제 3 호 The Most Mysterious Light about Our Eyes, Blue Light
Kicker: LIFE (HEALTHY)
The Most Mysterious Light about Our Eyes, Blue Light
Wisdom and Cleverness for Awareness and Prevention for Blue Light
by Yu-sun Kang, Reporter
In recent years, people have become increasingly attentive to light pollution influences on their eyes. With the explosive usage rate of smartphones, blue light breakers, blue light blocking plants and blue light blocking stickers, have now come to be a necessity, not an option. People hypnotize themselves by simply using these things as a shallow and quick defense, without even considering reducing the use of smartphones. What is blue light? What is it that gets into our daily lives and causes a dilemma deeply? In order to take away the huge anxiety, you first need to get proper comprehension about it since you realized that it is nearly impossible to cut off usage of smartphones. I write this article to ease the fear of blue light even a little bit more and to get wisdom to control it in a proper way.
▲ Simple table for explanation for blue light
First of all, the dictionary description
Blue light is a blue series of light that belongs to a low wavelength between 380 and 500 nm. Blue light has the shortest *wavelength and strongest energy among visible light, and the blue light exists and has a lasting effect on the human body, not only on computers, TVs and smartphone screens, but also in the afternoon sunlight. The fact that light is not only a material that is unavoidable for humans to live with, but it also has close connections with the five main sensory systems we have is perhaps the point that blue lights can be such an easy-to-handle point for the media.
Blue Light in Mass Media
Before I describe the word in this article, if someone asks us, "Where did you first hear of blue light?" then I think 90 percent of the answers would be the "media" very clearly. While everyone knows the dictionary definition of blue light superficially, only some people may know its explanation in a scientific and technical way from experts or eye doctors. But there must be exceptions like a few people who are interested in health care theses or specialized books. Some of the main keywords that come to us from television, the Internet, magazines or personal blogs are full of diseases such as "Lack of Sight," "**Macular Degeneration", "***Cataract" or "Loss Sight" that make you want to put your smartphone down right now. So what kind of feeling most comes to mind when you see those descriptions about blue light?
Facts, exaggeration, and redefinition.
All of the experimental studies of blue light tell us exactly like those things. The issue of “Nature’s” sister journal “Scientific Report” shows that blue light damages the visual cells of mice, and the paper by a team of professors at the “Japan Institute of Pharmacology” mentions that, "The cells of mice that are exposed directly from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used in devices such as smartphones, TVs and PCs have been damaged.”
But according to the “American Academy of Ophthalmology”, the most prominent ophthalmology research institute, blue light does not blind you. This means that it is not harmful to the health of the eyes. For sustaining the definition, experiments and studies conducted for negative papers on blue light cannot be applied equally to humans because they are animal experiments, and the way light is exposed is different from the way light is exposed in everyday life, and the ability to be protected from blue light does exist in our own eyes. In addition, researchers at “Color Tech Institute of Korea” stated, "There are countless cases of damage to retinal epithelial cells and nerve cells," and that "there is no data that says blue light is the decisive cause" and "the relationship between blue light and yellow dust is not yet proven."
Plus or minus? So which side does blue light fit?
So is it just a harmless light that has no effect on us? The conclusion is too complex and fast to come to. In conclusion, blue light is neither a plus nor a minus for us. In order to speak more clearly, we need to know the concept of biorhythm. Biorhythm is a scientific word that means a constant term of cycles in the human body and appears in a particular pattern depending on environmental and physical inner system that influences ability or activity efficiency for what we have to do is our lives, especially for sleep, and the relationship between sleep, biorhythm and blue light is undeniably very close.
This is because exposure to blue light suppresses the release of melatonin, a hormone that impacts sleep rhythm. The diffusion of electronic devices with screens, especially after the sun has set, spreads the exposure of blue light. Blue light that comes from image devices, fluorescent lights, and LED lights are disturbing the quality of sleep and the biorhythm. There is a possibility that any kind of light can suppress the release of melatonin, but this blue light especially works much more strongly.
But blue light from sunlight during the day is very positive. This is because it has a positive effect on getting a good night's sleep by maintaining the biorhythm. In Northern Europe, where the amount of sunlight is short, blue light is sometimes used as a treatment to promote serotonin secretion. This is because the blue light induces serotonin secretion, called the "day hormone," so that it is recognized as day even when the sun is dark due to its shortness.
Wise control rather than unconditional defense
In the end, I would like to say that studies that show that blue light has a direct and negative impact on the visual elements that support our eyes and our eyes, as described in the media so far, are not perfect. Of course, that is not to say that blue light is a perfect material that is harmless to our bodies. As mentioned above, it is a hypothesis that it can act as an obstacle to the quality of sleep. If the quality of sleep decreases, it can also be a negative trigger for other factors that support our lives. So I would like to recommend a proper control method for blue light. It would be better if you check and follow this short guide for people concerned about blue light.
- 1. When using electronic devices to prevent dry eyes, it is recommended to rest your eyes while looking at a distance of 10 minutes after 50 minutes of use. If you need to watch a monitor for a long time, you should consciously blink your eyes to relieve the dryness.
- 2. Use a dark red light for night lighting. It is recommended that the blue light be blocked from entering the eye after dark. Red light has the fewest powers to change the ****circadian rhythm and inhibit melatonin.
- 3. Do not look at electronic devices two to three hours before bedtime. This is because blue light can interfere with sleep rhythms.
- 4. If you are on night duty or need to use a lot of electronic devices at night, it is recommended that you wear blue light blocking glasses or install an application that filters blue and green wavelengths at night. Blue light-blocked glasses coat the inner surface of the lenses, reducing glare caused by the reflection of the blue light and the presence of light into the eyes. Sun glasses that remove only blue light are suitable for indoor use at night. Of course, eyeglasses that block only the blue light are expensive, costing up to $80. However, inexpensive orange sunglasses are not suitable for indoor use at night. By exposing your body to bright light during the day, you can sleep at night, and improve your mood and attention during the day.
- 5. Enjoy plenty of sunshine during the day. By exposing your body to bright light during the day, you can sleep at night, and improve your mood and attention during the day.
*Wavelength: thedistancebetween twowavesofenergy, or thelengthof theradiowaveused by aparticularradiostationforbroadcastingprogrammes
**Macular Degeneration: aconditionin which the macula(= thecentralareaof theretinain theeye)changes, resultingin alossofcentralvision. It usuallyaffectsoldpeople
***Cataract: adiseasein which anareaof someone'seyebecomeslessclearso that they cannotseeclearly, or theareaaffectedin this way
****Circadian: A daily rhythmic activity cycle, based on 24-hour intervals, that is exhibited by many organisms
Sources:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side
http://www.techholic.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=19360
http://www.colortechlab.kr/color-management-on-demand-class/
https://www.nytimes.com/1876/04/24/archives/blue-light.html
