, and mood—seem to be the most disruptive at night. And the proliferation of electronics with screens, as well as energy-efficient lighting, is increasing our exposure to blue wavelengths, especially after sundown. Daily rhythms influenced by light Everyone has slightly different circadian rhythms, but the average length is 24 and one-quarter hours. The circadian rhythm of people who stay up late is slightly longer, while the rhythms of earlier birds fall short of 24 hours. Dr. Charles Czeisler of Harvard Medical School showed, in 1981, that daylight keeps a person's internal clock aligned with the environment. The health risks Study after study has linked working the night shift and exposure to light at night to several types of cancer (breast, prostate), diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. It's not exactly clear why nighttime light exposure seems to be so bad for us. But we do know that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that influences circadian rhythms, and there's some experimental evidence (it's very preliminary) that lower melatonin levels might explain the association with cancer. A Harvard study shed a little bit of light on the possible connection to diabetes and possibly obesity. The researchers put 10 people on a schedule that gradually shifted the timing of their circadian rhythms. Their blood sugar levels increased, throwing them into a prediabetic state, and levels of leptin, a hormone that leaves people feeling full after a meal, went down. Even dim light can interfere with a person's circadian rhythm and melatonin secretion. A mere eight lux—a level of brightness exceeded by most table lamps and about twice that of a night light—has an effect, notes Stephen Lockley, a Harvard sleep researcher. Light at night is part of the reason so many people don't get enough sleep, says Lockley, and researchers have linked short sleep to increased risk for depression, as well as diabetes and cardiovascular problems. The power of the blues While light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light does so more powerfully. Harvard researchers and their colleagues conducted an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours vs. 1.5 hours). In another study of blue light, researchers at the University of Toronto compared the melatonin levels of people exposed to bright indoor light who were wearing blue-light–blocking goggles to people exposed to regular dim light without wearing goggles. The fact that the levels of the hormone were about the same in the two groups strengthens the hypothesis that blue light is a potent suppressor of melatonin. It also suggests that shift workers and night owls could perhaps protect themselves if they wore eyewear that blocks blue light. Inexpensive sunglasses with orange-tinted lenses block blue light, but they also block other colors, so they're not suitable for use indoors at night. Glasses that block out only blue light can cost up to $80. Less-blue light If blue light does have adverse health effects, then environmental concerns, and the quest for energy-efficient lighting, could be at odds with personal health. Those curlicue compact fluorescent lightbulbs and LED lights are much more energy-efficient than the old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs we grew up with. But they also tend to produce more blue light. The physics of fluorescent lights can't be changed, but coatings inside the bulbs can be so they produce a warmer, less blue light. LED lights are more efficient than fluorescent lights, but they also produce a fair amount of light in the blue spectrum. Richard Hansler, a light researcher at John Carroll University in Cleveland, notes that ordinary incandescent lights also produce some blue light, although less than most fluorescent lightbulbs. What you can do Use dim red lights for night lights. Red light has the least power to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin. Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed. If you work a night shift or use a lot of electronic devices at night, consider wearing blue-blocking glasses. Expose yourself to lots of bright light during the day, which will boost your ability to sleep at night, as well as your mood and alertness during daylight.

http://ift.tt/1D0kon6



What you choose to do with the information is up to you but now you know what the science basis is for this program.

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Sleep deprivation, especially for shift workers, can increase your risk for obesity, hypertension, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, even cancer. The World Health Organization has added shift work to the list of probable carcinogens. And in a 24-hour economy where the number of shift work jobs are on the rise, researchers are trying to understand why this work can be so harmful and what might help. Dr. David Blask, a biologist at the Tulane University School of Medicine, is trying to figure out why shift workers have a higher risk of developing cancer. His lab has shown that the problem may have to do with light at night and the hormone we produce in darkness: melatonin. Blask says, “Melatonin actually has direct anti-cancer effects, in other words, it can directly inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells." He says, "We will lose that cancer protection by being exposed to light at night and this is particularly troublesome we think for people who work night shifts.” But shift workers have to work at night and they need light to do their jobs. Which is why Mariana Figueiro, associate professor at the Lighting Research Center at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is looking at whether different colors of lights can be a solution. Her research shows that while blue light keeps you alert, it also suppresses melatonin. But red light keeps you alert without suppressing melatonin. “We think that the red light has the potential to be the best of both worlds. It will not suppress melatonin, and it will give you that alerting effect that you can get say, with a cup of coffee, “ she says.

http://ift.tt/1D0kon8



There is no question for me that moving to low blue content working at night reduces my eye strain ( one reason I like Kindle in sepia mode for reading. ).



I don't like what it does to photos ( I often run my travel photos on the second screen ) but I value the ability to knock out the blues.



The implications for millions of shift workers has many unions and other safeety organizations working towards making use of the growing evidence of the effects of light at night in particular blue light....to the point of even doubling breast cancer risk.

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"If it's true that light at night increases the risk of disease, then there are very practical implications," Stevens said. If lighting is really an issue in night work, it is known which wavelengths suppress melatonin the most, and lighting could be adjusted to eliminate those wavelengths, he explained.

and there is a mountain of evidence for the health risks AND the alertness/fatigue risks.

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How a blue light in your car 'is as good as coffee at keeping ... http://ift.tt/10Zfvgm... Nov 26, 2012 - To study the efficiency of blue light during night driving, a special LED lamp continuously emitting blue light was installed on the dashboard of ..

Now you know...act according to your own risk management sense.