Is Blue Light Really That Harmful?
By Movieguide® Contributor
For years blue light has been named the culprit of technological woes, from headaches to eye strain. but people are now questioning how justified these accusations are.
The Washington Post recently published an article claiming that blue light glasses make a negligible difference when on technology. The article states that the power of blue light glasses has been overstated by sellers seeking to make a profit off of misinformation.
“Major eyeglasses retailers offer protective coatings that block blue light,” the article reads. “On Amazon, dozens of brands now sell nonprescriptive blue light glasses. Even Apple’s iPhone offers a ‘Night Shift’ mode that makes your screen appear more yellow after dark.”
“There’s no question our eyeballs are hurting: Doctors made a new diagnosis, ‘computer vision syndrome,’ for people whose eyes don’t take well to constant screen gazing,” the article added. “But blue light is actually a minor factor, eye experts say. Sunshine, holding screens too close and forgetting to blink are all bigger threats to our vision and comfort.”
While it is true that blue light does not cause physical damage to the eye in the same way that other factors might, blue light does still affect our brains, contributing to headaches for some people and messing with sleep. For this reason, blue light glasses can still be beneficial for users, and implementing systems such as Apple’s “Night Shift” mode can help with better sleep.
Nonetheless, other steps need to be taken to fully mitigate the impact screens have on our health. Many doctors suggest the 20-20-20 rule to help with eye strain, which consists of looking at an object at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds for every 20 minutes on a screen.
While these are techniques and practices that can help adults, the rules are different for kids who are more susceptible to permanent damage from screens because they are still developing. Multiple recent studies have found that nearsightedness in kids is on the rise due to excessive screen time.
“The visual apparatus of children from zero to two years old is simply not sufficiently developed and robust to undergo such stress from constant stimulation in front of the screen,” Dr Langis Michaud, a professor at Université de Montréal’s School of Optometry, explained.
For children, experts recommend as little screen time as possible, as well as plenty of natural light to help their vision system properly develop.
Movieguide® previously reported:
As people spend more of their daily on screens, rates of myopia, a condition that can eventually result in blindness, are increasing.
“When our eyes spend more time focusing on near objects, like phones, screens or even paperbacks, it makes our eyeballs elongate, which prevents the eye from bending light the way it should. This elongation increases nearsightedness, called myopia,” the Guardian reported.
“The longer the eyeball becomes, the worse vision gets,” Wired added.
Eye surgeon Pei-Chang Wu’s concern over this trend grew as he began operating on younger patients. “In 2016, Wu performed a scleral buckle surgery—fastening a belt around the eye to fix the retina into place—on a 14-year-old girl, a student at an elite high school in Kaohsiung. Another patient, a prominent programmer who had worked for Yahoo, suffered two severe retinal detachments and was blind in both eyes by age 29,” Wired reported.
As this phenomenon continues to explode, Professor Rupert Bourne from Anglia Ruskin University said, “Around half the global population is expected to have myopia by 2050, so it is a health concern that is escalating quickly.”
