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Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

phys.org

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Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#21

Post by avgDev »

kypro wrote: post #7
kjullien wrote: post #3

Did we not already know about this ? I remember 5+ years ago blue LEDs were pulled off of the market (at least in France) because the spectrum they emit in is way too close to uv and could burn your macula.

Wait, is UV light bad for your eyes? Should I be careful about visiting bars with UV light too?

Black lights used in clubs generally don't have enough power to cause eye damage or sun burn, therefore, I would not be too concerned.

Lights used in something like a tanning bed, can obviously burn your skin and also damage your eyes that is why people should wear eye protection, or do the healthy thing and not tan at all.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#22

Post by friedman23 »

I use f.lux all day I don't know if I'm particularly sensitive or if it's all in my head but when I turn off f.lux, especially at night, to watch some movie or video I can physically feel my pupils dilate and it almost feels like my eyes go from being at rest to being strained.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#23

Post by CapitalistCartr »

rgrove wrote: post #19

> To protect your eyes from blue light, Karunarathne advises to [...] avoid looking at your cell phones or tablets in the dark. Can someone explain why it would be worse to look at a cell phone in the dark? It's emitting the same blue light (or less, if the display gets dimmer) as it is in a bright environment. Why is that light more harmful in a dark environment?

Your pupils are dilated; you're receiving more light.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#24

Post by pishpash »

sandGorgon wrote: post #10

Fedora/Gnome has had "Night Light" built into the OS by default. Big difference to eye strain with it !

This is not a permanent solution because simply shifting the color temperature has the side effect of generating melatonin and disrupting your circadian clock. You really need a daylight white spectrum and not concentrate all the blue-green energy in one blue spike.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#25

Post by swebs »

kjullien wrote: post #8
b_b wrote: post #4

For many of us whose use of these blue-light emitting computer and phone screens is necessary, what can we do about it?

Use f.lux or an equivalent (most OS have their own implementation by now) that filters out the blue light at software/rendering level, it's not perfect but you do instantly feel the comfort it brings to your eyes. Been using f.lux for over 10 years and it also helps alot with going to sleep at night. When it's off your eyes/brain thinks that they are in daytime / broad daylight, when it's on I fall asleep 2 or 3 time…

The benefit of software such as f.lux and Gnome Nightlight is that they turn themselves on at night and off in the morning. It seems like the OP wants to remove blue light at all times, in which case should be handled through your monitor settings. A software solution would be unnecessary.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#26

Post by lawlessone »

rgrove wrote: post #19

> To protect your eyes from blue light, Karunarathne advises to [...] avoid looking at your cell phones or tablets in the dark. Can someone explain why it would be worse to look at a cell phone in the dark? It's emitting the same blue light (or less, if the display gets dimmer) as it is in a bright environment. Why is that light more harmful in a dark environment?

I'm not a doctor but in a dark environment your pupils would be less constricted.

From what i heard this is also why sunglasses that don't block UV light are worse than not having sunglasses at all.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#27

Post by gambiting »

burkemw3 wrote: post #20
b_b wrote: post #4

For many of us whose use of these blue-light emitting computer and phone screens is necessary, what can we do about it?

You can wear glasses that filter blue light. The article mentions wearing them outside, but they work inside as well. I wear them, and they provide other benefits for me as well ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16529054#16531413 )

So I used to have glasses with a blue blocker filter on them - I absolutely hated every second of wearing them. Literally everything appeared yellow through them - my screens, sheets of paper, even snow looked like it had been peed on - awful. I mean, it's certainly not surprising - they did block blue light after all. But I wore them for 3 months and then marched back to the optician to have them replaced with normal lenses. And the optician has promised that the effect would be very subtle and hardly noticeable in daily use - well, maybe I'm particularly sensitive to it, but the effect was very noticeable to me.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#29

Post by colanderman »

rgrove wrote: post #19

> To protect your eyes from blue light, Karunarathne advises to [...] avoid looking at your cell phones or tablets in the dark. Can someone explain why it would be worse to look at a cell phone in the dark? It's emitting the same blue light (or less, if the display gets dimmer) as it is in a bright environment. Why is that light more harmful in a dark environment?

Your pupils are more dilated, due to the surrounding darkness, and hence let more light in. If you were to dim your screen enough to compensate, it would likely be too dark to read.

Re: Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness

#30

Post by shittyadmin »

kjullien wrote: post #8
b_b wrote: post #4

For many of us whose use of these blue-light emitting computer and phone screens is necessary, what can we do about it?

Use f.lux or an equivalent (most OS have their own implementation by now) that filters out the blue light at software/rendering level, it's not perfect but you do instantly feel the comfort it brings to your eyes. Been using f.lux for over 10 years and it also helps alot with going to sleep at night. When it's off your eyes/brain thinks that they are in daytime / broad daylight, when it's on I fall asleep 2 or 3 time…

The biggest problem I have with it is that everything looks so much worse that I just wind up turning it off all the time.

Is this so seriously a threat to vision that it's worth it? I don't have the sleeping issues with screens some people seem to report, so I wasn't really willing to commit to it over that.

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