Eye Doctors Debunk 13 More Vision Myths | Debunked | Science Insider
In fact, they’re only slightly longer and less powerful than UV waves, which are too short for people to see with the naked eye. Health experts have warned against the harmful effects of UV rays, which can damage your skin and your eyes.
High energy blue light waves are nearly as powerful.Human beings are exposed to more blue light than ever because of the widespread use of devices that rely on light-emitting diode (LED) technology.
Computer and laptop screens, flat-screen televisions, cell phones, and tablets all use LED technologies with high amounts of blue light.A 2020 studyTrusted Source
published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology found that during COVID-19 lockdowns, for example, 32.4 percent of the study population used a blue-light-emitting device 9 to 11 hours per day. Another 15.5 percent used the devices 12 to 14 hours per day — a sizable increase in screen time, probably due to changes in the way people work during the pandemic.
So far, research does not appear to validate the concern about blue light eye damage. While some animal studiesTrusted Source
have shown that blue light can damage cells in the retina, eye doctors say there is little proof that blue light damages the retina of the human eye.
One recent exception: Doctors reported that a woman who used an LED face maskTrusted Source
to improve her skin had distorted vision and a retinal lesion afterward. However, it’s difficult to say whether blue light, red light, or infrared light caused this damage because the face mask included all three.