Is blue light harming my kid’s development?
Computers, phones, tablets are all part of a kid’s life these days. It’s alarming, but according to research, screen-time has significantly increased to 3+ hours/day on average, and up to 6 hours/day for kids learning online. What is this doing to their health? Is there a difference between the short-term and long-term damage?
Health issues from exposure to blue light in the short-term
The artificial blue light emitted by electronic devices has been shown to impact our kid’s health in the short-term, both psychologically and physiologically:
- Poor sleep
- Behavioral issues
- Brain fog
- Eyestrain and blurred vision
- Headaches and migraines
What about the long-term effects from blue light?
The long-term health implications are yet to be fully understood but there is evidence to suggest that blue light exposure is contributing to the increase in chronic health issues, like diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and a condition of the eyes called macular degeneration.
Much of the concern relates to the lack of sleep kids are experiencing, due to the over exposure to blue light at night. The issue is declining mitochondria health. Mitochondria are our cell’s engines, generating the energy for our bodies to function and stay alive. The millions of mitochondria within our cells are repaired daily as we sleep, with melatonin. Melatonin is released when the sun sets and darkness occurs. But nowadays, our kid’s environment is brightened with light bulbs and screens, tricking their brains to believe it is still daytime. As a result, melatonin isn’t being released at sufficient levels for sleep and critical mitochondria repair.
Extensive research by Dr. Doug Wallace, a world-expert on mitochondrial medicine, proves that all modern chronic diseases, including cancer, type 1 & 2 diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, ADHD, and depression are diseases of mitochondria dysfunction.
Protecting kids from blue light at night, so they can sleep well, is of upmost importance for their long-term health!
What are the common sources of blue light kids are exposed to?
We all think of blue light from the screens they are staring at, but it’s also being emitted by light bulbs, with levels particularly high in the new LED energy efficient modern ones. We don’t just turn light bulbs on at night either. It’s likely they are under them all day long, at school too. And remember the small light we turn on at night-time in their bedrooms that is supposedly helping them to sleep…the cute unicorn or starry night light…You think it might be scaring away the monsters under the bed; instead the blue light is activating the release of cortisol which gives them the energy to get out of bed and come crawling into yours… There are red night lights available as a better alternative to the white, full of blue light ones…
Five things you can do to help prevent blue light affecting their health
- Wear a pair of glasses expertly developed to block 100% harmful blue light at night.
- During the daytime, for protection indoors at school or home, wear glasses that block 95% of blue light emitted by light bulbs and screens.
- Turn off screens one hour before bedtime.
- Get kids outside in the natural light daily. Sunlight and even light through cloud cover, helps to regulate the body’s natural sleep/wake cycle, the circadian rhythm, leading to better sleep that night.
- Use a red night light for little ones that need to chase the monsters away…
Our kids frame collection is designed for kids between the ages of 4-10 years. And knowing kids are sometimes picky...we made sure the styles are something they would look cool wearing. Check out Photon Blue, Spectral Eyes, and Quantum Green. All are available with Day and Night lenses.
For those above 10, we recommend our smaller sized frames in the full collection - the Nates and the Clydes are the favorites.
Check out the size chart for details on each frame.
