The 4 Best Screen Dimming Apps for Android

Studies show that exposure to blue light at night — the kind given off by almost every device with a backlit screen — can disrupt your natural sleep cycle. Blue light keeps you awake and alert by suppressing melatonin production. At the very least this means you’re not waking up feeling well rested in the morning, but preliminary research indicates there may be a link between melatonin suppression and other health risks such as cancer and diabetes.

If you like to cozy up with your phone before getting some shut eye, using a screen dimmer may counteract the harmful effects of blue light and give you a better night’s rest. Here are a few of our favorites.

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Twilight

Twilight adapts the highly popular desktop application f.lux for use on mobile devices. It works to filter blue light by changing the hue and dimming the screen of your device gradually throughout the day. During daytime hours, your phone appears normal, but in the evening the screen will start to take on a reddish overlay that gets darker as the night progresses. It takes a little getting used to, but is well worth it.

CF.lumen

CF.lumen acts much like Twilight but with one small difference: it uses the times of sunrise and sunset at your location to dim the screen and apply a blue light filter. The app also offers enhancements for color blindness. Rooted users gain access to more powerful features, though installation requires advanced technical knowledge.

Lux

Unlike other auto-dimming apps, Lux responds to your environment, not just the time of day. Its pre-set configurations give you precision control over how and when it dynamically adjusts brightness. If that wasn’t cool enough, the link tool lets you teach it how you want it to respond. Another neat feature it offers is sub-zero brightness, or the ability to darken more than your phone’s lowest brightness setting. This not only prevents eye-strain, it helps extend your battery life as well.

Cobrets (Configurable Brightness Presets)

The Cobrets widget offers a handful of predefined configurations. Among them is a night filter that sets your phone’s brightness lower than the system’s default and a diurnal filter that makes your screen less straining in dark environments. Each setting comes with several customization options so you can tailor them to your liking.

Using multiple screen dimming apps is not recommended, as they may conflict. Try one at a time and see which one works best for you. While you are protecting your health with one of these apps, let PSafe Total protect your phone. With its antivirus software and advanced protection, PSafe keeps your Android safe from virtual (virus) and physical (theft) threats.