Are screens destroying our eyes?

The tale of blue light in technology and the world.

Blue light has been around since the sun. It’s the blue light or HEV rays that make the sky look blue. Today blue light is defined as the region of ultraviolet (UV) light-ray spectrum in the 400–490 nanometer range.

What that means is that blue light has shorter wavelengths and higher energy rays than the rest of the visible light spectrum. Thus, blue light scatters more easily than other visible light rays and when blue light collides with air and water molecules in the atmosphere it causes a high degree of scattering that makes a cloudless sky look blue.

So blue light is great for making the sky blue as well as boosting our alertness, memory, mood, and regulating our circadian rhythm (the body’s wake and sleep cycle). However, with the advancement of technology we’ve never been exposed to more blue light on a daily basis than now with the advent of screens. That’s TVs, laptops, desktops, smartphones, and anything else you peer into incessantly that emits light back into your eyes. Double that effect if you use fluorescent lights in the same room.