Blue Light is Harming your skin, now more than ever

Think of the last time you spent a 2-hours stretch without a screen in your vicinity — no phone, no laptop, no TV. Apart from the time we are fast asleep, there is hardly a time we aren’t stuck to any digital devices.

While Blue Light has been infamous for affecting sleep and eyes adversely, the focus is now shifting to its effect on our skin. In fact, because Beauty Business is always seeking scope to penetrate, there is a complete range of commercial products that claim to fight the negative impact on the skin. But are they legit? We can’t say yet.

The visible light spectrum has, apart from UVA and UVB rays, another high-energy component, called Blue Light rays. Besides digital devices, we get a fair share of exposure from fluorescent bulbs, LEDs and sunlight. Needless to say, it has always been present around us and had its effects too. But lately, owing to the many ways we have gone digital, the exposure has gone several notches up.

The sun is much more potent than any of these little devices, thus its harm is manifold too. But blue light from these devices doesn’t go off either. Studies have found it to be harmful in the long run.

The medicated sunscreens are good for just blocking Sun’s UVA and UVB rays, its blue light remains unaffected. But studies claim that a bare addition of a topical antioxidant to these commercial products could be of much help to prevent from the blue light’s harms.

Play wise and don’t just follow brand claims about fighting blue light blindly. Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Ferric Acid and Feverfew are amongst the most commonly available antioxidants to target when you’re out for buying skincare products.

Another more natural way is to include antioxidants in your diet. Focus on a variety of colorful plate that’s loaded with antioxidant-rich material. PLE (Polypodium Leucomtomos Extract), for example, is known to possess antioxidant, photo-protective and anti-inflammatory properties, that further decreases any skin damage. It is a good way out on days you’re expecting sun exposure.

The harm of blue light on our skin, some say, is not direct. In fact, digital devices are known to affect body cycle and sleep quality, thus preventing the body from getting its much-needed repair time. That way, somebody who has been super-active on their devices at night owing to work pressure or boredom, end up ruining their sleep, which is vital for keeping their skin healthy. In this way, the harm is not direct, but indirect.

Rather than investing in skin care products that may or may not work well on the skin, if we put our money into blocking or filtering the blue light coming out from our devices, we would be in a much better state. Advanced machines like Mac and iPhone come with system settings like Night Shift Mode that allow you some respite.

Our lifestyles lately, have done everything to cause us harm. And however well we acknowledge the damage they bring us, we cannot have a 100% system cleanse in one go. But we sure can play safe on our part. Here was our loss of feasible steps to take. Do you have any more? Share with us in the comments.