Add Blue-Light Glasses to Your Back-to-School Shopping List By: Kaitlyn Cioc
We all know that many schools across the U.S. are doing virtual learning for at least the first few months of school this year. What people don't know is how damaging screens can be if you're on them all day.
Staring at a computer for work or school for hours everyday gives blue light the opportunity to get all the way to your retinas, damaging your eyes more than other lights do. Having too much exposure to this type of light can hurt the light-sensitivity cells in your eyes. Dimming the lights on your screen won't help, but some computers have a feature called "night shift." This gives the screen a warmer hue, cancelling out the harmful blue-light waves. Although the word "night" is in the name, it's best to keep it on all the time, and you'll be quick to re-adjust to the more-yellow-than-white screen. If your computer doesn't have this feature, which many don't, there are other options. Screen covers are like screen protecters for your phone, but they can go on your computer screen. They do the same thing as night shift in taking away the blue light. This option might be better for people who wear glasses or dislike wearing glasses because it's attached to your computer. The last option, blue-light glasses, are a fun accessory that would be best for someone who wears contacts or doesn't need any vision correctors. Both of these items can be found at a wide range of stores including Amazon.
Last winter, I suffered a concussion that caused me to get headaches from looking at screens for too long. I ended up changing the night shift on my MacBook to all the time compared to only having it on when it's dark. I noticed I would get less headaches working on my laptop compared to watching tv since the tv didn't have night shift, but my MacBook did. I've kept night shift on since then and I recommend that, the screen cover, or the glasses to anyone needing to work on their computers often. Since the 2020-2021 school year started, I've seen many other students who have gotten blue-light glasses to wear for school, so if you're not someone who has them yet, go add them to your shopping list!
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| Without Night Shift |
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| With Night Shift |
Blue light glasses do help! I worry about how many young kids will end up needed glasses because they are on a screen all day long.
ReplyDeleteI've had blue light glasses for over a year now and I agree they really do help, even though I loose them all the time.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of blue light glasses; they seem like they would work well! I've always had my "night shift" on, but when I just checked while I was reading this, I realized I didn't and I just turned it back on- it's so much more comfortable to look at.
ReplyDeleteThank you! This is really helpful and especially relevant now, I'll definitely be keeping my devices on night-shift.
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