The above screenshot is my macOS menu bar, highlighting a nifty little app called
f.lux.
What is f.lux? In simple terms, it’s an app for your computer that automatically adjusts your screen color at night to a friendlier temperature so it puts less strain in your eyes. This passage from their website explains it the best:
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.
Your screen and that thing called the “blue light”
”Why should I bother making my screen look like the room I’m in?” I hear you ask. You can find
a plethora of research that answers your question in great detail, but the gist is this: when you’re looking at your computer’s—or smartphone’s—screen, you’re basically staring at the sun thanks to this thing called “blue light”. There’s
a whole website dedicated to explaining what blue light is and its effects. But, in short, prolonged exposure to blue light is dangerous for your health, especially at night, when your eyes aren’t supposed to be exposed to blue light!
This is where f.lux comes in. By “synchronizing” your screen to the same “night mode” that your eyes are in, it helps minimizing the damage that your screen and blue light do to you. Pretty neat, right?
More late-night mindless browsing!
Using f.lux for the first time was a really strange experience. “Screen look so yellow! Looks ugly! Yuck!” And indeed it’s a comment that I’ve received many times when someone takes a peek at my screen. But the longer I use it, the more I get used to it. And that’s important because that means more mindless browsing late at night for me, but without the annoying eyestrain afterwards.
Get f.lux for your PC/Mac/Linux over at their
website right now and give it a shot. Your eyes will thank you. Oh, and did I mention it’s free?
