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In today’s technological world, we spend a lot of time in front of screens. Children and adults spend a lot of time staring at their phones, tablet screens, computers, video game screens, and TV screens. A recent study found that adults spend six or more hours in front of digital screens. Adults who work on a computer all day spend even more time in front of digital devices. The study also found that children spend up to seven hours a day staring at a screen.
While technology makes our lives easier and helps us connect with friends and family, it can also be harmful. Digital screens emit blue light that can be harmful to your eyes and your overall well-being. Blue Optical sell a range of lenses that will protect your eyes, reducing the risk of developing cataracts early and macular degeneration that may eventually lead to blindness.
What is Blue Light?
Blue light is found in the sun’s rays, and it is everywhere. Your digital device screens also emit blue light. If you were only exposed to blue light outdoors, it wouldn’t be too serious. However, when you spend large portions of your day staring at digital screens, the blue light can be a problem.
What Are the Dangers of Blue Light?
There are a few ways that overexposure to blue light can have a negative effect on your eyes and your daily life.
Trouble sleeping: When you walk outside in the morning, the blue light from the sun helps you wake up and stay alert. Your body is designed to release melatonin when the sun goes down, which enables you to relax and fall asleep quickly.
If you spend the hours before bed staring at a digital device, your body will think that it is daytime, and your body won’t release melatonin, making it difficult to fall asleep.
If you aren’t getting enough sleep at night, you will feel tired all day. In addition, a lack of sleep can cause stress, irritability and can make it difficult to lose weight.
Eyestrain: Staring at digital devices can cause eyestrain. The blue light can make it difficult to focus, which causes your eye and muscle strain, which can cause pain and make you feel tired.
Frequent headaches: Staring at digital devices for too long causes eyestrain, which often results in headaches. If you are prone to migraines, the blue light can increase the pain and frequency of your migraines. If you get frequent migraines or take something for a headache several times a week, the blue light is to blame.
Increased risk for eye diseases: Your cornea and your eye’s lens can block out some of the sun’s harmful UV rays. Eye doctors tell their patients to wear sunglasses outdoors to protect their eyes. Unfortunately, the lens and cornea cannot filter blue light, which puts you at risk for eye diseases. The most common are cataracts. This condition affects your vision and often needs to be treated with surgery. Macular degeneration can also be caused by overexposure to blue light. This condition affects your central vision and is the leading cause of blindness.
How Can Blue Optical Lenses Help?
Blue eyeglass lenses contain a filter to keep the blue light from affecting your eyes. If you must spend the hours leading up to bedtime on a digital device, blue light glasses will filter the blue light, so your body knows that it is close to bedtime. This will allow your body to release melatonin, and you will fall asleep faster.
Wearing blue light glasses every time you use the computer or another digital device, you can avoid eyestrain, frequent headaches due to eyestrain, and your migraines will be less frequent and less severe.
Digital devices are here to stay. Most people say they could never give up their devices. People don’t want to disconnect from social media in fear they will miss something. People today prefer texting to talking on the phone. Finally, if you work on a computer all day, you cannot avoid the blue light unless you have blue light glasses.
How Do Blue Light Lenses Work?
Blue light lenses filter out the blue light, but not all of it. You need some blue light to keep you awake and maintain your circadian rhythm, which helps your body differentiate when it is time to stay awake and when it is time to be asleep.
Blue light lenses allow just enough blue light in to help your eyes feel more relaxed and prevent eyestrain and headaches while using your digital devices, but not too much that it will interfere with your body’s wake/sleep cycle.
Final Thoughts
You can reduce your exposure to blue light by taking frequent breaks from your digital devices to give your time to rest. Studies have also shown that proper workplace ergonomics can help. However, the best way to prevent overexposure to blue light is to have eyeglass lenses that are designed to filter blue light. Most experts agree that blue light lenses are the best way to avoid the issues caused by blue light. Your eye doctor can prescribe the lenses and you should notice a difference immediately.
