It’s almost midnight. You should be asleep by now. But you are watching your favourite show on your smartphone or laptop. Tomorrow you will head to work and work on your desktop for 8 hours straight. Then you will come home and watch some YouTube videos to refresh your mind.
Doesn’t it seem like we aren’t able to catch a break from screen time? Whether you have work to do or you just do it for fun, excessive screen time is no joke to your eyes. And you may also know how your eyes feel after a never-ending session of screen time.
Humans may have evolved a lot but our body still works the same. Our eyes couldn’t tolerate blue light before and this fact has remained unchanged over the course of time. What? You don’t know what blue light is? Well, to put it simply, it is one of the most common reasons behind the sufferings of your eyes.
Screen Time Bad For Your Eyes
What is Blue Light?
How does sunlight appear to your eyes? White? Well, it has blue light in it. It is one of the visible lights that the human eye could see.
Blue wavelengths which are supposed to be helpful in the daylight are extremely evil and dangerous when they are emitted by your devices. The electronic devices and energy-efficient lighting increase blue light harm even more so when the sun goes down.
Blue light has short wavelengths so they are scattered pretty easily. And the high-energy rays are more intense on the eyes than UVA or UVB rays.
We know that blue light is straight-up evil. But you can cut down its effects by wearing glasses that block this light. You can get online glasses or buy them from your nearby eyewear store. As long as they offer blue light protection, you don’t need to be afraid of your screens.
Harms of Blue Light
Blue light is not your friend. And you could tell this by the following things it does to your eyes.
Eyestrain
As we have put, blue light is easily scattered. It creates digital noise when you are using your screens. It hampers the visual performance by reducing the screen contrast. As a result, your eyes exert more efforts to see the small letter on the screen clearly.
People who indulge in action-oriented games need extra visual attention to focus on the moving images on the screen. Like today, I was typing a query for “Weight loss Write for us” again and again and a time comes when I feel like losing focusing things. Also, If you are not using the right gaming glasses, your eyes will start to feel tired in no time.
Sleep Disruption
Blue light is said to interfere with the release of the melatonin hormone. This hormone controls our sleep/wake cycle. During the night in the absence of sunlight, our body releases high levels of melatonin hormone to make us feel sleepy.
But, blue light blocks its production and disturbs our sleep/wake cycle. Using devices all throughout the day and then at night can cause this problem.
Eye Disorders
If you think that blue light effects are just limited to poor sleep and hurting eyes, you need to change your mind. Exposure to prolonged periods of blue light can trigger eye disorders such as macular degeneration or cataracts over the course of time.
Blue light damages your macula (the part that forms your central vision). Thus, the images appear blurry to you and if you fail to address this problem by the right time, it will cost you your vision in the future.
If you want to avoid these problems, wear blue light filter glasses to prevent your peepers from screen damage. These glasses have high-end lenses made with blue cut technology. They absorb the blue rays and keep them away from your eyes.
What Preventive Measures Can You Take?
Apart from wearing blue light or gaming glasses, you may also use the following tips to reduce the screen time effects on your eyes:
- Take short breaks when working on laptops or computers.
- Practice eye exercises or eye yoga to grease the focusing ability of your eyes. This way, your eyes will be able to focus easily on the screen and won’t feel exhausted.
- Use screen filters that reduce the blue light emission.
- Make sure there is no light reflecting on your screen. It can cause glare which hampers your visual performance.
- Eat healthy food and give all the essential nutrients to your eyes.
Protecting your vision demands changes in your lifestyle. If you like to be able to see clearly for years to come, wear screen glasses and be mindful of your screen hours.
