The fact that blue light is harmful to your eyes and other aspects of your health is increasingly becoming well-known to most people. For full-time gamers, this is particularly risky since they spend most of their days in front of a screen. However, most of them are well-aware of what too much screen time can do to them so they are careful to take measures to protect themselves. If you’re an aspiring full time gamer, then here are some tips on how to protect your eyes from all the dangers that blue light poses.
What is Blue Light?
The electromagnetic spectrum is made up of visible and invisible light. Invisible light, as the name implies, cannot be seen with the human eye. Visible light, on the other hand, is the light you see as white light. Several differently-coloured light rays all combine to form white light and they include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The red end of the spectrum has a longer wavelength and less energy while the violet end has a shorter wavelength and high energy content. Blue-light is, therefore, a high-energy visible (HEV) light.
Blue light is emitted by all sources of visible light including the sun and digital devices such as flat-screen TVs, tablets, smartphones, laptops, personal computers, and LED fluorescent bulbs.
Blue light from the sun is responsible for regulating your circadian rhythm, improving your memory, moods, alertness, and reaction times. Artificial blue light from gadgets is not quite as beneficial. This is because you probably spend several hours on your devices with hardly any breaks in between. Worse still, these devices are normally used too close to your eyes so the blue light exposure on your eyes is at peak levels.
What are the Harms of Blue Light on Your Eyes?
Your eyes use the absence or presence of blue light to send signals to the brain to either wake you up or lull you to sleep. That’s why your eyes are hypersensitive to blue light. However, your eyes were not meant to receive so much blue light from both the sun and digital devices. They get overwhelmed and these eye conditions develop as a result:
- Digital eye strain – This is a temporary eye condition with symptoms such as blurry vision, red, sore, and dry eyes, headaches, back, neck, and shoulder pains.
- Macular degeneration– This is an age-related condition where the cells of the retina break down and cause blurry vision. Blue light accelerates the onset of the disease.
- Cataracts – This is a condition where the natural lens of the eyes become clouded. Blue light causes the increase in free radicals which in turn damages the mitochondria of the lens
What Gamers Do to Protect Their Eyes?
Here are some blue light eye protection for gamers tips you can borrow to protect your eyes from screens:
Wear Computer Glasses
Computer glasses are special eyewear that is designed to filter out blue light before it reaches your eyes. Wear them as you play to reduce the risk of developing eye problems and compromising your general health.
Keep Distance from the Screen
Ensuring that there’s sufficient space between you and your screen as you’re gaming will reduce blue light exposure. If you experience difficulties seeing properly after moving further back from your screen, increase the text size.
Blink
Gaming takes a lot of concentration on the screen so you may often find yourself forgetting to blink. When you blink, the eye is replenished with moisture so forgetting to blink causes dryness and irritation. Remind yourself to blink every 20 minutes 10 times. You can also use eye drops to help hydrate your eyes.
Adjust the Brightness of the Screen
When your screen is too dim, you squint in order to see properly which causes eye strain. Conversely, when the screen is too bright, the glare hurts your eyes. Therefore, adjust your screen to a brightness level that’s somewhere in between. The lighting in the room should also match the brightness on the screen so that your eyes don’t strain to adjust every time you look away and look back at the screen.
Get a Quality Monitor
You shouldn’t just use any monitor for gaming. There are companies that manufacture high-quality monitors meant for gamers with additional eye-care features which may include reduced blue light exposure.
Take Breaks
Your eyes occasionally need rest from screen time to prevent eye strain and excessive blue light exposure. Your eye muscles will relax and get an opportunity to refocus so when you get back to the game, you will perform better.
Cut Back on Gaming
Gaming for more than 6 hours is very bad for your eyes. Limit your gaming time to around 2-5 hours so that you don’t permanently damage your vision.
You shouldn’t allow gaming fun to get in the way of your health so take the above tips seriously and you’ll be better off.