Apple is finally bringing its anti-insomnia 'Night Shift' mode to MacBooks and Macs

The harsh blue-white glow of computer screens is often blamed for insomnia. Used late at night, the glare of laptops and phones can upset the body's circadian rhythm, making it hard to sleep.

Apple's iPhone has an optional feature that tries to prevent this, by tinting the phone's screen orange during night time hours. The feature - called Night Shift - is now coming to its MacBooks and desktops computers. MacRumors reports that a version of Night Shift is included in a beta version of macOS, its desktop operating system - indicating that Apple plans to release it to all users at some point in the future.

Apple isn't the first organisation to come up with this idea, of course. There's a third-party app called F.lux that does the same thing, and was actually shut down by Apple on iOS before it launched Night Shift for the first time.

F.lux is also already available for macOS, and I currently use it. It's pretty good! Even if the white glow doesn't disrupt your sleep, it's still much more pleasant to use an orange-tinted screen late at night (although it does look a little strange at first).

If you're watching a film or editing photos you can easily turn it off, but for casual use and reading, it's much less harsh on the eyes.

It's not clear how Night Shift for macOS will differ from F.lux - but I'll definitely be giving it a go.