Dhruvin Patel, leading optometrist, specializes in the impact of blue light on eye health, that is, light produced by telephone and computer screens.
Blue light can make it harder to fall asleep and affects eye health
Researchers say blue light exposure may increase the risk of vision damage and make it more difficult to fall asleep.
Patel shared his tips for minimizing the impact of blue light while working from home or using screens.
1. Work at arm’s length from the screen
Fully extend your arm and work from a distance – look from your eyes to the tip of your fingertips.
Use this as a minimum distance to reduce pressure on your eyeballs.
2. 20/20/20
Simply put, every 20 minutes, look away from the screen for at least 20 seconds at least 20 feet away.
This will help reset your visual systems and eyes during long periods of screen work.
3. Screen height
The height and height of your work screen can have a big impact on eye strain.
Research has shown that it is better for the screen to be placed higher than the viewing level of the user; the center point should be 6 to 6 inches below the straight line of the user’s field of view.
This opens up the space between the upper and lower eyelids, often resulting in dry eyes.
4. Lighting
Position the computer screen to avoid glare, especially from overhead lighting or windows.
Use blinds or curtains on the windows and replace the bulbs in desk lamps with bulbs with a lower wattage and lower intensity.
If there’s no way to minimize glare from light sources, consider using an anti-glare filter.
5. Place a post-it on your screen titled ‘FLASH’.
Normally we blink up to 20 times within a minute. This is automatically controlled by our central nervous system, so we are not aware of the blinking.
On screens, this is actually reduced to 3-5 times per minute, meaning that our tear films cannot be maintained and the eye is not lubricated.
A post-it note on your monitor that says “Blink” should help you make a conscious effort to blink. It’s simple but it sure works.
6) Think about your device
Usually the biggest, newest phone is best, but not for your eyes. An iPhone X is 20 percent brighter than an iPhone 6 and emits more blue light.
This is the difference with a 100 percent increase in exposure to harmful blue light!
7. Don’t forget to power off
I wouldn’t suggest any digital devices or artificial light after sunset. If you’re like most people, you’re probably sending that last-minute email or finishing your favorite show on Netflix before going to bed.
Try reading a book or starting that meditation you promised yourself you’d do in the new year.
Dhruvin Patel says you shouldn’t assume that “night mode” or “blue tint” on devices is enough to counter the impact of blue light.
He said this was “proven not to promote sleep compared to the normal output of a screen” and that, even with this enabled, you should still avoid the screen after sunset if at all possible.
Patel founded a company called Ocushield that produces screen protectors to filter out blue light based on his research on the impact of the light source.
Source: Dhruvin Patel (Ocus shield)