The results of the National Sleep Foundation’s (NSF) annual Sleep in America Poll are in and they are not good. We here are WakeMate are excited to help change that!

A whopping 63% of Americans are unhappy with their quality of sleep during the week. NSF offers a solution, but it is one that not many people will like; turn off your electronics an hour before bed.

“Our bodies take time to wind down at night. If we’ve got bright light conditions, we’re not giving ourselves a chance to get off to sleep and stay asleep.” said Allison G. Harvey, a sleep specialist and professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. “The problem is that light exposure before sleep can disrupt body rhythms and suppress the release of the hormone melatonin, which promotes sleep”, Harvey explained.

If you read or surf on your computer before bed (95% or those surveyed did) there is solution! Enter f.lux, the little app that will allow us to have our proverbial cake and eat it too. It automatically adjusts your computer’s screen to the optimal hue given the time of day so we electronics gluttons can get our tech fix and still get good sleep.

I have been using f.lux for the past 8 nights (I generally use my laptop for about 90 minutes before going to sleep) and my sleep scores have gone up about 15%! It’s still too early for anything conclusive, but it definitely seems to be doing its job.

We would love to see how much F.lux improves your sleep. If you use your computer before bed please download f.lux and tag your nights with ‘F.lux’ (more about tagging).

This entry was posted by Greg on Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.