“More and more people are taking their tablets to bed with them to surf the web, check Facebook or email before switching off the light,” Stephen Adams reports for The Telegraph. “But researchers are warning that the blueish light their screens emit can stop users getting a good night’s sleep.”
“That is because this type of light mimics daylight, convincing the brain that it is still daytime,” Adams reports. “Blue light suppresses production of a brain chemical called melatonin, which helps us fall sleep. This is because our brains have evolved to be wakeful during daylight hours.”
Adams reports, “By contrast, light which is more orange or red in tone does not suppress melatonin production, perhaps because our brains recognise it as a cue that the day is ending.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Suggestion to Apple for iOS 6.1: Settings>Screen>Tint>color slider(indicate orange/red as “night” and blue/white as “day.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
It’s that good.
When it is positive: We say tablet market
When negative: We call it iPad
These so called researchers should know that even a siple guy like me knows that the production of melatonin stops when there is light and starts up again when the light goes. So yes, the light from the tablet will cause the melatonin to stop, like the tv that is on in the bedroom. (you know, the thing that you wake up in the middle of the night and you discover you fell asleep watching?)
Well said
Who puts a TV in their bedroom? Insane.
everyone who lives in a one room apartment?
I’ll actually be doing this soon with an AppleTV attached to it once I move this month.. Having my mac pro in the room makes it nice for watching movies with no need for a tv
“Suggestion to Apple for iOS 6.1: Settings>Screen>Tint>color slider(indicate orange/red as “night” and blue/white as “day.””
I think there is already an app for that! lol
Just a thought.
マジ？
Ovwethinking just a tad. It would take hours of exposure to trip your “clock”. This is BS.
Yeah this is what I really wanted an iPad for. I always turn down the light to a minimal good enough setting. It is a highlight of my day to be cozy in bed and have the world at my fingertips. I’ve also learned techniques where I can fall asleep and the iPad shuts itself off. What I really want is something like Dr. McCoy’s Sickbay bed reader that swings over the bed. I know there are some over-bed iPad arm things out there but haven’t bought one yet.
Its my highlight of the day to be cozy in bed with my wife! 😉
Careful, don’t upset the religious right with such an admission of abject sin on this forum unless you’re up for some verbal abuse.
Old “news” that’s mostly baloney. People said the same thing about laptops, TVs, electric lights, gas lights, candles, fire, etc.
Exactly. Just about any mental stimulus before your normal bedtime can introduce sleep problems.
Is physical stimulus before your normal bedtime OK?
They’d be mutually inclusive ;^)
it’s easy to call this BS for those of us who have always used our computers/laptops before we go to sleep, some of us even relying on it IN ORDER to go to sleep.
But I think you’re missing the point.
All of a sudden there is this incredible light weight device that we can lay comfortably with into the wee hours. The iPad will contour itself to whatever position you are in, meaning you’re likely staring at it far closer to bedtime then we as humans did before with our laptops (while versatile, still require a number of different body positions to maintain usability) or our desktops (which had us sitting in order to use them).
The fact is, the iPad has made using ‘tech before bed’ a commonplace occurrence that most non nerds are likely unaccustomed to. More and more people are going through this process and at closer and closer to whatever our normal bed time is.
Even if this fact is old news, or hard to credit, there is a whole new population demographic exposed to it, and in ways the laptop or desktop have never proved.
In the end, I think MDN’s take is spot on, and I rarely agree with any MDN ‘take’.
Actually IIRC old CRT TVs emitted alpha waves that actually induced sleep.
OTOH I always thought it was the programming that put me to sleep.
Whatever. 🙂
I have a program on myac called f.lux to adjust the color. You have to jailbreak your iOS device to add it right now. Hope that changes someday
I mean my Mac, not myac (my myac is just fine thanks)
When I was a kid, and the weather report talked about Miami, I assumed that was the announcer’s “Ami”, and maybe other people had their own “Ami”.
My sister and I used to argue about whose “Ami” it was. We were very young and competitive, and both insisted it was “My-Ami.”
If you lived in CT you might recall the collapse of the bridge over the Mianus River. Then you really could have argued about something!
