I will admit that I was a slow adapter to cell phone
technology. Up until a couple of years
ago I was somewhat proud that I wasn't tied to a smart-phone and relied instead
on my "dumb-phone". One of my
friends would regularly send a text to me that simply read "25 cents"
because he knew that's what it would cost me to receive his text on my dinosaur
phone. The temptation was to retaliate
and charge him an extra 50 cents on his next box of contact lenses he picked
up, but I never did.
I finally caved and got an iPhone5S a couple of years ago,
and while some of you will laugh now and call it a dinosaur, I am perfectly
content with it. The last few days my
phone has been prompting me to install the newest iOS 9.3 update. I have always been a little apprehensive
about such updates because I tend to find that "new and improved"
isn't always "better". In my
delay to jump right in to the update I noticed that several of my Facebook
friends and others have had some major issues with the update. Thus my delay in updating my phone.
It seems that one of the major "upgrades" that
comes with the new operating system is a little thing called "Night
Shift". I've even heard it said
that this part of the update is causing major havoc for several
individuals.
Here is why Night Shift is on the new OS in a nutshell: it serves to block the harmful effects of
high energy blue light. What is high
energy blue light you may ask? It is a
part of the visible light spectrum that butts up against the UV light
spectrum. Why is it a problem you may
also ask? We know the problems
associated with UV light, well, there may be some issues with it's relative,
high energy blue light. These
wavelengths of light have been linked to disruption of circadian rhythm by
affecting melatonin production by the brain.
In other words, they can make you have a hard time sleeping when you
should be sleeping, disrupting your normal sleep cycle (circadian rhythm). It has been shown that a small reduction in
the amount of high energy blue light that the eyes receive will benefit a
person by helping their melatonin levels get back to a more normal level at the
right time of day, allowing you to fall asleep at the right time and stay
asleep through the night.
The good news is it doesn't take much. Just an 11-12% reduction in the high energy
blue light emitted by the backlit LED screens we love so much is all it takes
to get one back on track. Night Shift,
as well as several other similar apps for other devices, attempt to do this by
changing the color of the screen, moving the color from the cooler blue hue we
are familiar with to the warmer tones nearer to orange hues. This attempts to reduce the amount of high
energy blue light entering the eyes but it changes the color of
everything. I don't know about you, but
I really like colors and if I want to look at a cat video or other time waster
on my phone I don't want it to look orange, I mean, after all, orange cats are
creepy.
I have a better way to block that high energy blue light
than with something like Night Shift. It
is called Recharge and it is part of what protects my eyes all day long every
day. Recharge is a brand of
anti-reflective coat that is a part of my glasses lens. It serves to not only provide a great
anti-glare coat and scratch resistant coating, but it filters out about 12% of
the high energy blue light that is trying to bombard my eyes every waking hour
of the day because that's about how much I am looking at an electronic device
of some sort daily. And best of all it
doesn't make everything look orange! The
other awesome thing about it is that it protects my eyes from the high energy
blue light ALL DAY LONG and not just at night.
To me that is so much better than an app that is included in an update
that may crash my phone.
And here's something else about Night Shade: it won't work on your iPhone5, iPhone5c,
iPhone4s, iPad4, iPad3, iPad2, the original iPad mini, and the
5th-generation iPod Touch. Looks like
you may have to make a big investment in a new iPhone6 to be able to run it. Maybe a better investment would be in a pair of glasses with Recharge to provide you protection all day long.
In conclusion, Recharge > Night Shift in my book. So come in to see us at Hook Eye Care and let
us get you set up with something that will work to protect your eyes and your
sleep and let you enjoy those cat videos in full color again.
