Ubuntu includes a nifty feature called Night Light which could help you sleep better and reduce the risk of eye strain.
In this post I explain a bit more about this blue light filter, the science backing its inclusion, and how to enable it in Ubuntu.
Night Light was first introduced in GNOME 3.24 so you need to be using Ubuntu 17.10 or later to follow along with the steps in this guide.
Still using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS? You can get similar functionality to Night Light by installing Redshift from the Software Center.
Why Enable Night Light on Ubuntu?
iPhone, iPad or macOS users already have access to a blue light filter feature called Night Shift; newer versions of Android offer Night Mode; and never one to miss a bandwagon, Microsoft followed by bringing Night Time to Windows 10 and 11.
Studies suggest exposure to blue light in the evening makes it harder to fall asleep
The Night Light feature Ubuntu has works the same way: it makes the screen warmer (more orange) after sunset thereby reducing the amount of blue light emitted by your laptop screen or monitor display.
But why is blue light bad, and according to whom?
Well, science.
A slew of studies show that exposure to blue light in the evening makes it harder to fall asleep. This is because blue light disrupts the circadian rhythms that manage our body clock to a greater extent than other wavelengths found in artificial light.
With the backing of good, peer-reviewed studies, blue light filters have gone mainstream and are no longer a niche life hack known to late-night coders and over-worked, under-fed writers.
When enabled, Ubuntu Night Light warms the temperature of your display after sunset to reduce the amount of blue light and thereby reduce the to your internal body clock, keeping your sleepy vibes ticking along nicely.
In the morning, the display returns to its normal colour settings.
Night Light in Ubuntu is a system feature available out-of-the-box, so there’s no app to install. Plus, once Night Light is enabled in Ubuntu it can automatically kick-in, so you don’t need to remember to go and turn it on.
Newer versions of Ubuntu provide more control over Night Light, such as warmth intensity, setting a manual/custom schedule (if you want it to start/stop at specific times), and offer a quick toggle to turn it on at any time, irrespective of other settings.
How to Turn on Night Light
You need to be running Ubuntu 17.10 (or later) with the GNOME Shell desktop environment. The feature will in both Wayland and Xorg sessions, and take effect across multiple monitors.
To get it set up you need to toggle Night Light on from the Displays section of the Settings app:
- Open Settings
- Navigate to Devices > Display
- Slide the Night Light toggle to ‘on’
Here you can set your own custom schedule for the feature to adhere to or, like I’d recommend, enable Night Light automatically from sunset to sunrise.
And that’s all you have to do.
The feature kicks in automatically at sunset, gradually warming your display during the evening.
This night mode feature isn’t limited to your primary display either. GNOME’s color temperature feature will also apply to any external monitors you have connected too.
When the feature is active you’ll see a moon icon in the Status Menu.
You can temporarily disable the feature or turn it off completely using the menu options presented in the Status Menu.
Is this a feature you’ll be using? Let me know in the comments!