How does blue light affect you?
So, is staring at your screen as bad for your skin as laying out in the sun? “I wouldn’t say blue light’s unsafe, but it penetrates deeper than UVA and UVB rays,” says Garguilo. “It goes into the sub-tissue of your skin and creates a certain type of free radical. And you’re always trying to protect your skin from free radical damage.” This can lead to the breakdown of collagen and elastin and cause irritation, redness, and hyperpigmentation. “It’s like the rusting of your skin,” Garguilo explains. “If you cut open an apple and see how it starts to turn brown, that’s oxidation caused by free radical damage.”
But a bigger concern, Garguilo and Dr. Zamani agree, is that blue light, especially when viewed before bed, suppresses your body’s melatonin production and can throw off your circadian rhythm. When you’re short on sleep—valuable down time your body uses to rejuvenate cells—it can wreak havoc on your skin. “That will probably cause premature aging,” Dr. Zamani says. Maybe you don’t need to scroll through Instagram one final time before saying good night.