I’ve f.lux on my mac. I hope they add it to iOS.
I’ve always used the “sepia” setting in iBooks when I read at night. I must be some kind of genius!
I don’t care what kind. Just some kind.
Such a genius that you don’t use night mode?
Either way, still a blue/white backlight, genius.
blow me bitch. I like sepia better.
and it still doesn’t matter (the light that is).
Put away that iPad and shag your wife instead. This results in better sleep and happier wife. Believe me, it works…
Agreed.
I guess he’s saying that it’s worse to read and iPad (or look at porn) then it is reading a book or browsing through a Playboy like in the old days?
The dude needs to get a life and get laid! haha
Have you considered why most of us take an iPad to bed in the first place? 😉
They must think we are on a submarine in WWII getting ready to surface at night. BS!
Researchers, “scientists,” “Analysts,” etc. etc. etc.
Using a Samsung tablet before bed ‘puts the user to sleep,’ say researchers.
iPad = poor sleep > Droid = nightmare
Hmmm. I get no sleep at all when I use my iPad all night long.
Crazy, but I often have to stop using it when I find myself doozzzzing off. Why did they have to do research to find out the obvious?
Because you can’t fix stupid. Let’s face it, if I take my flat screen TV to bed with me I probably will have a difficult time going to sleep. So I don’t take it to bed with me. I also do not take a 1966 427 Dickie Harrell Rat Motor COPO Yenko Chevy II to bed with me either. Although it is tempting. No, I try not to do just really stupid things. I am a bit of a night owl but that’s my fault. Been that way all my life. So now I can blame my new iPad? Wow, I’ll bet this is a government-funded study too? Idiots!
Freaking obvious idiots.
So, this is an iPad problem? Should I get a color Kindle or something else?
People have been using their laptops (and LCD desktops) long before the iPad came along.
The story should read
“Using LCD screens before bed ‘can lead . . .”
But then I guess you wouldn’t get as many hits.
MDN posts this around midnight.
23 comments already.
Case closed.
INTERnet = international network = 24hrs open. duh
INTERnet… international network… 24hrs open… duh.
That’s not actually what the “Inter” in Internet stands for.
But I get your point.
Anyway, it was a joke. Does sarcasm not translate across international lines?
I agree with MDN’s Take. Hopefully, Apple® will, too.
And these people get paid for this?
Lawmakers get paid far more to act like spoiled kindergarten brats and make laws that interfere with your life in their respective local, state and federal legislatures. Get some perspective.
The research was performed on a sample of 13 ( yes, thirteen ) students.
It looks like more effort was spent trying to fit the word “iPad” into the headline than was done on the original research.
This research is Rediculous!
I take my iPad to bed every night. As a matter of fact, that is when I use it. I sleep like a baby. So I call this bull.
I agree. It’s anything with a bright backlit light though. If I’m on my laptop in bed to surf until I feel sleepy, it takes me longer to fall asleep after I close the lid than if I read a normal printed book. It’s weird because I’ll feel tired of reading, but my mind seems to stay too active to fall asleep even though my eyes feel tired. With a book, no problem. Noticed that a long time ago. But it doesn’t stop me from doing it.
I miss the old days of breaking news before an impending product announcement. Instead of this drivel.
I believe this is a case of YMMV. My wife falls asleep reading a book most nights and half the time it is a printed book, half the time it is an iPad.
I have no problems falling asleep watching TV or Netlfix on my iPad.
Just as that anecdotal evidence does not prove the problem does not exist, I suspect the studies do not prove that everyone has this problem. The important phrase here is “can lead”.
Researches insist the orange-ish red-ish colour of daylight doesn’t keep people awake, but the blue light of dusk and night does keep people awake.
Yes. These people deserve funding.
Simplistic and inaccurate summaries of science articles is the hallmark of mainstream media. Don’t follow their example.
If the idevice already has auto brightness control… they could have a feature that detects if its dark and the time of day… then a notification asking if you would like to alter the screen for night reading/viewing/whatever
but since this is pretty much a nonissue…. waste of an article
I have issues going to sleep that’s why I bring it to bed. I also take a melatonin supplement to crash at night.