How much does your phone’s blue light really delay your sleep?

The message that blue light from screens stops you from falling asleep is essentially a myth , albeit a very convincing one. Here’s what’s really going on. It’s one of the most pervasive messages about technology and sleep.

We’re told bright, blue light from screens prevents us from falling asleep easily. We’re told to avoid scrolling on our phones before bedtime or while in bed. We’re sold glasses to help filter out blue light.

We put our phones on “night mode” to minimise exposure to blue light. But what does the science actually tell us about the impact of bright, blue light and sleep ? When our group of sleep experts from Sweden, Australia and Israel compared scientific studies that directly tested this, we found the overall impact was close to meaningless. Sleep was disrupted, on average, by less than three minutes.

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