The Effects of Blue Light in Modern Society

Abstract

In the past, more than 150 years ago, incandescent bulb light appeared with red light emitters but technology has evolved to the present and scientist people discovered and promoted ecological lighting by compact fluorescent lamps and light emitting diodes.

In modern society, most of the classic lamps have been replaced with LED technology, much more efficient in terms of the amount of light emitted, as well as energy consumption. Besides these advantages, it also presents some drawbacks that affect our daily life through the structures they come into contact with (skin, eyes) and are intensively studied.

One of the most important and frequent effects of blue light is shown by the link between melanopsin, a photo-pigment present in the retina, responsible for regulating circadian rhythm and sleep-wake cycle, and blue light that go through the eye and reach the retina. So, it explains the increasing incidence of sleep disorders, decreased sleep quality associated with a high degree of fatigue and disturbance of family and social life. But knowing these effects, blue light can be beneficial if used in the first half of the day; in patients with neurocognitive disorders such as patients with Alzheimer’s disease, have been observed an improvement in symptomatology. On short term, blue light stimulates dopamine production, but long-term light exposure has the opposite effect and leads to symptoms such as anxiety, mood swings, inability to focus, lack of insight or self-awareness, low libido.

To be able to prevent the negative effects of blue light, first of all we need to know the devices that affect us and the main “enemies” are right next to us, present in our everyday life: smartphones, tablets, televisions.