Is blue light bad for you?

We all know that staring at screens for hours is making us stupid, damaging our eyesight, ruining our sleep patterns, shortening our concentration spans and probably killing us. But here’s some news that might make even the most ardent selfie-taker throw their phone in the sea – all that blue light from our screens might be making us look older. Cue The Scream emoji. Yes, we can now add “Screen Face” to the list of afflictions allegedly caused by our dependence on digital technology – along with Text Neck and Cellphone Elbow. What a time to be alive.

 

The purported culprit is the high-energy visible light (HEV – otherwise known as blue light) emitted by our devices, which some experts within the beauty industry claim could be as ageing as sun damage – and which is becoming the new buzzword in beauty. “High-energy visible light refers to the higher-frequency, shorter wavelengths of light in the violet-blue band in the visible spectrum,” says Andrew Birnie, a dermatologist and skin-cancer specialist at the William Harvey and Kent and Canterbury Hospitals. “HEV is present in daylight, but it’s also emitted by fluorescent lighting and LEDs, including TV screens, smartphones, tablets and computers.” The idea that this could be doing permanent damage is a fresh kind of hell.

Read more from original article on The Guardian