Your alarm clock goes off at 6 am but you feel like you just went to bed about an hour ago. Sound familiar? The reason for feeling tired may not be the amount of sleep you got, but that your quality of sleep was less than optimal.
Your poor sleep pattern isn’t necessarily coming from what you’ve been eating, putting in your body, or how much you exercise, it could be because of “blue lights”. In our day-to-day lives, blue light is emitted from two primary sources, energy efficient light bulbs and electronic devices. Yes, that means your TV, iPad, iPhone and computer! Although the research revolving around blue light and its connection to cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity is in the very preliminary stages, it is already well documented that blue light does indeed effect our visual focusing ability and disrupts our sleep patterns.
In order to create a clear image, light has to focus on the retina. Blue light focuses in front of the retina, not on the retina. Eye fatigue and fluctuating vision can occur when you look at a digital device for long periods of time. Your focusing system is trying to move the blue light back onto the retina in order to create a clear image. Unfortunately, it is a futile effort. However, our eyes keep trying and become visually, or sometimes physically, fatigued. Although all light suppresses melatonin, blue light does it to a greater degree. Suppression of melatonin is helpful during the day because it increases alertness and mood, but at night it disrupts your ability to fall asleep and have good quality sleep.
By no means are we telling you to live in the dark like the stone ages and go back to only communicating through face-to-face interaction, but there are a few things you could do in your daily life that will help.
- Energy efficient light bulbs are great for our environment, but since they are not good for our sleep patterns, consider dimming them after dinner.
- Instead of going to bed with your iPad, put your iPad to bed after 7pm and cuddle up with a paperback to put you to sleep.
- If you’re a glasses wearer and spend most of your day in front of the computer, consider adding an anti-reflective lens treatment to your lenses. These lenses reflect the harmful blue light away from the eyes.
So, don’t forget! During your yearly visit to the eye doctor, talk to him or her about protecting your eyes from blue lights. Your body will thank you.
Are you now realizing you may need new frames with anti-reflective lenses? Shop Metro Eye all February long and save 50-65% on select frames! Save an extra 10% if you donate your old glasses. Look Better. See Better.