How Does Blue Light Impact Your Skin?

If you are someone who roams around with their phone in the face then my friend, your skin is highly likely to be affected by a silent enemy. This enemy slowly but scarily affects your skin and shows its effects in the long run. We are talking about the impact of blue light on your skin.

Let’s dive into the details of the impact of blue light on our skin :

What is blue light?

Light is a form of energy that makes things visible. It has a spectrum depending upon its intensity. Blue light falls in the high intensity category and is only slightly less strong than the UV rays. We are aware of the damage done by the sun’s ultraviolet rays and blue light comes only a small step below it. Pretty scary, right?

Where does blue light come from?

When it is so scary for your skin, you would want to stop using it altogether. To do that, you must know where it comes from? Blue light comes from LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) These are in the display of our mobile screen, laptop screen and also ceiling lights that make our room bright. 

You see when blue light is all around us it is quite tough to stop using it. But the question is, when it is so bad for us why do we use it? Have we been using it since the beginning? What are the alternatives to it? And how does it exactly harm the skin? These must be some of the questions that you must be wondering. We will answer them in this blog for you.

If you remember your childhood, there were no phones, no laptops, no LED lights in our day to day lives which is why there was no awareness of the impact of blue light on the skin. But now, all of us not only have a phone or laptop but are constantly glued to it. Earlier, we did not have tube lights or LEDs bulbs either on the ceiling. We used halogen bulbs that did not emit such harmful rays. So, what went wrong? Did we take a wrong turn in the race towards modernization? Perhaps.

It is clear that we have not been using blue light emitting devices since the beginning of the time. Maybe a couple decades back, we were in a better place. But now that we are aware of the harms of blue light, what are the alternatives for it and what are the steps being taken to prevent this harm?

As you must have noticed, people nowadays wear zero powered glasses or get their spectacles filmed with a blue light filter. It saves their eyes from the harms of blue light. Similarly, you must have seen that there is an increase in advertising on different shades of room lighting, ranging from soft white, warm white, day light to bright white. 

Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology research suggests blue light from electronic gadgets can cause changes in your skin cells, including cell shrinkage and death. These hasten the ageing process. Even 60 minutes of screen time is enough to cause these kinds of changes in the skin cells.

Ways to prevent your skin from the effects of blue light

While some of us assume that the greater the SPF, the more effective the sunscreen is, it is not true. SPF 30 and SPF 60 offer only 2% worth of difference when it comes to protecting your skin from harmful rays. What you need is UVA and UVB protection. These rays are responsible for causing early aging and tanning respectively.

2. Use skincare products with antioxidants

When selecting skincare products, choose those that are high in antioxidants. The skin barrier is strengthened, which helps to reduce the detrimental effects of blue light. Antioxidants protect the skin by delaying the generation of free radicals, which cause cell damage.A green tea skin elixir is one such face care product that you can use regularly. 

When we mean skin, we mean the face and body both. Using good quality skin care products forms a layer on the skin and prevents rays from seeping into the skin. You can use a natural body lotion for your body right after the shower and a good quality light moisturizer on the face. This forms the skin’s moisture barrier and strengthens it throughout the use. 

4. Use a screen protector or blue light glasses

It is recommended that you install a blue light screen protector to decrease the harmful rays emitted by digital gadgets. This clear sheet acts as a barrier on the screen, preventing it from generating blue light.

Keep your phone at arm's reach. It's a simple but powerful technique. Moving the screen away from the skin helps to lessen the harmful effects of blue light. Furthermore, it reduces the overall use of digital gadgets. This not only eliminates the damaging element of blue light, but it also allows the skin to breathe and lighten as the body relaxes.

6. Use night mode on gadgets

It is preferable to set your screen to night mode at night. It is a setting that inhibits blue light while enabling yellow light. It is widely used to relieve eye strain, but it is also an excellent method of preventing skin ageing.

Is blue light all bad and no good? 

A big No! Although blue light may have a harmful influence on your skin when utilised incorrectly, it also has therapeutic capabilities. A blue light device was utilised in one  of the AAD research to treat a patch of psoriasis in persons with mild to severe plaque psoriasis. This was done for four weeks and helped to reduce redness and minimise the size of the patch. There were no significant negative effects.