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Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

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Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#131

Post by agilob »

bubblethink wrote: post #25
lawkwok wrote: post #7

Phillips Hue lights are something you think is a luxury until you get them. The ability to have light change colour temperature or dim depending on the time is so calming. Whenever I revert back to the non—colour-temperature-adjusted light, I feel like I’m in an operating room. The only thing I would note is that they are dimmer than regular lights. Having dim lights in the middle of the day really makes me sleepy.

Is there any friendly alternative to these home automation things ? I would like to try some stuff but I don't want to spend a weekend creating vlans or fighting google play services, alexa etc.

Ikea tradfri it's a lot cheaper than hue and mobile app has modes built in for lights and blinds

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#132

Post by alimov »

DeWilde wrote: post #128

Dark mode is actually bad for your eyes as it causes more strain. Reading white letters on a black back ground is harder than reading black letters on a white background. F.lux and similar software are a better alternative as they just increase the warmth of the screen, which, at least for me, eliminates that feeling of eye pain when computing at night.

Does this apply to letters of different colors? (Non-white letters on darker backgrounds?)

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#133

Post by brnt »

lawkwok wrote: post #7

Phillips Hue lights are something you think is a luxury until you get them. The ability to have light change colour temperature or dim depending on the time is so calming. Whenever I revert back to the non—colour-temperature-adjusted light, I feel like I’m in an operating room. The only thing I would note is that they are dimmer than regular lights. Having dim lights in the middle of the day really makes me sleepy.

So, I'm a low light kinda person anyway. The best light are light turned off. I can't stand the amount of light some (many?) switch on at the earliest sign of evening, and I guard my stash of low power bulbs (finding ones under 3W is hard!) like it's my first born. Apart from the kitchen, my house has no bright white lights anywhere.

What would the utility of smart bulbs for someone like me be?

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#134

Post by Youden »

kuschku wrote: post #4

I can’t understand people who prefer blackout curtains over rolladen. Rolladen are the best for getting perfect darkness at any time of day Good to know that the author appreciates them as well

Most of the Rollladen I've encountered leak a decent amount of light, so it makes sense to have blackout curtains in front of the Rollladen.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#135

Post by m34 »

dbttdft wrote: post #105
SR2Z wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phillips Hue bulbs are locally controllable and expose a REST API through their bridge.

The last thing I want to know about my lightbulb is that it has a REST API. Now, hearing that it is "smart" is just inconceivable.

It is the bridge that provides the REST API, not the bulbs.

Having a REST API means the complete setup is easier to tinker with through a defined protocol and not having to resort to hack with the bulbs or any zigbee/low-level things.

I used this to play a bed time indication sequence on multiple bulbs in the living room from MIDI notes.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#136

Post by benreesman »

ehnto wrote: post #122
benreesman wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try to walk around every 15 30 minutes and stuff. My workflow is especially dangerous in this regard because I do almost everything in the terminal so it’s especially easy to get sucked in. I’ve known sightless hackers who were awesome, it’s definitely not game over, but it also definitely slows you down. For most hackers our eyes and the musculature starting all the way back in your lower spine through to your fin…

It is a bummer that we can often see neglect in that area even amongst people really passionate about computing. Apologies for the anecdote. I know for myself, I sometimes felt a stigma to investing in "nerdy" equipment designed to make computing more sustainable. Almost like if I don't commit to the furniture maybe I will become that out and about person I think I should be. Funnily enough, it was only after I had g…

I tend to offset expensive purchases with cheap ones. Expensive chair, cheap as hell desk. Expensive monitor, cheap computer. Expensive keyboard, cheap mouse. You can get a really nice workstation if you choose the expensive parts deliberately for the ergonomics.

I don’t want to speak for you but you said one or two things that echo with me: by hyper-optimizing my workstation to be the most comfortable place in my house I think I sort of feed a tendency to hide from difficult parts of life by just working too much.

I also think you’re onto something about activity, particularly outdoor activity being the best counterweight to that tendency, I just struggle to get an active routine going from a cold start.

Usually if I’m active I can keep it that way, but whether it’s C19 lockdown or a death in the family, it’s very easy to get knocked back into that sedentary state.

Any of that resonate?

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#137

Post by DeWilde »

alimov wrote: post #132
DeWilde wrote: post #128

Dark mode is actually bad for your eyes as it causes more strain. Reading white letters on a black back ground is harder than reading black letters on a white background. F.lux and similar software are a better alternative as they just increase the warmth of the screen, which, at least for me, eliminates that feeling of eye pain when computing at night.

Does this apply to letters of different colors? (Non-white letters on darker backgrounds?)

According to this [0] it seems to be defined as dark characters and bright backgrounds. So probably not just strictly black and white colors.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23654206/

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#138

Post by goodguyamercunt »

benreesman wrote: post #59

At the risk of sparking some kind of Apple flame war: I went to the optometrist recently and my vision had abruptly tanked, I have a much stronger prescription than a year ago. “Have you been pulling long screen hours?” “Yeah. Very long.” “Well that’s why.” “Outside of cutting screen hours, is there anything else I can do?” “Get the highest DPI display you can afford and crank up the font size. Won’t help much, but i…

I don't want to sound stupid but just because a single doctor said it doesn't make it true.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#139

Post by nicbou »

Also don’t just drench the space in light. Small accent lights (like a desk lamp) make a space so much cosier. I have small lamps in every corner and they’re great. They all have warm light.

In the bedroom I have a dimmable lamp that can be scarcely brighter than candle. It’s great for reading, and for not blinding myself when I need to find something on the bedside table.

Like others, I recommend a big monitor. I use MonitorControl on Mac to adjust it automatically and manually. Night Shift and other orange light filters are a godsend.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#140

Post by viceroyalbean »

friedman23 wrote: post #23

Lights are extremely powerful but people always seem to focus on only half the equation. Waking up to light is a million times better than waking up to sound. My lights dim and turn off around 9:30pm and turn on at 5:30 am and brighten until 6:00 am. I wake up without any grogginess at all. It's amazing.

Sleep as android's automation feature coupled with home assistant allows me to do things like turn on the lights when my alarm turns on (or offset by some time).
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