Is Blue Light Actually Bad For You?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2019-05-06
·
1,043 words · ~5 min read
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thanks for watching techwiki click the subscribe button then enable
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notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos what do you
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associate with blue light we tried to think of some funny stuff
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and kept coming up with police lights in the rearview mirror just kept popping up
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i guess that says a little something about mine and john's driving records
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speak for yourself john no what we're really here to talk about is blue light
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apps that filter blue light have been available for pcs and smartphones for
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years and it's gotten to the point where iOS and Android now even offer the same
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functionality built in but why is blue light suddenly something to avoid i mean
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it's just regular light and it isn't like you're staring into the sun and
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exposing your retinas to all that lovely uv radiation and like mutating and
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developing superpowers well the main concern about blue light
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is its ability to disrupt your sleep cycle also called a circadian rhythm
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specifically when blue light hits your eyes it can inhibit the body's ability
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to produce melatonin a hormone that regulates sleep now scientists aren't
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sure exactly why this happens but they think it's because blue light is
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relatively high in energy compared to other colors that is to say it has a
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shorter wavelength than red yellow or green light and when you're up and about
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during the day because you have to go to work or go to school or head off to a
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crossfit class blue light from both natural and artificial sources can help
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you feel energized and focused
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but at night when your body naturally wants to start shutting down blue light
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instead tricks the part of your brain responsible for sleep into thinking it
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needs to stay awake this problem has been amplified in recent years as more
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and more of us stay up late staring at gadgets that give off lots of blue light
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such as our computer and phone screens those
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hooligans if you think back to grade school physics white light that we see lots of
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in our web browsers and mobile apps contain all the colors of the spectrum
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including blue and modern led displays often use a base of blue leds combined
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with different chemicals called phosphors to produce white and of course
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if you're looking at an amoled phone display you're directly exposed to
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plenty of blue pixels to make matters worse those fancy new led lights we're
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all installing in our lamps and ceiling fans also put out light that's more
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skewed towards the blue side of the spectrum than those old incandescent
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bulbs were so just having the lights on in your room before you go to bed might
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keep you from falling asleep as quickly as you did in the good old days
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mom used to read us a bedtime story
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of course all this can not only cause tiredness but the attendant health
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problems that accompany chronic sleep loss such as a weakened immune system
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poor memory and weight gain there are some studies that even suggest
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that the higher energy blue light can trigger chemical reactions that
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permanently damage your eyes photoreceptors irreversibly degrading
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your vision over time though more research on this specific issue is
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needed as the links between blue light and actual eye injury are much less
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clear than the ones between blue light and
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poor sleep there's good news though the solution looks to be rather simple move
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to amish country just kidding you don't really need to change your habits that
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much so if you're like me and tend to lay in bed with your phone late at night
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turn the brightness down and enable your phone's blue light filter this will make
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your display appear much warmer so your body won't be trying to tell you to stay
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awake if you're on your pc instead there are blue light filtering glasses and
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monitors with built-in filters or failing that Windows 10 has a built-in
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night light in its display settings that will reduce the amount of blue light emitted by your display and another
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trick is to try and use light bulbs advertised as warm with lower color
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temperatures on the box these will push your ambient lighting back towards the
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red end of the spectrum as well it might be annoying to not be able to see things
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in quite the correct colors before bed but it will at least keep you from
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having to explain to your boss why you keep yawning during that meeting he
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makes you sit through every monday morning i'm glad we don't do one of
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those that calls for a punch into the face no
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