Do you know the dangers of blue light from screens? This article explains what they are and how you can reduce them with the help of blue light filters.
Do you know the feeling of burning eyes and headaches after a long day at work? These symptoms usually stem from the stress that blue light from electronic devices has on your body.
In this article, we explain what blue light does to you and how you can best protect yourself from its potential harm.
Table of contents
1. What does blue light do to us?
Blue light surrounds you all day long. Whether you're out on the street in the evening, working on projects at the office, or quickly checking emails on your smartphone in bed—there's no escape.
This blue light is phototoxic and can cause health problems. For example, while working at a screen for hours , you are exposed to direct and unfiltered radiation from artificial light .
It hits the macula lutea, the area of the eye with the sharpest vision and responsible for color vision. Studies have shown that long-term exposure to artificial blue light can lead to damage such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Blue light also promotes the production of free oxygen radicals , which cause oxidative stress in the retina and can thus damage the cells in the eye.[1]
Blue light has a very short wavelength , which makes it particularly high-energy (high-energy visible, or HEV) and causes it to flicker strongly. Because it also lumines more brightly than, for example, red light, it can cause blurring and color fringing in perception .
The bright light rays and flickering are also reasons for headaches and mental fatigue when you sit in front of the computer or other devices with a screen for too long.[2]
The far-reaching impact of blue light on health is also demonstrated by the fact that your hormone levels become unbalanced.
This is because hormone production and all other functions in your body are controlled by what's known as your internal clock. Its rhythm is determined, among other things, by external light conditions.
When blue light hits the photoreceptors in the eye, corresponding signals are transported to the pineal gland, among others, which regulates the intended processes in the body, such as melatonin production.
The blue light inhibits the production of the sleep hormone [3] in the pineal gland, but at the same time promotes the production of the stress hormones cortisol and ACTH .[4] This is also useful during the day when you need to be awake and productive, but in the evening you need the melatonin for your sleep .
BRAINEFFECT HACK : To provide you with an extra dose of melatonin, we've developed our SLEEP SPRAY . Simply take it shortly before bedtime to fall asleep faster after a stressful day.
2. Who should protect themselves against blue light?
We should all protect ourselves from blue light and other non-natural electromagnetic fields (nnEMFs) as best we can. Especially if you spend a lot of time in front of a screen at work, you're exposed to a lot of artificial light.
But not only your computer screen, but also your smartphone , your desk lamp , and the ceiling lighting in your office emit cold, blue light . Unfortunately, it doesn't help if you prefer "warm white light" with your LED bulbs.
3. Blue light filter glasses for your eyes
The most important protective measure for you is blue light filter glasses . These glasses have gray or orange to red tinted lenses to filter out blue light.
But there are a few things you should look for with these glasses. For example, red-tinted glasses should be able to filter out 99-100% of the light between 400 and 550 nm—that is, the entire blue light spectrum as well as most green light.
Here, too, it's advisable to prioritize quality and choose glasses that are proven to deliver good results. So beware of cheap models that try to lure you with their price.
4. Blue light filter for smartphone and monitor
The negative effects of blue light on your health have not left major manufacturers unscathed. A few years ago, Apple introduced Night Shift mode for iOS devices, which reduces both the brightness and color temperature of the display.
On Android smartphones, Night Mode helps you reduce the blue light from your display. However, virtual blue light filters for smartphones unfortunately don't provide effective protection , as scientists have discovered. [5]
You can also test the effectiveness of your artificial blue light filter yourself with blue light filter glasses : Activate the night or night shift mode in your smartphone's system.
First, look at the screen without the glasses and then compare it with them on. If you have good blue light filtering glasses that absorb at least 99% of the wavelength between 400 and 500 nm, they will further filter the light from your smartphone display, and you'll see a noticeable difference.
If Night Mode isn't enough, you can choose additional color settings on your iPhone and iPad that reduce blue light more than Night Shift mode.
To turn your display red at the touch of a button, follow these instructions: Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size, turn on Color Filter, activate Color Cast, select the color red, and turn both Intensity and Hue all the way up.
For quick access to this feature, you can assign a shortcut to the Home button: Settings -> Accessibility -> Shortcut, select Color Filter, and you're done. From now on, whenever you triple-click the Home button on your iPhone or iPad, the display will automatically be tinted dark red.
Triple-pressing again turns the filter off. You can also activate dark mode , which changes the white menu colors to shades of gray and black.
For your laptop and desktop computer, you can use apps like Flux or Iris . These are software-based blue light filters that can be set to reduce screen brightness as the sun sets while filtering out blue light .
5. Conclusion
Now you know that blue light can not only deprive you of sleep, but also has other serious consequences. Since we are all surrounded by blue light around the clock, we need appropriate protective measures.
For example, there are software solutions available to adjust the brightness and light temperature of your screens. Additionally, you should protect your eyes with good blue light blocking glasses that filter out at least 99% of blue and green light.
6. Sources
[1] Algvere, PV, Marshall, J., Seregard, S. (2003), Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica, p. 1621–1624. Age‐related maculopathy and the influence of blue light hazard. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0420.2005.00627.x. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16445433/]
[2] Wilkins, A. Veitch, J., Lehman, B. (2010). IEEE Standard PAR1789 Update. LED Lighting Flicker and Potential Health Concerns. doi: 10.1109/ECCE.2010.5618050 [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arnold_Wilkins/publication/224188247_LED_lighting_flicker_and_potential_health_concerns_IEEE_stan dard_PAR1789_update/links/0c960532f4bbe82b89000000/LED-lighting-flicker-and-potential-health-concerns-IEEE-standard-PAR1789-update.pdf]
[3] Tähkämö, L. Patronen, T., Pesonen, AK. (2018). Chronobiol Int., p. 151-170. Systematic Review of Light Exposure Impact on Human Circadian Rhythm. doi: 10.1080/07420528.2018.1527773 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30311830/]
[4] Figuerio, MG, Rea MS (2010). Int J Endocrinol. The Effects of Red and Blue Lights on Circadian Variations in Cortisol, Alpha Amylase, and Melatonin. doi: 10.1155/2010/829351 [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905913/]
[5] Nagare, R., Plitnick, B., Figueiro, MG. (2018). Light Res Technol., p. 373-383. Does the iPad Night Shift mode reduce melatonin suppression?. doi: 10.1177/1477153517748189 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1477153517748189]
