Twilight: Blue light filter

Petr Nálevka (Urbandroid)

About this app

Are you having trouble falling asleep? Are your kids hyperactive when playing with the tablet before bed time?
Are you using your smart phone or tablet in the late evening? Are you sensitive to light during migraine?
Twilight may be a solution for you!

Recent research suggests that exposure to blue light before sleep may distort your natural (circadian) rhythm and cause inability to fall asleep.

The cause is the photoreceptor in your eyes, called Melanopsin. This receptor is sensitive to a narrow band of blue light in the 460-480nm range which may suppress Melatonin production - a hormone responsible for your healthy sleep-wake cycles.

In experimental scientific studies it has been shown an average person reading on a tablet or smart phone for a couple of hours before bed time may find their sleep delayed by about an hour. See references below..

The Twilight app makes your device screen adapt to the time of the day. It filters the flux of blue light emitted by your phone or tablet after sunset and protects your eyes with a soft and pleasant red filter. The filter intensity is smoothly adjusted to the sun cycle based on your local sunset and sunrise times.

You can also use Twilight on your Wear OS device.

Documentation
http://twilight.urbandroid.org/doc/

Get more from Twilight
1) Bed reading: Twilight is more pleasant on the eyes for night reading. Especially as it is able to lower the screen backlight far below the ability of the backligt controls on your screen

2) AMOLED screens: We have tested Twilight on an AMOLED screen for 5 years without any sign of depletion or over-burning. If properly configured Twilight causes less light emission (by enabling dimming) with more equal light distribution (dark areas of the screen such as the status bar get tinted). This may in fact increase your AMOLED screen life time.

Basics on circadian rhythm and the role of melatonin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanopsin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm_disorder

Permissions
- location - to find out your current sunset/surise times
- running apps - to stop Twilight in selected apps
- write settings - to set back-light
- network - access smartlight (Philips HUE) to shield you household light from blue

Accessibility Service

In order to filter also your notifications and lock screen the app may ask for enabling Twilight Accessibility Service. The app uses this service only to better filter your screen and does not collect any personal information. Please read more about this at https://twilight.urbandroid.org/is-twilights-accessibility-service-a-thread-to-my-privacy/

Wear OS

Twilight also syncs your Wear OS screen with your phone's filter settings. You can control filtering from a "Wear OS Tile".

Automation (Tasker or other)
https://sites.google.com/site/twilight4android/automation

Related scientific research

Amplitude Reduction and Phase Shifts of Melatonin, Cortisol and Other Circadian Rhythms after a Gradual Advance of Sleep and Light Exposure in Humans Derk-Jan Dijk, & Co 2012

Exposure to Room Light before Bedtime Suppresses Melatonin Onset and Shortens Melatonin Duration in Humans Joshua J. Gooley, Kyle Chamberlain, Kurt A. Smith & Co, 2011

Effect of Light on Human Circadian Physiology Jeanne F. Duffy, Charles A. Czeisler 2009

Efficacy of a single sequence of intermittent bright light pulses for delaying circadian phase in humans Claude Gronfier, Kenneth P. Wright, & Co 2009

Intrinsic period and light intensity determine the phase relationship between melatonin and sleep in humans Kenneth P. Wright, Claude Gronfier & Co 2009

The Impact of Sleep Timing and Bright Light Exposure on Attentional Impairment during Night Work Nayantara Santhi & Co 2008

Short-Wavelength Light Sensitivity of Circadian, Pupillary, and Visual Awareness in Humans Lacking an Outer Retina Farhan H. Zaidi & Co, 2007

Ratings and reviews

Been using this more than 3 years now and never had an issue ... Until the last 2 months. Every time I clear notifications, Twilight becomes disabled. I'm not doing anything to the app itself, just clearing notifications from the pulldown menu and, POOF! It's gone and I have to reset it all over again. It's nothing major, just super annoying having to do it 10+ times per day.

One of the few apps I use at least once everyday. If u do much reading, or simply want to experiment with how light affects your eyes, or even the mind, this is it. Extremely intuitive and user friendly. Update: I initally had a hard time figuring out some accessibility/permission issues after an update years ago, but haven't since. Easy for me to give permissions now after each update.

Love this app. Helps with my frequent headaches. Unfortunately going in between apps and the homepage will sometimes cause a spike of brightness (the filter disengages then reengages). Which is bad when my eyes are very sensitive to light. However it's still better than the 3 other filters I've tried.

What's new

- Material 3 redesign
- Multi display support
- Targeting Android 14
- Preview slider changes even when filter is not active
- Profile color indicator