Light plays an enormous role in our lives. Without it, we could not see and everything would be plunged into darkness. Light itself is very complex even though at first glance it doesn’t appear to be. The light we normally see is part of the visible spectrum of light meaning our eyes can see it. However, there are other types of light that we cannot see with our eyes.
The most well known of these is ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet exposure is known to cause damage to the your skin in the form of sunburn as well as greatly increasing the chance you might develop a skin cancer such as melanoma. We quite often apply sunblock lotion to reduce exposure to ultraviolet light or altogether avoid going out in direct sunlight particularly between the hours of 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. reduce our exposure. While the danger of ultraviolet light is quite evident, most people do not realize that we face another with blue light in our smartphones and mobile devices.
What Exactly is Blue Light?
If you ever had a science experiment when you were younger where you had shoot a white beam of light into a prism (a triangular piece of glass), you would know that the prism divides the white light into different colors of light. A similar thing happens when we see a rainbow but in this case it’s water vapor that’s refracting the light into the different colors. Blue light (consisting of blue, indigo, and violet) is part of the visible light spectrum along red, orange, yellow, and green. What people don’t know about visible light is that each color of light has different wavelengths and energy levels.
There is usually an inverse relationship between how the long wavelength is compared to the level of energy associated with the light. Light that is on the red of the spectrum has a much longer wavelength but also less energy associated with it. The light located closer to the violet spectrum has much shorter wavelengths but significantly more energy associated with it. Ultraviolet light which is not part of the visible light spectrum has even shorter wavelengths and higher energy compared to blue light.
What’s Wrong with Blue Light?
We typically use smartphones and mobile devices all the time quite often in close proximity to our faces. While regular sunlight generates lots of blue light, our devices also produce it as well. Sustained exposure to higher energy levels found in blue light can cause pose several significant health issues.
Eye Strain
Your mom might have been right about not putting your face too close to a screen. It can strain your eyes. Blue light compared to other forms of light lower on the visible light spectrum is not focused well. The biggest issue here is that the lack of focus reduces contrast making it harder for your eyes to see.
Cause Macular Degeneration
The American Macular Degeneration Foundation has stated that blue light can cause significant damage to the retina which could also include a high chance for developing Macular Degeneration. The macula is a central portion of your eye’s retina that is often responsible for visible acuity. Energy or radiation from blue light can cause this section to degenerate causing a loss of vision in people.
Difficulties Sleeping
Melatonin is a hormone in humans and animals that helps regulate sleep cycles. It is no wonder why some people who have problems sleeping may take melatonin supplements to help them sleep or try walking outside more to increase their exposure to natural blue light that helps with melatonin production. Artificial blue light on the other hand on smartphones and mobile device can interfere in the production and release of melatonin reducing the quality of sleep.
How to Protect Ourselves?
We use our smartphones and digital the devices everyday. It can be unavoidable to actually to stop using them altogether. The best solution to danger of blue light is quite simple. The artificial blue light has to be virtually filtered or physically blocked in some way.
The easiest way to do this is to see if your phone or device has an option to turn on a blue light filter. Phones such as Samsung Galaxy S7 and S8 has this feature already built into the operating system. Many other devices also have this option to turn on this option. If this is not available in your device, there are many apps you can download on both the Google Play Store and the iTunes App Store that can enable blue light filtering.
The other way to cut down on blue light exposure is to physically block the blue light from entering your eyes. Most people are familiar with sunglasses that protect against ultraviolet rays from sun. Similarly, there are glasses you can wear when using your devices that protect your from blue light.
Blue light is responsible for giving color to many beautiful things in our world like the sky and sea. If naturally produced by the sun, it aids in the creation of melatonin helping us sleep better. However, artificial blue light produced by smartphones, tablets, televisions, and other devices strain our eyes, damage our retinas causing macular degeneration, and disrupt our sleep. By using programs to filter on our devices and glasses to block blue light, we can safely use our devices without worry.
Sources: 1,2,3,4 Images: 1,2,3,4
