Blue Light, What is blue light and how does it affect you?, The Eye Place

What is blue light and how does it affect you?

Do you ever wonder why optometrists (like us!) go on and on about blue light?

Well, it is more complicated than you may think.

Light is not just defined by brightness and darkness. There are also different types of light that are not good for us in large doses, like blue light.

Most of us are aware that looking straight into the sun isn’t good for you, but your eyes are still constantly exposed to invisible ultraviolet rays.

Did you know blue light carries the most amount of energy in the spectrum? This means our eyes need to focus extra hard when exposed to it. 

Read on to find out why we talk about protecting your eyes from blue light so often!

What is blue light?

Sunlight is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet light – just like the rainbow! When these lights combine, they turn into the white light we see.

Rays that are on the red end have longer wavelengths, whereas blue rays have shorter wavelengths and more energy. Although the sun is the largest source of blue light, there are many other sources, including:

How does blue light affect you?

When our eyes are exposed to blue light, the light scatters in every direction before it reaches the retina. This means it is more difficult for our eyes to focus on it.

It doesn’t matter how hard your eyes try; they can’t focus as well when exposed to blue light.

This can lead to blurred eyesight, double vision, headaches and sensitivity to light.

Learn more about eye strain here.

Our solution

Although we would all like to cut down on our screen time, realistically we spend much of our leisure and work time looking at computers or our smartphone devices.

We understand the importance of your daily scroll through social media (especially if you’re following our Facebook or Instagram!). This is why we recommend the Techshield Blue lenses to help support your lifestyle, and look after your eyes.

Techshield Blue AB is a coating that can be applied to glasses to help fight digital strain and those nasty migraines. The coating is anti-reflective, designed to assist in enhancing visual performance.

The benefits of using Techshield Blue lenses include:

If you find yourself struggling with eye strain after a long day in front of a screen, contact us!

We can add Techshield Blue lenses to any prescription to help combat additional blue light exposure leading to eye strain.

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