How Blue Light from Your Electronic Gadgets Harms Your Health

What is blue light?

Blue light is part of the sun’s spectrum of emitted light. It’s like UV rays, but unlike UV rays which are invisible, blue light is visible. More specifically, blue light is a short wave, high frequency and high energy light in the visible spectrum. On the good side, blue light gets you in touch with your environment. It suppresses melatonin (sleep hormone) secretion in your brain so you stay awake, alert and able to do tasks…during the day. But it becomes harmful at night because it disrupts your circadian rhythm and can also delay REM sleep.

Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal alarm clock. It tells you when to sleep and wake up (or press the snooze button). When your body encounters a lot of blue light through your eyes at night (electronic gadgets and LED bulbs), it turns off your internal alarm clock. The result during the following day? You become sleepy, irritable, and moody translating to less efficiency at work. These are just the short-term effects.

Here’s our list of everyday things which emit blue light:

That includes the electronic gadget you’re using to view and read this article!

The Negative Side of Blue Light

We now know that short-wave blue light is the most potent melatonin suppressor (of the different wavelengths in the light spectrum) thereby disrupting our sleep. What we don’t know, is that blue light and the suppression of our melatonin also has the following (the long-term effects):

Increases your risk of developing certain types of cancers (breast and prostate).
Depresses your immune system making you vulnerable to infections.
Makes you susceptible to developing cardio-metabolic diseases like metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus type 2, obesity, and heart disease.

Blue light is implicated in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This means that blue light may play a hand in partially decreasing your vision. It happens when blue light strikes your retina, the part at the back of your eye that provides your vision.

How to minimise the harmful effects of blue light withOUT mutilating or throwing away your electronic gadgets

There are some programs and applications you can install on your electronic gadgets which automatically dim or brighten your screen display. Try them out. One of these is called f.flux and its adjusts your computer screens light and colour in line with the sunrise and sunset times in your area. There are also similar apps for smart phones and tablets.
Rest your eye muscles once in awhile. Take breaks from the screen. Ophthalmologists recommend that you rest your eyes at least every 20 minutes when you’re reading from an electronic gadget. Just close them for a minute away from the screen. Remember the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, take a break and look at something else for at least 20 seconds at an approximate distance of 20 feet away.

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Don’t forget to blink! If you don’t blink enough, your eyes can dry out and become irritated. Blinking more can help to reduce the strain on your eyes.
Decrease screen time. Limit it to two hours then take a break to do something else. This applies to your children’s TV time and your late night Net surfing.
Change the background colour of your computer to cool gray instead of white. Adjust text size so you can easily see and read text without squinting or moving close to the screen.
Reduce glare. Turning down the brightness of your screen and using an anti-glare screen filter can help.
Use dim red or amber lights in the evening before you go to sleep. They have the least power to suppress melatonin secretion.
Avoid staring at bright screens 2 hours before you go to bed. Don’t fall asleep in front of your computer or TV screen.
Use amber lens glasses when the sun sets. They’re useful in blocking out blue light when you work at night. They also improve your mood by evoking significant physiologic responses. What? You don’t think amber glasses so ‘cool’ looking? Not to worry, there’s a new type of lens which gives the same protection without the amber colour. Speak to an eye specialist near you.

So while you can’t blame all your eye problems on blue light exposure, it can certainly contribute to poor health. The best thing you can do is to minimise the time you spend on your electronic devices, particularly two hours before bedtime. Technology does have its rewards. Unfortunately, there’s often a penalty or payback that goes along with it. Smarten up.