Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminance is a better bet

Re:Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminan... by galangalalgol on Friday February 20, 2026 @07:14PM (#47095930)

His argument seems to be that the night modes don't remove much blue. My initial assumption was that it was about physical filters. Yellow or amber 99%+ safety lenses are a thing and several of my coworkers wear them. Looking through them at those painfully bright blue leds makes them appear to be off. Yes everything looks strange, but they work. Likewise a different coworker manually removes all blue in the monitor settings themselves independent of the brightness setting. That also works. The author's assertion should be qualified amd narrowed a bit.

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Re:Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminan... by UlisesAC4 on Friday February 20, 2026 @07:45PM (#47096172)

I can absolutely confirm that night mode works wonders. Since ten years ago I discovered them I no longer have dry eye like problems.

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Re:Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminan... by stuckonempty on Friday February 20, 2026 @09:14PM (#47096791)

This is great it works for you but hopefully you realize the weakness of anecdotal evidence when it comes to declaring something is universally effective.

Your n of 1 argument is the equivalent of “my grandpa smoked until he was 95 so smoking clearly can’t be bad for your health”.

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Re:Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminan... by red75prime on Friday February 20, 2026 @09:47PM (#47096980)

It’s more like, "Some people have something going on that ameliorates the cardiovascular and cancer problems caused by smoking."

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Re:Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminan... by whateverboat on Saturday February 21, 2026 @08:04AM (#47100456)

I love redshift as well. I actually keep it 24x7, and my eyes don't get tired at all even after 12 hours of programming. Nowadays, turning off redshift feels like an attack on the eyes.

And no, reducing brightness on monitors doesn't have the same effect. I recently upgraded my monitors to 600nits brightness from 350nits and there has been no change in comfort level with redshift but without the redshift, the old monitors (and the new) stil feel very hostile to eyes.

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Re:Blue light filters don't work – controlling total luminan... by hn_throwaway_99 on Saturday February 21, 2026 @12:07PM (#47102571)

You're right, it's not valid to make any broader conclusions from an anecdote. But it's about just as valid as the author making conclusions based solely on physical "this is what I should expect to happen" hypotheses.

More importantly, as an individual, the only thing that counts is when the n of 1 is you. As another commenter said, you don't need to live your life by studies. It's not like there is much expense or risk in trying a screen reddener, so try it out, and if it works for you, great - it's bizarre that the author thinks it is "aggravating" that a lot of people use things that they say work for them.

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