Blocking short-wavelength component of the visible light emitted by smartphones’ screens improves human sleep quality
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: It has been shown that short-wavelength blue component of the visible light spectrum can alter the circadian rhythm and suppress the level of melatonin hormone. The short-wavelength light emitted by smartphones' screens can affect the sleep quality of the people who use these devices at night through suppression of melatonin. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we examined the effects of covering the screens of smartphones with different filters (changing the effective wavelength of the light) on sleep delay time in 43 healthy students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Volunteer students were asked to go to bed at 23:00 and to use their mobile phones in bed for watching a natural life documentary movie for 60 minutes. No filter was used for one night while amber and blue filters were used for other 2 nights. Photospectrometry method was used to determine the output spectrum of the light passing through the filters used for covering the screens of the mobile phones. The order for utilizing amber or blue filters or using no filter was selected randomly. After 1 hour, the participants were asked to record their sleep delay time measured by a modified form of sleep time record sheet. RESULTS: The mean sleep delay time for the "no-filter" night was 20.84±9.15 minutes, while the sleep delay times for the nights with amber and blue filters were 15.26±1.04 and 26.33±1.59 minutes, respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings obtained in this study support this hypothesis that blue light possibly suppresses the secretion of melatonin more than the longer wavelengths of the visible light spectrum. Using amber filter in this study significantly improved the sleep quality. Altogether, these findings lead us to this conclusion that blocking the short-wavelength component of the light emitted by smartphones' screens improves human sleep.
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Blue light filtering software can reduce some of the negative effects of evening short-wavelength light.
“some studies were able to show that blue light filtering software can indeed reduce some of the negative effects of evening short-wavelength light [43,44,45]”
From Preliminary Results: The Impact of Smartphone Use and Short-Wavelength Light during the Evening on Circadian Rhythm, Sleep and Alertness (2021) · cites this paper as [45]
The Abstract’s Methods and Results report that students using amber filters over smartphone screens before bed had shorter sleep-delay times than on a no-filter night. This supports the benefit of filtering short-wavelength light, but the study tested physical screen filters, not blue-light-filtering software. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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References 37 · Cited by 41
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [15]Mortazavi S Mosleh-Shirazi M Tavassoli A Taheri M Bagheri Z Ghalandari R A comparative study on the increased radioresistance to lethal doses of gamma rays after exposure to microwave radiation and oral intake of flaxseed oil Iranian Journal of Radiation Research 2011 9 9 14
- [27]Mortazavi SM Daiee E Yazdi A Khiabani K Kavousi A Vazirinejad R Mercury release from dental amalgam restorations after magnetic resonance imaging and following mobile phone use Pak J Biol Sci 2008 11 1142 6 10.3923/pjbs.2008.1142.1146 18819554 · DOI
- Authors
- Mortazavi, S. A. R., Parhoodeh, S., Hosseini, M. A., Arabi, H., Malakooti, H., Nematollahi, S., Mortazavi, G., Darvish, L., & Mortazavi, S. M. J.
- Affiliations
- Islamic Azad University of Shiraz (IR)
- Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (IR)
- Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (IR)
- Venue
- Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering
- Publisher
- Salvia Medical Sciences Ltd
- Published
- 2018-09-05
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4Dec
- Pages
- 375-380
- ISSN
- 2251-7200 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6280115
- OpenAlex
- W2789147931
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
- Shiraz University
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Impact of Light on Environment and Health
- Keywords
- short-wavelength light, sleep quality, melatonin suppression, circadian rhythm, blue filter, light spectrum
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