f.lux

[hmpf]

I've been using f.lux for a few weeks now.

Well, I don't know if it's the program, or the fact that my life has turned busy and scary in about the same timeframe, but I've been getting monstrously tired really really early in the last few weeks. It's half past ten now, and I'm so knackered I can barely think.

I'm not sure I like this effect. I'd like to... not be a complete wreck in the evenings, yet still be able to sleep reasonably early? Is that possible?

Comments

[beccatoria]

Oooh, I just installed this yesterday on your recommendation. Interested to see if it makes a difference. The change in the screen lighting is a little distracting but fairly easy to acclimate to. I'd certainly like to have to worry less about my sleeping schedule but there's no way in hell I'm cutting down on my computer use...

[kimboo_york]

I would not LIVE without it. I love it, it literally changed my life for the better.

Honestly, the point is that it doesn't MAKE you sleepy, it allows your natural sleep rhythms to operate, you know, naturally. If you're a complete wreck by 10pm, that's not due to f.lux, that's due to you being a complete wreck at 10pm. Using f.lux just lets your body behave as it would without interfering tech like a monitor hiding your state of being.

Yeah, I know that's the idea...

[hmpf]

Thing is, I've hardly slept before two a.m. for the last two and a half decades, i.e. since I was a teenager - long before computers entered my life. (TV didn't play a role in this either, as I grew up in a household where I didn't have a TV of my own and usually couldn't use the family TV set in the evenings because it would be used by my parents.)

That said, I think the fact that the last few weeks were so busy did play a role in making me tired excessively early. I've now returned to my own place, where I'm able to sleep in a bit longer instead of being woken after only five or six hours of sleep, and as a result I feel pretty fit today at half past ten in the evening. Not entirely un-tired, but not a total wreck either.

Re: Yeah, I know that's the idea...

[kimboo_york]

My point is basically, if you're tired, go to bed. Whether you've "always" done something one way or another is superfluous data. If you are tired, go to sleep. *shrug*

I'm still not sure how much of the effect is due to the program, really.

[hmpf]

The last few weeks were a pretty big departure in other ways, too, so it may have been because of that. Still, it's definitely worth a try!

Re: Yeah, I know that's the idea...

[hmpf]

Yeah, I was just worried by this development because it shortened my active time per day a bit more than I wished. I need to be able to function a certain amount of hours per day, and can't really afford to just be a completely brain-dead zombie by early evening, which is basically what was happening in the last few weeks. I was getting maybe eight or nine hours of "active time" out of the day before beginning to feel like a wreck, which just isn't enough.

[muladhara]

Oh this is an awesome idea! I shall check it out (and, depending on how I find it, I may load it onto my mum's PC, since I know she finds screen glare trying on her eyes - and the setting's at a reasonably low setting, too).