What is Blue Light?

You’ve likely now seen ads everywhere for glasses eliminating blue light. “Hmm,” you wonder. “Is that why my eyes are so tired by the end of the day? Or perhaps it’s affecting the quality of my sleep?”

We’re going to break down what blue light is and what it’s not so that you can stop worrying about it. We’re all about empowering you with knowledge so that you can get back to work!

Blue Light and the Advent of Technology

It wasn’t so long ago that electricity was not widely available... and when the sun went down, so did you. Natural light sustained us for millennia until artificial options arrived. And just like the refraction that happens with a rainbow, different devices can emit various wavelengths or “colors” of light.

Fluorescent and LED lightbulbs produce blue light in large quantities. Of course, they are also more energy-efficient and come with many other advantages, but advanced tech tends to put out more blue light in general. Computer screens and phones also emit blue light.

Blue Light Benefits

During the day, blue light has its benefits. It boosts mood and alertness. It promotes better sleep cycles at night and can assist with the alignment of your internal clock.

Blue Light Problems

It’s when you find yourself staring at your computer screen night after night, however, that you can run into problems. Just as it helps to align your circadian rhythms during the day, blue light can throw it out of whack if you’re exposed to a lot of it when you’re supposed to be sleeping.

Blue light can also have detrimental effects on your skin (we’ll cover that in our next blog).

But, don’t panic. This does not mean that the evening hours — or even a cloudy or stormy day — cannot be some of your most productive. It just means you need to be better prepared.

How to Combat Blue Light

• Get enough sleep. The first thing you need to do has no connection to the light itself; ensure you are getting adequate sleep. If you are already dipping under 8 hours a night on a regular basis, everything can potentially damage your sleep quality. That includes the lighting, your diet, and other daily habits and exposures.
• Get some exercise. Moving your body and taxing your muscles will also improve sleep quality and get biological rhythms in order again.
• Ditch screens several hours before bed. Set an alarm on your phone and put it away a couple of hours before bedtime. Allow your body to enter “rest mode” so that climbing into bed is not an abrupt event.
• Get a blue light filter/app or blue light glasses. If you simply must work in the evenings this is a smart way to tackle blue light before it impacts your rest.

Those are four changes you can make today in combating the challenge of blue light. Doctors are still figuring out whether blue light is connected to diseases and disorders including cancer and obesity. For now, the data is showing correlative but not causative ties.

We know you lead a busy and hectic life, which is why we’ve developed skincare that does the heavy lifting for you. Shop now and learn more about Prasili skincare.