"There's much more than meets the eye to how we perceive light, researchers have learned in recent years. The latest revelation: blue light helps fend off drowsiness in the middle of the night."

I never liked the bright blue color of the turbopascal or freepascal IDE, because it was too bright - and the yellow text doesn't help. But I do like darker shades of blue.

I've been a defender of Black or Dark backrounds, because it saves my eyes. Looking at a bright white screen all day isn't enjoyable. I've found darker black/gray to be much more relaxing on the eyes. However, maybe blue is an even better choice - not the turbo pascal blue - but a darker blue.

So if it is really true that blue can help the eyes, then I'm considering changing all my IDE/text editors to have blue backgrounds - a dark blue, so that all my current syntax highlighting still work (since dark blue is close enough to black that most of my current syntax color settings will still look good).

I'm also considering changing some websites that I spend a lot of time at to blue, such as this PasWiki - if there is ample evidence that supports blue as a better color. I wonder if the shade of blue is important? For example, is a darker blue just as effective as a brighter blue. I'll be doing more research on this.

I'm skeptical right now, because the test that Digg referenced was a very small study. More studies will need to be found, or done. The other risk is that blue can act like caffeine - maybe it temporarily helps one stay up, but if it prevents one from sleeping when their body really needs sleep, it may not be healthy to use all the time. Maybe it should be used in emergency situations to finish projects that need to be finished - or to get that extra boost occassionally.