Before artificial lighting — and later, smartphones and computers — humans were only exposed to blue light through sunlight. In today’s post, Perception Eyecare + Eyewear discusses how blue light has affected human health and vision, and how you can protect yourself from its effects.
What Is Blue Light?
Blue light is one of the many wavelengths of light. As part of natural light, blue wavelengths are beneficial because it keeps humans awake. Blue light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, the hormone that tells the body that it’s time to sleep. This is why exposure to natural light helps make humans more alert and attentive, and can even put you in a good mood; our bodies are programmed by nature to be awake during the day and to sleep at night.
Effects of Blue Light
Exposure to blue light from artificial sources like LED lighting and electronic screens can disrupt natural sleep cycles. For people who follow strict daily routines such as fixed work hours, this can result in shorter sleep hours, which may result in accumulated fatigue. People who work night shifts are also at higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, as well as stress-related diseases.
Continued exposure to blue light can increase the risk of eye strain. Playing video games and binge-watching TV shows require long hours of staring at a screen, which results in eye fatigue. This, combined with shortened sleep hours caused by exposure to blue light, can contribute to eye strain.
How to Protect Yourself from Blue Light
Fortunately, protecting oneself from blue light does not require medication, therapy, or expensive medical procedures. The first thing you need to do is to minimize exposure to blue light at night. This means you may have to enable “do not disturb” mode on your phone two to three hours before bedtime. Use dim red lights for night lights to further reduce exposure to blue light. If you work at night or if you’re required to use computers at all times at work, ask your eye doctor or optometrist about blue light lenses for your prescription eyewear.
Perception Eyecare + Eyewear offers blue light lenses, as well as other eye care products and services. Give us a call at [company_phone]. You can also fill out our contact form to schedule an appointment.