Sleep-aiding f.lux is coming to Android (root required)

Blue light keeps you awake. It’s science. While it’s useful during the day to keep us booseted and focused, light on the blue end of the spectrum of visible light is “uniquely detrimental” to our sleep, according to Psychology Today. With many of us glued to our screens well past sunset, the transition from Concentration Mode to Sleep Mode is pretty jarring for our brains, which didn’t evolve with post-dusk light in the mix. This effect explains the massive popularity of f.lux, a computer app that gradually tilts your screen’s color away from blues and into reddish tones over the course of the evening. Now that sleep-aiding magic is coming to Android.

A similar app is currently available in the Google Play Store: Twilight. However, there’s some dispute over how effective Twilight actually is, since all it does is apply a red filter over everything. Rather than use a filter, f.lux actually accesses pixels from the GPU and desaturates all the blue, resulting in a true absence of blue light. If you’re someone who finds themselves on their smartphone all the way up until your head hits the pillow, this could be something to look into.

Right now, f.lux for Android is still in its beta stage. If you want in on the action, head on over to the f.lux forums, sign up, and ask to be added to the testing program. In the meantime, tell us your thoughts on this app. Do you use it for your computer? How well would you say it works? Let us know your take in the comments below!