Blue Light from LEDs in your device or your home lighting can be both beneficial and can be having far reaching effects on you if exposed for longer duration. Blue light is at the lower end of the visible spectrum.  Light waves are blue if their wavelength is between 380nm (nanometer) and 500nm ranging from UV to blue-green range.

We can see blue light everywhere, when we are outside, we see blue light from the sun, and it regulate our natural sleep and wake cycles.  Blue light elevates moods, heighten reaction time, boost alertness and increases the feeling of wellbeing.  But if we are exposed to the same light for long duration and with increased intensity it will affect in a negative way.

Before we delve into the effects of blue light, lets ask ourselves a question, how many hours do we spend on screen that can be either TV, laptop, phones, tablets etc. and with the Covid time the amount of time that we spend in front of laptop even with kids too.  There are studies that have suggested that about 60% of people have about 6hours or more screen time.

Blue light waves are shortest and high energy among all the lights in the visible range.  Blue the high energy visible wavelengths flicker more than the longer and weaker wavelength and this flickering creates a glare and can reduce visual contrast and affect the sharpness and clarity.  This flickering and glaring may be one of the reasons that gives the eyestrain, headaches, physical and mental fatigue with many hours of exposure to the blue light that is coming out of computer screen or any other electronic device.

Human eyes lack the natural filter and do not provide sufficient protection against blue waves either from sun or eliminating from the devices or from the light bulbs that we put in our homes and offices.  The worst part is that prolonged exposure to blue light may cause retinal damage and contribute to macular degeneration that is age related and can lead to loss of vision.

Finally, the question is where this Blue light is coming and what we can do about it.  The evolution of the digital screen and use of LED back light technology to help in enhancing screen brightness.  The LEDs emit strong blue light.  The use of LEDs in every flat screen that you see or hold from the TVs, laptops, tablets, even our cell phones has exposed you to this blue light from a shorter distance as well as longer period.   To protect ourselves from this blue light fatigue one might look at few options depend on the devices that you use. Simple one might be to just cut the screen time and for the folks who really cannot cut the screen time, they can use the built in blue light filters that are provided in high end devices or get a blue light filter screens for the laptop or use a blue light filter eyeglass and wear them while working on these devices.  As these eyeglasses cannot be worn all the time in the house when we are using the LED bulbs, the solution to this might be use of some of high-end LED bulbs like the Reveal from GE or the Hue from Philips that have built in blue light filters.  The technology is used to filter out this blue light in both these LED bulbs are different, but they do the job of filtering out the blue light and keep you healthy as long these bulbs last.

Bottom line is excessive exposure to blue light is really bad for the health and it is strongly urged to cut down using any of the simple techniques listed or switching to the high-end devices if you can.