Ever since a flawed study was published several years ago about how using an iPad at full brightness before bedtime can make it take longer for some folks to fall asleep, the war against blue light has really taken off.
App developers and ebook reader manufacturers jumped on the anti blue light bandwagon by offering color-shift technology enabling users to switch from a blue light to an orange/yellow light for nighttime.
But now a new study suggests that exposure to blue light may actually be better than warm light at night.
“Our findings suggest that using dim, cooler, lights in the evening and bright warmer lights in the day may be more beneficial,” says Dr. Tim Brown, from The University of Manchester.
“We show the common view that blue light has the strongest effect on the clock is misguided; in fact, the blue colours that are associated with twilight have a weaker effect than white or yellow light of equivalent brightness.”
When tested on mice, the study showed that blue light produced weaker effects on a mouse’s body clock than yellow light set at the same brightness.
This is the exact opposite of the common opinion that has been circulating in recent years. It turns out exposure to blue light at night might not be as bad as previously thought. In fact, blue light might just be better than warm light.
Either way, more research needs to be done before proclaiming the evils or benefits of blue light.
Here’s the link to the report at Current Biology for more information.
via: Manchester UK