Like many individuals, you like surfing through different social media accounts when it’s downtime. You enjoy watching TV when you would like to unwind. Sometimes, your eyes are glued to your laptop’s screen, reading various documents and spreadsheets for work. It’s safe to say, you’re always staring at digital screens.

It can’t be helped when technology is too interspersed in your life. However, too much screen time harms your eyes and overall health. These screens emit blue light, which is linked to eye strain, blurred vision, dry eyes, sleep issues, and serious eye problems.

What Is Blue Light?

Different energy levels and wavelengths make up visible light. Blue light is a part of visible light and has the most energy. It has higher energy than other colors, penetrating the retina more quickly. The lens and cornea usually block ultraviolet rays and other harmful rays. But that’s not the case with blue light, which passes through the cornea and lens.

Blue light takes up around one-third of the visible light spectrum. It originates from many places, but its biggest source is the sun. Blue light also has artificial sources, such as fluorescent light and LED TVs. However, you are more familiar with smartphones, tablet screens, and computer monitors.

How Does Blue Light Affect Your Eyes?

Exposure to high-energy light like UV rays and blue light in large amounts increases your risk of developing certain eye diseases. Although there’s no direct link to it, and the subject needs more research, a lot of people are worried about it. Experts are concerned blue light harms eye health by causing digital eye strain.

Digital eye strain, or computer vision syndrome, affects many computer users. People with digital eye strain are said to show symptoms like dry, irritated, and red eyes, as well as blurred vision. There are also complaints of headaches, neck aches, backaches, muscle fatigue, and difficulty focusing between far and near objects.

Current research shows that exposure to high levels of blue light can damage the retina’s light-sensitive cells. However, studies are still being conducted to determine if digital devices’ blue light is “high level” enough to cause this damage. But because blue light scatters more freely, it could contribute to digital eye strain by creating visual noise.

Protecting Your Eyes from Blue Light

The good news is there are plenty of ways to protect your eyes from blue light. The most effective is to wear blue-light-blocking eyeglasses. You can have your eye specialist craft special eyeglasses that block or filter out blue light from digital screens. It helps reduce the effects of blue light on your retina.

You can also protect your eyes by practicing the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes of using a digital screen, stop and move your gaze to about 20 feet away, focusing on an object for about 20 seconds. Another way is by blinking quickly 20 times to refresh your eyes. Reducing your use of digital devices and wearing sunglasses outside also helps.

For more on how blue light affects your eyes, visit Vision Quest Optical at our office in Bay City or Midland, Michigan. Call (989) 778-1414 or (989) 835-2020 to discuss any questions with our team of experts or to schedule your eye exam today.