Photon Quiet Hours: A Lab-Style Evening Light Protocol to Shorten Onset Latency

You prefer schematics over slogans. Photon Quiet Hours gives hobbyists a precise, test-repeatable framework for evening light discipline that reliably compresses time-to-lights-out. The protocol specifies luminance ceilings (melanopic lux targets), color-temperature ramps (Kelvin waypoints), screen-nit caps, distance rules, and content-arousal filters—plus automation schedules that enforce the plan without micromanaging. Each module includes exact durations, intensities, and pass/fail checkpoints so you can iterate like a mini experiment and log results with confidence.

You’ll implement a staged taper: ambient lighting shift, display transforms (grayscale, warm spectrum), notification triage, and a cognitive off-ramp that prevents late-night task looping. Environment and device settings are mapped to a one-page timing grid, with recovery flows for travel, social late nights, and shift-skewed weeks. Metrics focus on onset latency, wake-after-onset, and morning clarity—simple numbers that tell you if the system is working.

If you love dialing in processes until they lock, this is your blueprint: clean, measurable, repeatable. Run it tonight, record the delta tomorrow, and tune parameters across the week for a stable, predictable lights-out.