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Does night shift really work?

J

jetlagged

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 6, 2012
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i have a bad case of jetlag after I flew from Japan to california. It's been a week already, I would sleep at 10 pm, and automatically wake up at 3 am.

Someone said I should avoid touching my iPad mini 4 at night coz of the blue light which affects my body's internal clock keeping me more awake.. I have night shift enabled for the past week but I haven't noticed any difference whether it helps me fall asleep. Granted night shift is definitely more pleasant to my eye at night coz of the warmer color.
 
jetlagged said:
i have a bad case of jetlag after I flew from Japan to california. It's been a week already, I would sleep at 10 pm, and automatically wake up at 3 am.

Someone said I should avoid touching my iPad mini 4 at night coz of the blue light which affects my body's internal clock keeping me more awake.. I have night shift enabled for the past week but I haven't noticed any difference whether it helps me fall asleep. Granted night shift is definitely more pleasant to my eye at night coz of the warmer color.
Click to expand...
Like most things in the medical community, there are studies that show a negative correlation between blue light and sleep quality and there are studies that show no correlation between blue light and sleep quality. BUT correlation is NOT causation so keep giving it a shot and see.
 
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Well, from a purely scientific point of view no iOS device puts out enough blue light to effect your body's melatonin in any significant way*. So to answer your question, probably not.

On the other hand, the human mind is a funny thing. So if you *think* something effects your sleep, it may! Do what works for you.

A.

* unless you hold your 12.9" iPad Pro up to your face, anyway.
 
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Can't speak to whether it will help you sleep. I get pretty bad eyestrain with most displays at night and Night Shift (and Flux) help a lot with that.
 
My unscientific opinion is Night Shift and many other sleep aids/hazards affect different people in different ways. But I doubt it does any harm. They say it takes your body one night for every time zone (hour) shifted to adapt to a zone change, but I always find flying from West to East a LOT harder than going the other direction.

Things that help me adapt to a zone change are getting some direct sunlight, or at least bright light (I've been known to stare directly into lamps for a few moments!) just after waking up, and avoiding bright light for a couple of hours before bedtime.
 
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Try it and find out if it works for you. That's the only answer to this question that matters.
 
Thanks for the replies. Mike B in ok: I also read about the timezone difference and number of days to adjust. Japan is 16 hours ahead time zone difference compared to California. So i'm Day 9 out of 16 days for my body to adjust. I'm not really counting on it though. i've been using night shift for the past 1 week now. i haven't noticed any difference. i would fall asleep at 930 pm to 10 pm, and i would automatically wake up at 3 am. its been like that for the past week now. it's like my body has set an automatic inner alarm clock.

i just woke up this morning at 3 am exactly and couldn't get back to sleep. tried doing deep breathing exercises to relax myself to no avail.

but night shift is a pretty nice feature though.
 
Works for me in a positive way. I've cranked it up to max on my laptop and iPad. It feels like it is easier to fall asleep (placebo or not) right after using them (having nightshift activated or not). Deactivating it right before sleep feels like im suddenly starring right at the sun.
 
jetlagged said:
i have a bad case of jetlag after I flew from Japan to california. It's been a week already, I would sleep at 10 pm, and automatically wake up at 3 am.

Someone said I should avoid touching my iPad mini 4 at night coz of the blue light which affects my body's internal clock keeping me more awake.. I have night shift enabled for the past week but I haven't noticed any difference whether it helps me fall asleep. Granted night shift is definitely more pleasant to my eye at night coz of the warmer color.
Click to expand...
If you are on IOS 10, swipe the control center and then click night swift .problem solved
 
If I enable Night Shift and True Tone, will that cause some sort of problem during the period where Night Shift is enabled? I mean, will this impair one of the two or both?

Edit: A user replied this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/new-ipad-pro-true-tone-and-night-shift.1964692/#post-22741616

This is based on what I have read, and not actual testing, so take this answer with a grain of salt. They don't cancel each other out, and they aren't the same thing. Others have explained the difference, but what I expect is that if you have both on, the logic is a bit like this:

- True Tone is always on if the user has it on. Unless...
- If Night Shift says the color temperature needs to skew warmer because of the time of day, it overrides the True Tone setting.

So in this case, I expect Night Shift to override True Tone during the times of day I set. And for the rest of the day when it isn't taking over, for True Tone to adjust based on the ambient light.
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My iPad doesn't support Night Shift, however I've used F.lux. Whether it helps me sleep, I can't say; no noticeable difference. It is easier on the eyes however.
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Perene said:
If I enable Night Shift and True Tone, will that cause some sort of problem during the period where Night Shift is enabled? I mean, will this impair one of the two or both?
Click to expand...
Try it! :D
 
Perene said:
If I enable Night Shift and True Tone, will that cause some sort of problem during the period where Night Shift is enabled? I mean, will this impair one of the two or both?
Click to expand...

I have an IPP 9.7", which of course has a True Tone Display, and I have enabled Night Shift. I never thought about whether one would impair the other.
 
Blue light at night, imo, is harsh on the eyes. I used to dim my screen, now I use night shift, and I find the screen easier to look at.

Even w10 has a night shift like function built-in.
 
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