Windows 11 Night Light: Turn On, Schedule and Fix Greyed Out

Bright, bluish screens late in the evening are hard on the eyes, and many people find warmer colours more comfortable before bed. Windows 11 Night light does exactly that: it shifts the whole display towards amber, either when you switch it on or automatically on a schedule. This guide shows how to turn it on, choose the strength, set a schedule that actually works, and fix the common problems, such as a greyed-out switch or a schedule that never starts.

The steps apply to Windows 11 version 24H2, 25H2 and 26H2.

Turn Night light on

From Quick Settings (fastest):

1. Select the network, volume or battery icon at the right end of the taskbar, or press Windows key + A.
2. Select the Night light tile. Select it again to turn it off.

If the tile is missing, select the pencil icon, choose Add and pick Night light.

From Settings:

1. Go to Start > Settings > System > Display.
2. Turn on Night light, or select the arrow next to it to open the options.

Set the strength

On the Night light page, Microsoft describes the Strength slider as adjusting the intensity of the blue light reduction. Further right is warmer and more orange. Start around the middle and adjust over a few evenings; very high values make colours look strongly orange, which is fine for reading but bad for photo editing.

Select Turn on now on the same page to preview the effect without waiting for the schedule.

Schedule Night light

1. On the Night light page, turn on Schedule night light.
2. Choose either:
   • Sunset to sunrise: follows local sunset and sunrise times, which change through the year.
   • Set hours: enter your own Turn on and Turn off times, for example 21:00 to 07:00.

Sunset to sunrise needs your location. Windows works out sunset from where you are. If location services are off, the option may be unavailable or not work. Turn on Settings > Privacy & security > Location > Location services, or simply use Set hours. Our location privacy checklist explains what location access means.

Night light greyed out or not working

Microsoft’s display page gives two reasons for a greyed-out toggle:

• The display driver needs updating. Install updates in Settings > Windows Update, including Advanced options > Optional updates, or get the current driver from the PC or graphics card maker. See Windows 11 graphics drivers.
• Certain drivers do not support it. Microsoft names DisplayLink and Basic Display. If Device Manager shows Microsoft Basic Display Adapter under Display adapters, Windows is using a fallback driver; installing the proper graphics driver brings Night light back. Monitors on DisplayLink USB docks usually cannot use Night light.

Other things to try:

1. Restart the graphics driver with Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B; the screen flickers briefly.
2. Restart the PC after a driver update.
3. Check the time and time zone in Settings > Time & language > Date & time. A wrong time zone makes the schedule start at the wrong time.
4. Check for a maker’s display app. Some PCs ship with their own colour or eye-care utility that overrides Windows’ colour settings. Turn its eye-care mode off if you prefer Windows Night light, so the two do not fight.

Does Night light help you sleep?

Night light reduces the blue part of the screen’s light, which many people find more comfortable in the evening. Whether it improves sleep is a question for health research rather than Windows settings, and Microsoft’s documentation describes it simply as reducing blue light. What helps most in practice is lowering brightness in a dark room, putting the screen away a while before bed, and keeping the display from lighting up the room at night with a sensible screen timeout.

Multiple monitors

Night light applies to the displays driven by your graphics hardware, so on a desktop with two monitors both normally warm up together. If one monitor stays blue, check how it is connected: monitors on USB docks using DisplayLink are a common exception, as Microsoft notes. Our Windows 11 multiple monitors guide covers display setup.

Night light, HDR and colour accuracy

On HDR displays, Night light can look different from standard displays. If colours look oddly saturated or tinted, lower the Strength slider. For HDR settings in general, see Microsoft’s HDR settings page and our Windows 11 HDR settings checklist.

Turn Night light off when colour matters: photo or video editing, choosing paint colours, or calibrating a monitor. Colour profiles are covered in Windows 11 color profile.

Brightness settings that work alongside it

The same Display page holds settings that affect evening comfort:

• Brightness: lower it at night; the slider may be missing on desktop PCs with external monitors, where you use the monitor’s own buttons.
• Change brightness automatically when lighting changes: uses the light sensor on many laptops.
• Content adaptive brightness: Microsoft explains that some PCs adjust brightness and contrast based on what is on screen; options are Off, Always or On Battery Only.

Night light vs dark mode vs colour filters

Feature	What it changes	Where
Night light	Colour temperature of the whole screen	Settings > System > Display
Dark mode	Windows and app backgrounds	Settings > Personalization > Colors
Colour filters	Accessibility colour adjustments, such as greyscale	Settings > Accessibility > Color filters

Combine Night light with dark mode in Windows 11 for the most comfortable evening setup, and a shorter screen timeout so the display switches off when you step away. For other display options, see the Windows 11 display settings checklist and our graphics and display hub.

If the screen is still too bright at night, see our guide to adjust screen brightness in Windows 11, including the automatic brightness options.