in this video we're going to share some important facts about blue light going
over what it is, where it comes from, as well as how it can be good for the eyes,
bad for the eyes or potentially ugly let's take a look this video is made
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today we're gonna go over blue light and these are facts about blue light really
what it is where it comes from as well as how it can affect our eyes and our
bodies now blue light is part of the visible spectrum of light that is the
light that we can see and perceive and which is inside of the electromagnetic
spectrum which is basically all forms of light that even our eyes cannot see that
includes things like infrared light x-rays gamma rays your microwaves radio
waves TV waves and then of course UV light and then we have our visible
spectrum which goes from about 400 nanometers of light to about 700
nanometers of light within that spectrum between 400 and 500 nanometers of light
we call that the kind of blue wavelength light spectrum and even smaller in that
section about 400 to 450 nanometers of light that is the high energy visible
wavelengths of blue light that is the energy of wavelengths that is very close
to UV light but this level of blue light penetrates into the eye and can even get
to the retina which can potentially be a concern for eye health as well as our
brain health which we will get into momentarily
now blue light comes from multiple sources most people think of blue light
coming from our computer screens and our phones because that is more heavily in
the media these days as we are spending more time in front of
these digital screen than ever before many people's jobs now
are basically working on a computer all day and they're spending like eight plus
hours in front of a screen even young children in developed countries are
going to school and they're using smart boards tablets all day long and then
they come home and do homework again on a computer and yeah they're in front of
a screen all day but bluelight also comes from other sources including the
Sun which is the most major source of all blue light in fact the reason the
sky is blue is because the blue light coming from the Sun and that that light
hits different particles in our Earth's atmosphere and then that scatters and
again that's why the sky is blue fun fact we call that Rayleigh scattering
but I think even lesser well-known is that blue light also comes from our
artificial light sources our indoor lighting which right now a lot of us are
spending more time indoors and that means we're exposed to more of this
artificial light and this concern about high-energy blue wavelength light being
emitted by artificial light sources has been a concern in some countries like
France even noted this as a public health concern because we're
transitioning to more efficient light bulbs such as LEDs and they emit a lot
of harsh high-energy blue wavelength light so not only do we need to be
concerned about blue light coming from our computer screen but also from the
Sun outside as well as indoor lighting now of course there are concerns about
blue light and we're gonna get into those but first blue light also has some
benefits to it blue light helps with our alertness especially early in the
morning it's even being used in some light fixtures to help treat certain
mood disorders such as seasonal affect disorder and it's even been shown in
some studies to help reduce fatigue for veterans who are being treated with this
similar type of high-energy light and blue light kind of like the lights I
have here in the background that can affect your memory as well as changing
your mood as I find blue light to be very calming and kind of has a
tranquilizing effect oh wait tranquillizing maybe maybe just saying
tranquil kind of like that calming effect not in the sense that it's gonna
knock you out or anything and blue light plays a significant role in regulating
our sleep cycles because having a bluelight get into the eye and touch
certain retinal ganglion cells that activates a certain part of your brain
called the pineal gland and can help regulate the release of melatonin the
hormone that helps regulate your sleep cycle but that also means that blue
light can have the bad negative effect especially if you're exposed to too much
later in the evenings it could inhibit your melatonin release which is gonna
delay your sleep cycles and reduce your chance of having a well rest at night
sleep and you're gonna be more fatigued the next day and it even helps inhibit
developing good memories which is my concern for especially for young kids
who are going to school and trying to learn as they're not developing those
memories then they're not going to learn as well in addition getting somewhere
between seven and eight hours of sleep at night has been shown to help reduce
your chances of developing memory loss issues as you get older such as dementia
and Alzheimer's this is a major concern that I personally have as I have done a
lot of Vision Care in senior homes working with the elderly and anybody
who's seeing family members go through things like dementia and Alzheimer's
yeah it's not fun and I don't think anybody wants that alongside having
reduced amount of sleep cycles due to exposure of blue light there's also a
lot of people who are experiencing eye fatigue or digital eye strain also
sometimes known as computer vision syndrome from overexposure of this harsh
blue light and you may have experienced it yourself
while staring at the computer and part of this is believed to be because blue
light is scattered again more easily and by staring at the computer screen that
extra blue light will scatter and that could even reduce the amount of contrast
and you maybe have felt this but looking at a computer screen it seems really
sharp and kind of almost too bright and it kind of hurts your eyes a little bit
and then maybe you have seen other reading devices such as Kindles have a
different type of a background screen which is not as harsh as other computer
screens and phones which allows you to have more comfort when reading although
the results of study about eye fatigue and blue light is a
little bit mixed the vast majority of people who have either reached out to me
or have seen me in the clinic usually do report that they feel our eyes are more
light-sensitive around blue light sources but hey I'd
love to pass that on to you what are your experiences with blue light light
sensitivity and eye fatigue specifically have you noticed that you get more eye
fatigue when you're looking on a computer when you're using a lot of
bright LED or florescent lights like in the office or even just being outside
does it are you super sensitive you get eye fatigue from just being out in the
Sun again leave a comment in the section below because I would love to hear if
you having success with anything now the real ugly concern about blue light has
to do with the theories and some studies that suggest that blue light especially
that high-energy wavelength visible blue light could cause retinal damage to the
back of the eye and this is a kind of a touchy subject for a lot of eye care
professionals because there are studies mostly animal studies in done in mass
mice and rats that show that the high-energy light can cause damage to
these retinal cells and it kind of makes sense that this high-energy light which
is very close to UV light which we know UV light from the Sun can cause things
like sunburn and skin cancer it can damage ourselves this high-energy light
since it passes through and touches the retina that it may pose a risk and
there's multiple studies that either show or suggest that this high-energy
light increases the amount of metabolic demand on these cells which the retina
is already the most metabolically active tissue in the body and if you're adding
this really high level of demand on the retina over time that the cellular
debris that gets built up through this hell activation of the retina that this
cellular debris is going to build up what we call drusen which is a major
significant factor for the development of age-related macular degeneration now
a big disclaimer I like to give out is that these are done on animal studies
mostly rats with high-energy light really close to their face and then
there are some studies done on on human retinal cells that have been
transplanted to a petri dish and again completed in the laboratory however the
human eye does have defense mechanisms to help protect metabolic changes to the
retina at least when it's not a really high energy source because if you are
gonna stare at the Sun or a laser pointer or something with a high amount
of energy that can cause burn damage to the retina and we call that solar
retinopathy when it's on the Sun so no do not look in those high-energy light
sources but you can understand why these theories and studies have us concerned
about blue light but at that same time just to be fair to everyone
epidemiological studies also do show mixed results at best at really for or
against that light exposure whether it be from the computer screen or the Sun
outside could lead to retinal damage so I hope that after this video you know a
little bit more about blue light and why we're so concerned about it and you're
able to reflect on how much time you and your family are spending in front of a
digital screen under artificial lighting as well as just how this blue light
could be affecting our eyes and our overall health