It’s almost midnight, so you’re most likely glued to your phone, checking Facebook and Instagram and tweeting on how you aren’t able to sleep. Unbeknownst to you, one of the reasons you’re unable to get your beauty sleep is the very phone you’re holding. With the introduction of “Night Shift” on iOS 9.3, Apple is hoping that your sleep cycles won’t be interrupted by your late-night phone use, so that the next morning you can Instagram with confidence #WokeUpLikeThis.
Studies show that our cognitive functions and level of awareness vary with the hue of ambient light. When the light is “cool” — like the morning sun, for example — the brain believes it is time to stay awake; similarly, when the light is “warm” — like the sunset light — the brain understand that it’s time for some shut-eye. This has been wired into our biological construct since time immemorial. Unfortunately, your mobile phone emits a cool light, having your brain believe it isn’t time to sleep yet.
This is where the Night Shift feature of iOS 9.3 will kick it. By understanding the time of day, it will automatically warm up the light emitted by your phone to tell your brain that it shouldn’t really be awake at this hour, and therefore not mess up with your sleep cycles. It is a feature that has been introduced a long time ago by f.lux on Mac, PC, and Linux, and will now be coming to iOS 9.3.
The only issue here is that if you’re editing photos at night, you’ll be editing them on warmer colours, so it isn’t clear whether you can turn this feature on and off at will (having it as an option at the Control Centre will be welcome).
