Just bekause you believe it doesn't mean you have to obey it
Science Memes
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
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Miscellaneous
How are you supposed to stop being sleepy in the morning without pulling out your phone.
I believe what science is saying. I'm just not going to follow it. If I try to sleep without reading something my brain will start ruminating on things and then I'm definitely not getting to sleep. All my reading materials are on a screen.
I tried buying more physical books. I have a small stack of it, but I can't motivate myself to actually keep reading them. And there's always the danger that I find a page turner that'll keep me reading the entire night ...
It's not a settled issue. There are research papers that show evidence that blue light affects sleep, which is not the same thing as blue light makes your sleep worse.
So does it make sleep better?
I just listen to podcasts at a volume low enough that I have to try to listen, tires my brain out
For me i trained my mind to quiet when i hear wreck of the edmund fitzgerald. I also use sleep talk down videos, audio only, to distract my brain long enough for sleep to strangle it into submission to avoid yhe darkness.
I believe science, that's why I use my tablet instead
Also, FYI, when scientists say "blue light" they don't mean literally the colour blue, they mean short wavelength light typically emitted by LEDs.
As far as the hue goes, the results in animal testing have been inconsistent, there's a paper from 2022 that says it has no influence, and this one from 2020 that actually found the opposite to be the case https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31368-5
In my personal experience I do the exact opposite of all conventional advice as admittedly a diagnosed ADHDer.
I cannot sleep without a good scroll and never have, before phones I had books and before I could read as a child I had music and my mom to read to me.
As an adult if I keep listening to something or reading something intently while comfy I will eventually and fairly quickly fall asleep.
I also sleep much better when I sleep immediately after or while scrolling/reading/doing anything than if I try to sleep "normally".
The number one way for me personally not to fall asleep is to "try" to sleep. Any sort of "ritual" around sleeping or attempt to deprive myself of stimulation and my mind will go pretty crazy with infinite thoughts and infinite random bullshit and I will fling out of bed in an hour full of energy and start projects, after working on something for 10-20 min I'll feel sleepy again and could even fall asleep while doing them easily, much more so than in plain dark.
It also helps me to not have any sort of ritual and just sleep whenever I feel sleepy if the circumstances allow. I have no idea why or how neurotypicals have sleep schedules and I've given up on understanding it. For me, as long as I get 8 hours or so it doesn't actually matter at all when I get them, i will feel as fresh and awake waking up at 3AM as I would at 10PM or 7AM as long as I get my hours.
So I pretty much get 8 hours, and sometimes more every day and I feel nice and fresh when I wake up usually with sad exceptions during particularly rough work weeks where I end up staying up way late.
All's I'm saying is YMMV, I've never had any issues with sleep nor do I feel particularly tired, I don't drink coffee nor alcohol, but if I ever explain this to a doctor they go nuts and assume I have insomnia, they try to offer "treatment" when I literally don't have any problems with this at all.
If you ever hear that "science" says something, go digging for the source and make sure "science" is actually saying it and not just 1 dubious study that the internet has latched onto and continuously parrots while ignoring contradicting evidence.
Aye, true that, I don't think I said anything contradictory to what you replied with.
Blue light being bad is a conspiracy theory by big eyewear to sell more glasses (I'm being tongue in cheek but I think its kinda true). I don't have the link but I read some paper about how its more likely that the reduced blinking rate while watching screens is the real culprit
Weirdly I have a similar conspiracy about noise makers for children. They all tend to come with a colored light, that is super bright. While there are studies that have shown sleeping with a light when you are younger makes you 5x more likely to need corrective lenses when you are older.
https://alfredvalley.itch.io/diedream
Designed to be played before falling asleep,
I like to play chess in my head.
Science has citations, not tweets.
Just because I don't follow the recommendation doesn't mean I disbelieve it. Science also says I should eat better and exercise more and do less drugs 🤷♂️
Drugs are made with science
It's true in that almost every food item is made "with science" (university-educated food technicians, biochemists, engineers etc.) these days, but you hardly need science to make common drugs like alcohol, caffeine or nicotine. Coffee and tobacco are just plants, and fruit will spontaneously start fermenting all on their own.
It’s actually neutral on the subject of what you should do. That is for medicine and public health policy, or even personal choice.
I mean, those two things aren't mutually exclusive. I can believe the science AND ALSO engage in behaviors it says are unhealthy for me.
Science means knowing better than trusting reports that affirm preconceived notions.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/21/g-s1-55153/screens-and-sleep-maybe-not-so-bad
Me trying not to murder my partner who I love very much when her phone suddenly blasts out Instagram brain-rot at 11pm and I’m trying to maintain a vaguely healthy bedtime ritual.
Science is totally right here, I have no doubt. It's just... that I have zero regard for my own health.
I work incredibly hard during the day so it's not hard for me to fall asleep at night even if I'm staring at my phone and even if I stare at it first thing when I wake up in the morning. My circadian rhythms cannot be defeated. I love sleeping all night & working me arse off all day.
I get why you shouldn't use it before bed but why not after waking up? If it keeps you awake shouldn't it help you wake up?
Just because I believe doesn't mean I listen.
It's a matter of effort vs reward. Will it make it easier to sleep? Yes. Will it make it easier enough to be worth not using my phone? No.
Me using phones : wow, I can sleep at 1am, great.
Me "just going to bed" : great, it's 4am and I'm still overthinking my shortcomings!
If's hard to believe when my circadian rhythm was still fucked long before I had a screen I could take to bed.
I've been trying to talk my wife into dropping the brightness to 50% for years. Her phone is so bright it keeps ME up at night on the other side of the bed. I have to set up a light shield to go to sleep :P
Don't call me put like this just after I wake up!