Just bekause you believe it doesn't mean you have to obey it
I believe what science is saying. I'm just not going to follow it. If I try to sleep without reading something my brain will start ruminating on things and then I'm definitely not getting to sleep. All my reading materials are on a screen.
I tried buying more physical books. I have a small stack of it, but I can't motivate myself to actually keep reading them. And there's always the danger that I find a page turner that'll keep me reading the entire night ...
It's not a settled issue. There are research papers that show evidence that blue light affects sleep, which is not the same thing as blue light makes your sleep worse.
So does it make sleep better?
It's associated with dim light you see naturally at dawn and dusk, so it makes sense that it has some effect. But exactly what isn't clear and it might be a lot of it depends on the circumstance.
I just listen to podcasts at a volume low enough that I have to try to listen, tires my brain out
For me i trained my mind to quiet when i hear wreck of the edmund fitzgerald. I also use sleep talk down videos, audio only, to distract my brain long enough for sleep to strangle it into submission to avoid yhe darkness.
I mean, those two things aren't mutually exclusive. I can believe the science AND ALSO engage in behaviors it says are unhealthy for me.
Just because I don't follow the recommendation doesn't mean I disbelieve it. Science also says I should eat better and exercise more and do less drugs 🤷♂️
It’s actually neutral on the subject of what you should do. That is for medicine and public health policy, or even personal choice.
How are you supposed to stop being sleepy in the morning without pulling out your phone.
It's nice to know what time it is too
I believe science, that's why I use my tablet instead
Me trying not to murder my partner who I love very much when her phone suddenly blasts out Instagram brain-rot at 11pm and I’m trying to maintain a vaguely healthy bedtime ritual.
Also, FYI, when scientists say "blue light" they don't mean literally the colour blue, they mean short wavelength light typically emitted by LEDs.
As far as the hue goes, the results in animal testing have been inconsistent, there's a paper from 2022 that says it has no influence, and this one from 2020 that actually found the opposite to be the case https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31368-5
In my personal experience I do the exact opposite of all conventional advice as admittedly a diagnosed ADHDer.
I cannot sleep without a good scroll and never have, before phones I had books and before I could read as a child I had music and my mom to read to me.
As an adult if I keep listening to something or reading something intently while comfy I will eventually and fairly quickly fall asleep.
I also sleep much better when I sleep immediately after or while scrolling/reading/doing anything than if I try to sleep "normally".
The number one way for me personally not to fall asleep is to "try" to sleep. Any sort of "ritual" around sleeping or attempt to deprive myself of stimulation and my mind will go pretty crazy with infinite thoughts and infinite random bullshit and I will fling out of bed in an hour full of energy and start projects, after working on something for 10-20 min I'll feel sleepy again and could even fall asleep while doing them easily, much more so than in plain dark.
It also helps me to not have any sort of ritual and just sleep whenever I feel sleepy if the circumstances allow. I have no idea why or how neurotypicals have sleep schedules and I've given up on understanding it. For me, as long as I get 8 hours or so it doesn't actually matter at all when I get them, i will feel as fresh and awake waking up at 3AM as I would at 10PM or 7AM as long as I get my hours.
So I pretty much get 8 hours, and sometimes more every day and I feel nice and fresh when I wake up usually with sad exceptions during particularly rough work weeks where I end up staying up way late.
All's I'm saying is YMMV, I've never had any issues with sleep nor do I feel particularly tired, I don't drink coffee nor alcohol, but if I ever explain this to a doctor they go nuts and assume I have insomnia, they try to offer "treatment" when I literally don't have any problems with this at all.
If you ever hear that "science" says something, go digging for the source and make sure "science" is actually saying it and not just 1 dubious study that the internet has latched onto and continuously parrots while ignoring contradicting evidence.
Aye, true that, I don't think I said anything contradictory to what you replied with.
Blue light being bad is a conspiracy theory by big eyewear to sell more glasses (I'm being tongue in cheek but I think its kinda true). I don't have the link but I read some paper about how its more likely that the reduced blinking rate while watching screens is the real culprit
Weirdly I have a similar conspiracy about noise makers for children. They all tend to come with a colored light, that is super bright. While there are studies that have shown sleeping with a light when you are younger makes you 5x more likely to need corrective lenses when you are older.
I get why you shouldn't use it before bed but why not after waking up? If it keeps you awake shouldn't it help you wake up?
Just because I believe doesn't mean I listen.
Science is totally right here, I have no doubt. It's just... that I have zero regard for my own health.
Science has citations, not tweets.
Science means knowing better than trusting reports that affirm preconceived notions.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/21/g-s1-55153/screens-and-sleep-maybe-not-so-bad
Me using phones : wow, I can sleep at 1am, great.
Me "just going to bed" : great, it's 4am and I'm still overthinking my shortcomings!
I work incredibly hard during the day so it's not hard for me to fall asleep at night even if I'm staring at my phone and even if I stare at it first thing when I wake up in the morning. My circadian rhythms cannot be defeated. I love sleeping all night & working me arse off all day.
It's a matter of effort vs reward. Will it make it easier to sleep? Yes. Will it make it easier enough to be worth not using my phone? No.
If's hard to believe when my circadian rhythm was still fucked long before I had a screen I could take to bed.
I've been trying to talk my wife into dropping the brightness to 50% for years. Her phone is so bright it keeps ME up at night on the other side of the bed. I have to set up a light shield to go to sleep :P
What's this about right after waking up? (I may have struck this from memory)
im not a cicada. i do not concern myself with these matters.
Don't call me put like this just after I wake up!
My circadian whatever has had all my life to get used to it. I don't accept complaints now.
Small rant, but people saying they believe in science is a pet peeve of mine. Belief has no place olin science.
You can't "believe" in science any more than you can "know" in your religion.
Belief and faith are the realm of the unknowable. Knowledge and fact are the realm of science.
When people say they "believe" in science, I think they mean they are putting their faith into the scientists performing the science. That whatever conclusion they come to after an experiment or study is the correct conclusion.
I'm sure you can find the flaw in doing so, as science is constantly being debunked. A good example that comes to mind is the alpha wolf theory.
It can be argued that while science strives to be in the realm of knowledge and fact, it doesn't always succeed in doing so. At least not in the first rounds of study. And I think that's what its strength is; being able to correct itself in the pursuit of knowledge and fact. All the same, science is run by humans, and humans are fallible. But despite that fallibility, some people are willing to put their faith into scientists because of their constant pursuit for the truth. Even if what they said yesterday got debunked today, it doesn't make yesterday's scientists any lesser. It only means we are all better for it.
I am not smart enough to come to my own conclusions about a lot of science, so yes I must believe what the collective scientific community asserts, because I have no other way to prove things that happen. For me, that means putting my faith in their accuracy. So yes, I believe in science.
It should also be noted that there are people out there that treat science as a religion; that it is infallible, and cannot be changed, and to suggest otherwise is blasphemy. 🤷♂️
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/believe
"To consider to be true or honest"
I don't know what you think believe means but you're wrong
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