there actually is a night display or a night mode in the oculus quest 2 that cuts out the blue light
the question is is it actually doing anything is it healthy for the eyes that's what we're going
to talk about in this video is how you turn the night display on and is it worth it let's focus in
hey hi everybody i'm dr Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, and i do videos all about the eyes
and i like to do a wide range of topics today we're going to talk about the oculus quest 2
specifically the blue light that comes from a vr system is it bad for your eyes and what can you do
about it first thing i want to do is i want to show you how to turn on the night display in the
oculus quest 2. this will cut down on the blue light coming from your device i'm going to show
you from my little snippet from one of my other videos now they've actually made it really easy to
set it up on your device if you open up the home screen on the bottom right you'll see the settings
click into that second one down is device click that second option down is night mode and you turn
it on now before we get talking about the blue light if it's actually dangerous let me give you a
little crash course into what blue light actually is this is also from another one of my videos that
i did kind of going over what blue light is in general quick whiteboard action here this is the
spectrum of light represented by wavelengths of light with this side being short wavelengths high
energy it's kind of like having a super punch that can punch through multiple layers whereas this
side large wavelengths of light carry low energy it's kind of like just slapping your hands around
very low energy this small little section here is visible light what we can actually register
and see now on the smaller side of wavelengths high energy is the blue light and that's why blue
light is studied so much in detail to see how much that can affect our eyes blue light is broken down
roughly from 400 to 500 nanometers of wavelength with 400 to 450 being the high energy visible
light we'll talk about that more in detail 450 to 500 being the area that can affect our sleep cycle
let's talk about this more detail now the question that i get all the time is if blue light
especially from vr devices is actually damaging the eyes and really there needs to be more
research done on this topic there has been some studies done where it did show that high levels
a lot amounts of blue light did damage retinal cells and rats also human cells on petri dishes
but that was more blue light than we would ever get in our lifetime even if we stared at the sun
so the question still remains the natural amount of blue light that we get
from the devices from the sun is it going to damage our eyes we can't fully say yes for
certain there still needs to be more studies done on that topic the second question i always get is
if blue light is actually contributing to your digital eye strain if it's straining your eyes
and this is a mixed bag there have been a bunch of studies that does show that blue light does
affect your eyes does strain your eyes and a bunch of studies that shows that blue light
does not affect your eyes does not straighten your eyes out so it's a completely mixed bag
for me i have noticed especially when i use the oculus quest 2 when i turn on the night display
it definitely helps my eyes it cuts down on eye strain it helps calm my eyes a little bit
also when i wear blue light blocking glasses when i'm working on the computer especially
late at night it definitely helps me but i've had a lot of patients that say that blue eye glasses
doesn't help them at all so it's a completely mixed bag but worth a shot to try to see if it
will help you the third question is if the blue light specifically coming from our devices the vr
devices is actually affecting our sleep cycle and this one is a yes this is actually true it does
affect our sleep cycle it's called the circadian rhythm and it actually does affect or delay or
ruin our sleep a little bit and so for that reason alone i do recommend putting the night display the
blue light blocking display on the oculus quest 2 especially if you're going to be using it towards
later in the evening before you go to bed it's generally recommended that you cut all devices
computers phones tvs vr devices two hours before you go to bedtime if you can do that that will
eliminate the more blue light that's coming from your devices that might influence or affect your
sleep cycle but i understand if you can't do that if you're only time to play the vr device is near
bedtime then i definitely recommend putting on the night display of the device i've actually sunk a
few hours into the oculus quest 2 and i've played a few hours with the night display turned on and
a few with it just turned off and i definitely noticed with the night display turned on my eyes
felt way better less strained i felt like i could concentrate more on the game and so i definitely
recommend at least trying with the night display on at first it's a little weird to get used to
because the colors are different but after a while i didn't even notice it anymore and it just
felt better especially when i was done playing my eyes just felt a little bit less strained now one
extra bonus to the night display is that it seemed to cut back on the god rays coming from the lenses
of the device it didn't get rid of the god rays but it seemed to make them less noticeable they
definitely did not bug me as much when i had the night display turned on hey i just want to jump in
here really quick i'm actually editing the video right now and they came out with an update to the
software of the oculus quest 2 and they actually put in a brightness slider finally i've gotten a
lot of comments in my previous videos how it was weird that you couldn't change the brightness of
the device but now you can because that brightness can sometimes be overbearing on the eyes and
so you want to go into that same settings button quick actions and the sliders on the top right you
can turn it brighter or turn it dim also on that same page you'll see on the bottom left there's
a little toggle on and off button for the night mode so it's kind of a quick access point there
but yeah just wanted to update throw that in this video because i've gotten a lot of questions about
the brightness thanks make sure that you check out my other video about other tips to save your eyes
to help with your eye strain i go into more detail in that video put the link up there as well as in
the description below also put links below to some helpful tools lens inserts that help block blue
light more efficiently than just the night display of the oculus quest 2 and that can also help
reduce the digital eye strain that you might get from the device it might help also with your sleep
cycle so definitely check those out hey i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, if you have any questions
about the oculus quest 2 blue light i'm there to answer any questions that you have i'm focusing on
you and your eyes make sure you check out my other videos as well and i'll see you in the next video