While we all are well informed about the harms of UV light, awareness is somewhat missing when it comes to HEV light. What? You too haven’t heard of it before?
If you think that your eyes are only vulnerable to UV light, we hope this article will put the dangers of HEV light exposure into perspective for you.
What is HEV light?
Visible light refers to the light that can be seen by the human eye. It is present in the sunlight as well. All the colours of the rainbow are known as visible light.
Among these visible light, blue light is the one that has a short wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the more easily it gets scattered. This is why blue light is dispersed in the atmosphere making the sky appear blue.
Sunlight has both visible and invisible light which is why it appears white to our eyes. However, it contains blue waves that aren’t healthy for your eyes or overall health.
If you are a student or a working professional, you must consume a good amount of screen time every day. To access the damage it has done to your eyes, get a free eye test in the UK from the NHS or independent groups of opticians.
How is blue light from your devices dangerous?
The blue light that is emitted from your devices has the shortest wavelengths. And since you spend more hours on the screens than you spend in the daylight, our health is vulnerable to artificial blue light.
Blue light is not all things bad. In fact, the amount of blue light present in the sunlight induces alertness in your body. It also greases your cognitive functions and enhances your mood. But, when you get this light from your smartphones or computers, it does nothing but wreak havoc on your ocular health.
Effects of HEV blue light
Prolonged exposure to blue light can lead to the following issues:
Sleep disruption
As we have mentioned that natural blue light boosts alertness in your body, it’s important to know how it does that. Blue light affects your circadian rhythm by interfering with melatonin production in your body. In short, it inhibits the production of a sleep-inducing hormone and triggers wakefulness in your body.
If you’ve been glued to your screens all day, it’s obvious that you won’t be able to sleep at night. This is why it’s important to put our devices away before going to bed. Or, you can order glasses online that fight blue light. They are known as blue light glasses. This way, your devices won’t leave you sleepless.
Digital eye strain
Just like our body gets tired after long physical activity, our eyes wear out after a long time of digital exposure. Looking at screens is hard for our eyes anyways. And when we do it for a prolonged amount of time, we experience eye pain.
Depending on the intensity of your screen time, you may feel all the symptoms of digital eye strain including eye pain, headaches and blurred vision.
As blue light has short wavelengths, it scatters and flickers. It creates visual noise and our eyes have to put in extra efforts to make up for that lost contrast. All this can be too much for our eyes. This is why they get tired after long screen sessions.
However, you can easily ward off these unpleasant symptoms by wearing blue light blocking glasses. They have protective blue light filters to cut down these short blue waves. When you wear them, even screen time can’t get the best of your eyes.
How to escape blue light?
Since blue light can be too bad for your eye health, take these steps to escape it:
- Make sure your prescription or non-optical glasses have a blue light filter.
- Spend less time on digital screens. The less the blue light, the better your eye health.
- Make sure your devices have blue light screen covers.
- Activate the blue light filters in your system.
- Wear glasses that block at least 60% blue light.
- Include vitamin A, C and E in your daily diet.
- Make sure you take short breaks from your computer or laptop after every 20 minutes.
These tips are enough to cover your eyes from blue light harm. Blue light has become such a big concern that all the brands offer blue light filters for their glasses. You can get these filters even when you buy a decent pair of cheap glasses online from an affordable online store.
Blue light is both good and bad for your health. Make sure you don’t overuse your devices and wear protective glasses for the sake of your eyes.
