How to toggle your Chromebook’s night light filter or put it on a schedule

Anyone hoping to save their eyesight late at night can, of course, toggle dark mode on their Chromebook, but did you know there’s another way to save your vision without sacrificing the light mode theme if you’re a fan of it? Yep, it’s called ‘Night light’.

Goodbye, blue light

This feature is a halogen screen filter that overlays your display and rids you of ‘blue light’, which has been shown to keep you up at night if you have too much of it before bedtime. Windows users are familiar with ‘Fl.ux’, and similar third party software that does this from way back, but nowadays, such features are built into all major operating systems, including chromeOS!

Today, I’m going to show you not only how to toggle it on your laptop, but also how to set it from sunset to sunrise, and even on a specific schedule that suits your habits. Let me know in the comments if you use this, or if you just turn your screen brightness down and stay in dark mode for your shelf and UI.

How to toggle your Chromebook’s Night Light

To get started, just visit the clock at the bottom right of your Chromebook’s shelf and click it. Then, you’ll see a brightness slider just below the volume slider. To the far right, you’ll see a right-facing arrow. Selecting that will reveal settings specific to your display.

If you notice, this is where Google now stores your ‘Dark theme’ option, as well as the ‘Night Light’ we’re discussing today. Simply click one or the other or even both to toggle them on or off. If it’s on, it will say so, and the tile will be lit up with the Material You accent color. If it’s off, it will say so, and be grey instead.

Do you see that cogwheel or gear icon at the top right of the Quick Settings ‘Display’ section above? Clicking it will take you not only to your Chromebook’s Settings app, but specifically to the ‘Display’ section, saving you precious time navigating manually.

How to put your Night Light on a schedule

At the bottom of the body of this Device > Displays settings page, you’ll see the Night Light and its toggle. You can turn it on or off here as well, or set its ‘Schedule’ from ‘Never’, to ‘Sunset to Sunrise’. This will ensure that your night light will automatically turn itself on and off when the sun goes down and comes back up in your region.

Did you know?

If you set your Chromebook’s Night Light to ‘Sunset to sunrise’, it will automatically adjust for daylight savings time!

The second setting here, should you prefer it not to be turned on at sunset while you’re in the middle of something before bed is a custom schedule. Let’s discuss that next. Choosing this option from the dropdown will reveal a slider that goes from 6:00 PM today to 6:00 PM tomorrow.

All you’ve got to do here is click and hold your mouse or finger on the first colored dot on the timeline and drag it to the left or right to set the start time for your Night Light. Then, do the same for the second colored dot on the timeline to set the end time – that’s it!

It really is that simple. Now, whether you toggle it on or off manually, it will do so on its own in accordance with the new schedule you just set. However, it’s important to note that you can, in fact, toggle it manually at any time, and your decision will override the Chromebook’s given programming – enjoy!

I just want the steps

1. Click the clock at the bottom right of your Chromebook shelf
2. Click the right facing arrow to the right of your brightness slider
3. Toggle Dark theme or Night Light manually
4. Click the cogwheel at the top right of the Quick Settings Display menu
5. Choose ‘Custom’ or ‘Sunset to sunrise’ from the Night Light dropdown
6. Drag the start and end times on the timeline to manually set a schedule
7. Enjoy!