Blue filter on cell phones: it's good for that

The blue filter from the cell phone is said to be good for the eyes and health, it is often said. But is there something there? After all, he can now also be found on the PC and even camera manufacturers follow suit.

Blue filter in mobile phones: useful or not?

In our modern world there is more and more blue light, for example in displays, but also in LEDs and energy-saving lamps. As such, this is not harmful: in nature, there is much more blue light all day than we are exposed to on the screen in the evening. Blue light used to be used to treat depression as a natural mood enhancer. However, this mood-enhancing factor can also become a problem if you actually want to sleep in your bed in the evening ...

• The background : the human body is heavily dependent on light. When the sun goes down, it releases the hormone melatonin, which leads to falling asleep.
• The blue light in displays appears particularly bright to the human eye and signals the body that it is not yet bedtime.
• If you are still exposed to blue light after sunset, your body does not start to release melatonin - and you stay awake. Studies have shown that those who use their cell phone or tablet for a long time directly before sleep take longer to fall asleep (25 minutes) than the control group with a book in their hand (15 minutes).

Are blue filters good and does blue light damage the eyes?

Blue filters on mobile phones are used to reduce the amount of blue light. This filter is available for both Android smartphones and iPhones. But is that necessary? There are international guidelines for the blue light on screens, but the value for mobile phones is around a hundred times lower. Scientific studies that have analyzed the benefits of blue filter lenses for glasses have not found any positive effects on eye health in practice.

But can blue light lead to sleep disorders?

• The effectiveness of blue filters on sleep disorders has not been established. Some studies suggest that blue light leads to less melatonin release than conventional light. In practice, there are studies that prove this and others that have not found a connection.
• Therefore it is necessary that there are further large-scale studies. But it is clear that a smartphone or tablet emits more light than a reading lamp and therefore keeps you awake for longer.
• From a scientific point of view, there are some indications that the blue filter makes sense at least before sleeping, even if this has not yet been clearly proven. In any case, it does no harm, so you can use it calmly.
• You activate the blue filter in most mobile phones in the settings. This is often referred to as night mode. It is best to set it so that it correlates with the sunrise and sunset.
• If you use a smartphone that does not yet have a blue filter, there are numerous apps such as Twilight for Android that do this for you.

Do you also want to filter the blue light on the computer? In the next article, you will learn how to activate the Night Shift blue filter on Mac and the night mode on Windows.