Eye strain? No more! Install this app to save your eyes.

Are you amongst those folks who use the computer at night and suffer from eye strain or sleep deprivation?

Well, I got good news! 🙂

While surfing through the realms of digital cosmos I recently discovered a free software (free as in free beer  😎 ) which can help us reduce the eye fatigue. Isn’t it great?

(drum roll please)

The software is F.lux

Great! What’s the theory behind it:

During the day, we’re exposed to bright sunlight that has a cool, blue color temperature. This helps keeps us awake. At night, the bright sunlight is gone — instead, we’re using indoor lighting that is generally dimmer and warmer and more soothing to our eyes.

Similarly, our computer screens emit bluish light that looks good in the daytime but becomes uncomfortable to look at in a dark room. It’s like looking at the big bright lamp for hours.

F.lux changes the color temperature of our computer’s display depending on the time of day and sets warmer colors to screen after sunset to match our indoor lighting. The screen then looks more natural to our eyes. Hence, negligible strain to eyes and a much better sleep.

Don’t you believe me? Notice the difference in below picture:

Looking at a warmer display at night will help reduce eye strain, and — because we are not staring at a bright, sunlight-like screen — cause our brain to secrete more melatonin (a hormone that gives our body the “time to sleep” cues) and help us get to sleep earlier and sleep better.
So, If you’re not using it yet, but do use your computer at night, you really should install it. Insomnia is not fun anyways 😉

How to download?

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux: JustGetFlux

How to use it?

Install and run it. If it’s night-time you’ll instantly notice the smooth transition to a color difference of your screen.

There’s only one-time setup for the location to let the F.lux know whether it’s a night-time or day-time. you can search for your city in the settings menu in F.lux to set up your location, so it will automatically know when the sun sets to adapt your display in sync with that.

Additionally, you could choose from the 7 different color ranges which suit your eyes best. My personal choice is 4200k: Fluorescent.

That’s it! F.lux runs automatically in the background when the computer is turned on so you don’t even have to run it manually again.
And you can obviously disable F.lux for some time if you’re doing some color-sensitive work or watching a movie (use movie mode).

F.lux is great for my PC but..

Hey! Hold on, most of the times we use our smartphone at the night, not the goddamn 15” screen! Isn’t there any app like F.lux to reduce eye strain for phones (insert puppy eyes)?

Well yes, yes, there is for iPhone and Android!

For iPhone:

F.lux is no longer available on App Store because Apple does not allow developers to access the Private APIs that F.lux requires working on iOS, so the app is unlikely to appear again on the App Store unless that policy changes. But, hey! you can still install flux on your lovely iPhone ( without jailbreaking )

Follow the steps given here: How to install F.lux on your iPhone without Jailbreaking

For Android:

Turns out that folks at F.lux are still building the official app for android (lazy guys I guess 😛 Read here for official explanation) but there’s a similar app “Twilight” which does the exact same thing.

Download it from here: Twilight – Android Apps on Google Play

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So, next time you use these tools to protect your vision, make sure to thank us for introducing you to these kickass apps. Also, let us know your experience with it and do suggest better alternatives, if any, in the comment section below.