Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Save your eyes and maybe even sleep better

I just wanted to let you guys know about a neat program called F.lux. It's really helpful for late night PC users.  F.lux makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, making the color scheme warmer (more red) at night.  By doing this, 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.  The purpose of the color change is to remind your brain that the sun has set.  Most people keep their monitors at a high brightness where white looks more cool (bluer).  The problem with this is that it tricks the brain into thinking that it's also bright outside as well, so you tend to stay up later.

I've been using this program for a while now and so far, I am enjoying it. While there is a small performance lag once F.lux starts to kick in, it disappears once the color scheme has been set.  Also, F.lux does not work for most full-screen games, but it should work just fine for windowed games.  Personally, I feel like I am less restless at night and have less difficulty falling asleep as well.

Anyways, get it at their website: http://stereopsis.com/flux/

28 comments:

  1. Wow this is a very good idea. Sometimes I stay up even after a long day at work, playing on the computer, maybe this will help me.

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  2. I just tried it right now. It's pretty trippy to get used to at first but when it kicked in, I realized how tense my eyes had been this whole time. Thanks for the recommendation.

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  3. This would be useful, since I stay up till 4am doing work on my computer.

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  4. Thank you for this. I'm going to download it and try as a heavy PC user.

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  5. sounds cool, my computer had something similr to that that changed the brightness...

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  6. If it's cheaper than a new mattress then I'm all for it. Mattresses are too expensive.

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  7. don't macs have something like this?

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  8. dont even get me started with staying up.

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  9. Cool idea, I am up all night anyways though.

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  10. I tired this awhile program awhile ago, always disabled it as soon as the color changed, but I think I will give it another try.

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  11. This is crazy, I'm definitely trying it out once I get my desktop.

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  12. thanks for the program recommendation!

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  13. Neat, I'll give it a try since I'm prone to late night computer sessions.

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  14. i suppose i can give this a try. sounds cool

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  15. excellent, I always need new ways to stay up longer

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  16. Wow I'm going to have to try it considering I am usually up till about 3 in the morning studying and blogging. Thanks for the tip!

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  17. This seems like an awesome program! do you know how much strain it puts on the cpu/gpu?

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  18. Wow. That's genius. It's 2:47am right now, and I couldn't think of anything better. xD

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  19. Very interesting program. The brain is so powerful that it reacts through sensory stimulation and with the lifestyle of people these days it is very easy to trick the brain without even knowing!

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  20. I've had this installed for a couple of months. It's nice because you don't notice the change in color, and it's easier on the eyes. I'd highly recommend it.

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  21. This is a good idea! I sit at a computer all day for my job, and then I often do more work at home, so I'm at a computer all day. I'm gonna check this out.

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  22. this actually does sound really useful. i'm going to download it now. i need something like this. thanks.

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  23. i need this. i have a bad habit of staying up past 2 in the morning and never sleeping. i tried it last night and i could barely keep my eyes open by 1. really useful. will follow

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  24. That sounds really cool..I',m going to download it right now and give it a try.

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