
At night, increased melatonin levels cause a natural cooling of your body temperature by 0.3-0.4 degrees Celsius, which helps you fall and stay asleep. There are countless apps to try - including Calm, Headspace, Insight Timer, and Smiling Mind. Most meditation apps have guided meditations and bedtime stories to help you fall asleep. Meditation helps to decrease stress and the deep breathing can also activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting a deep and restful sleep. If you missed it, check out our blog all about the benefits of stretching! This isn’t the time for a spin class or high intensity circuit workout which will boost your energy and increase your body temperature for a couple of hours. Light static stretching activates the parasympathetic nervous system, our “rest and digest” system, which helps to calm the body down for sleep.

It’s unclear how effective blue light filters are. The results were insignificant, but suggest that people who use blue filters might give themselves a “free pass" to stare at screens more. A 2020 study on the association between screen exposure and sleep quality found that participants who used blue light filters looked at screens more during the day than those who didn’t use blue light filters. What’s more, this might cause people to think that they don't have to worry about staring at their screen at night. A 2017 systematic review looking at the effects of blue-light blocking spectacles revealed that the use of blue light blockers to improve sleep-wake cycle is inconclusive. While blue light filters first seemed like a great solution to the blue light emitted from screens, there is actually conflicting research as to how effective they are.
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However, do these blue light filters actually work? And does this mean you have free rein to stare at your screen while lying in bed until the moment you close your eyes? These apps cause the blue wavelengths on your screen to gradually reduce as you get closer to bedtime, giving it more of a yellowish hue. You can also try True Dark glasses if you want to go a step further.
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There are also apps such as f.lux that you can download onto your computer or other devices. One of the questions we get asked a lot is ‘What about blue light filters?’ Blue light filters are a built in feature of smartphones that allow you to create a digital sunset (Night Light on Androids and Night Shift on iPhones). So while blue light is effective at keeping us awake and alert during the day, it should be avoided before bed. This is because the blue wavelengths affect melatonin even more than other light. This is why it's incredibly important to dim lights at night and keep your bedroom as dark as possible.Įxposing your eyes to light from screens, such as TV, phones, and tablets, is even worse. This can cause an increase in sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep), sleep inertia (drowsiness when you wake up), and an overall reduction in sleep quality.

Basically, we’re telling our body that it’s daytime instead of nighttime.

When we expose our eyes to light, a signal is sent from our retina to our brain telling it to stop producing melatonin.

Due to our circadian rhythm (our internal biological clock), we naturally feel sleepy at night as the pineal gland releases melatonin, the sleepy hormone. In previous newsletters, we’ve discussed the dangers of exposing your eyes to light before bed.
