The Impact of Blue Light on Human Health

Catherine Philip (1)

(1) Carrollwood Day School in Tampa, Florida

In today’s modern society, the use of technology has become seemingly ubiquitous due to its increasing capabilities for personal and professional usage and convenience. Although these technological advancements are beneficial for people, an increase in technology usage results in an increase in blue light exposure. The effects of blue light exposure are often more apparent compared to a typical exposure to sunlight as people spend an extensive amount of time looking at screens from electronic devices. Exposure to blue light radiation has both short-term and long-term health impacts. In the short-term, too much blue light radiation can affect our biological circadian rhythm and can cause computer vision syndrome. When considering long-term effects, blue light radiation can damage retinal cells, corneal, and conjunctive epithelial cells, and cause permanent vision problems such as age-related macular degeneration. It can also contribute to cataracts and eye cancer. However, even with the aforementioned disadvantages, there are also some advantages to blue light radiation. Blue-light exposure can elevate energetic arousal (which decreases fatigue), enhance performance on cognition tasks, synchronize the human circadian rhythm, and improve mood. The presence of blue light can be both consequential and beneficial for humans, so it is imperative to seek solutions that can mitigate the consequences to receive the positive aspects.

Keywords: blue light health effects, computer vision syndrome, circadian rhythm blue light, age-related macular degeneration blue light, blue light screen exposure

Article Type: Review Article

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