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  • Is there a blue light filter for Microsoft Windows?

Is there a blue light filter for Microsoft Windows?

September 24, 2018 / Dave Taylor / Windows PC Help / 8 Comments

I often work late into the night and then have a hard time sleeping. My doctor told me that it’s a blue light issue and said I can adjust my PC to have less blue light at night. I have no idea what all of that means. Help!

Your doctor is spot on, actually. There’s lots of fascinating information about the spectrum of light and how it triggers different things in our brains. Specifically, shorter wavelengths of blue light cause the body to produce less melatonin, a sleep regulator. Other research suggests that blue wavelengths suppress delta brainwaves, the brainwaves that induce sleep. Instead, it boosts alpha waves which cause you to be alert. In other words, blue light is good when you wake up as it helps you become alert and ready to go. At night, however, you want the opposite effect.

There are a lot of ways to try and get rid of the blue wavelengths of light. One popular solution is to get “blue blocker” glasses that turn everything rather warm and rosy. Bit of a hassle, really. There are also colored screen filters you can put over your computer screen, but most of those end up working 24×7, which is overkill for your situation. Fortunately, there are settings in all the major operating systems, from Android to iPhone, Windows to MacOS X, that let you set a “night mode” or “night light” or similar. In Windows 10, it’s called Night Light.

To access Night Light start by going to Windows Settings…

windows 10 settings

The setting you want is in the accessibility area so click on “Ease of Access”

It brigs you to a screen that’s friendlier than just about any other in the entire Windows operating system. The prompts actually make sense!

windows 10 win10 ease of access settings preferences

What you seek is part of “Make everything brighter”. Okay, so maybe it doesn’t all make sense; why would getting rid of the blue light “make it brighter”? Confusing, really.

Click on “Change brightness automatically or use night light.” It’s the second part that we want!

Now you’ll get yet another settings screen:

win10 night light mode blue

As you can see, Night light is turned off. You can turn it on from this screen, but what you really want is to click or tap on “Night light settings“.

Still with me? Tap on that and you’ll get here:

windows 10 night light blue light blocker settings preferences

Almost there. Tedious, isn’t it? But it’s worth it because once you get to the schedule, you can set it up exactly as you want and then forget about it forever, knowing it’s doing its job! Turn on “Schedule night light” by switching it from Off to On. Now, finally, you’ll see this:

win night light schedule

You can use the default settings – sunset to sunrise – and that works great. Or you can just have it engage around 7pm or 8pm, whatever you’d prefer. Note also that you can use the slider to specify how much blue wavelength light to block: The warmer you make it, the more effective it is, but you’ll notice that white screens become a subtle warm yellow/orange.

I use this feature all the time, actually, and highly recommend that you wait until night time to actually try adjusting the color temperature. Since there’s a lot of blue light in sunlight, you will be less able to see the result of changes during the day. Good luck with all of this, I think you will see a difference…

Pro Tip: While you’re here on my site, please check out our extensive Windows 10 help area. Lots of additional tutorials!

About the Author: Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since the early days of the Internet. Author of over 20 technical books, he runs the popular AskDaveTaylor.com tech help site. You can also find his gadget reviews on YouTube and chat with him on Twitter as @DaveTaylor.

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
blue light, melatonin, night light, nite light, sleep, windows night light

8 comments on “Is there a blue light filter for Microsoft Windows?”

  1. Bernd Aberle says:
    October 11, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    You say “I use this feature all the time” – do you mean having the night setting on 24/7 or just have the night setting to come on at night hours?

    Reply
    • Dave Taylor says:
      October 11, 2018 at 10:57 pm

      Good clarification, Bernd. I use it as scheduled every day, in other words, every sunset it kicks in, every sunrise it turns off!

      Reply
      • Bernd Aberle says:
        October 14, 2018 at 4:32 pm

        Thanks Dave- I like your work and always learn something

        Reply
  2. Jeri says:
    October 1, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    For Windows 7, try F.lux. https://justgetflux.com/
    I have been using it for about a year. Works great. Though my sleep issues stem from many problems, I do think it has helped.

    Reply
  3. snert says:
    October 1, 2018 at 9:36 am

    computer goes off at least 2 hours before sleep time,and i relax in bed watching tv…once the light goes out, i’m out in about 5 minutes!!!

    Reply
  4. Frances-Agape says:
    September 29, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    I have used FLUX for about 10 years – starting with my old XP desktop. I learned about it at cnet.com and have been very happy with it.
    https://justgetflux.com/

    Reply
  5. David says:
    September 28, 2018 at 9:03 am

    i had no luck finding anything related on my Windows 7.
    Makes me wonder if anything is true i see on internet.
    Ads are forced in front of you for someone to make a dollar.
    Seems the entire internet is about deception…

    Reply
    • Dave Taylor says:
      September 28, 2018 at 10:34 am

      David, you’re using an ancient and obsolete version of Windows. No surprise, Night light is not available for Windows 7. If you want to use something similar to Night light on Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP, you can try looking for an app called Iris. Good luck!

      Reply

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