How to Use Apple’s New Night Shift Feature

Apple just released iOS 9.3: the company’s biggest upgrade to its mobile operating system since iOS 9.0 was launched last year. With it came Night Shift, a feature that shifts the display to warmer colors in the evening, reducing the amount of blue light emitted from the device. Blue light has a negative impact on sleep by disrupting the body’s circadian rhythm.

Night Shift uses your iPhone or iPad’s clock and geolocation information to determine when to shift the display to warmer colors in the evening, the display returns to its regular and cooler settings after sunrise.

Settings for Night Shift are found in Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Night Shift. One can choose sunrise and sunset, or manually specify start and end times. The display’s color temperature may be adjusted with a slider control.

The Night Shift feature can also be turned on and off from the iOS Control Center via a new icon for the feature. This is useful for times when you need to turn off the feature, if for example it came on too early for your bedtime or if you are working on graphics or editing a photograph.

The feature carries with it multiple benefits. I’ve been testing Night Shift since the start of the year and it reduces eyestrain at night and lessens the impact of blue light on sleeplessness. In addition, it carries with it an extra bonus: if you’ve ever been kept up by the person you share a bed with (or an airplane even), it reduces the disruptive effect of a bright display to those around you.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)