Is my phone light damaging my skin?
Blue light glasses or HEV protecting glasses have been quite popular recently, however, it seems to be that no one actually knows what it is doing, IF it can do anything?
To set the record straight, there is a difference between the Blue LED light and the ‘blue light’ that people talk about that comes from your phone, computer, TV, etc. HEV (high energy visible light) is light that has high energy and high frequency, this is measured in Nanometres, which is what we measure in LED light therapy, (High frequency means the wavelengths are able to carry more energy). HEV is present in sunlight this is what we refer to as the visible spectrum of light which ranges from 380nm - 700nm, the highest amount of energy in this spectrum is 400-500nm - it is called blue light because it is blue! The sun does have blue light, however, this isn’t considered harmful as it isn’t artificial, the sun’s blue light is the one that communicates to our body when it’s daytime or nighttime.
So now you know that light can carry energy and we see it as blue light, the main difference between the blue light we use in the clinic is that we are able to determine the exact Nanometre of the blue light, this is controlled through the setting of the LED which we control based on your skin type, there is no way to monitor or control the blue light that comes from your device.
The blue light that is emitted from technology disrupts your body’s natural process and communications it receives from the sun. As the sun goes down it stops emitting blue light which your body responds to as releasing melatonin which makes us tired, when we are on devices and taking in artificial blue light it confuses our body and stops releasing melatonin. Blue light not only impacts your body and its natural processes but also your skin health. A domino effect of losing sleep is losing the ability to heal and regenerate your skin, like the rest of our bodies, our skin heals and regenerates as we sleep, the less sleep you get, the less your skin will regenerate.
Other effects of blue light on your skin:
cell shrinkage
cell death
premature aging
Pigmentation
The two main ways that you can protect yourself from HEV rays are:
Preventative protection to “block” HEV rays
Antioxidant protection to limit oxidative stress
There is no current regulation regarding HEV rays however in early research it was provided that iron oxide was highly effective in deflecting HEV rays. This is what you will find in a lot of sunscreens or tinted SPF.
You can actively manage your usage of devices to limit the damage to your skin, you can do this by:
Not exposing yourself to HEV rays for a minimum of 2 hours before you go to bed
Managing your time spent on devices e.g. half an hour blocks compared to long periods of time.
Keeping your phone at least 30 cm away from your face
Wearing products with Iron Oxide to protect your skin as much as possible
Products that we sell in the clinic that block blue light emissions include:
