Fighting Blue Light

We’ve all heard that UVA and UVB rays emanating from the sun can cause premature aging and other skin problems. While we focus on addressing that with sunblock to help protect our skin, a lot of research has brought up the fact that blue light emitting from our digital devices can be just as harmful to our skin.

What is blue light?

Blue light, also known as HEV (High Energy Visible) light, comes from the sun or digital devices such as mobile phones, computers and all our other favourite digital devices.

It can cause harm to the skin by generating free radicals. The presence of these free radicals could lead to oxidative stress therefore causing the skin to loss its youthfulness.

What are the effects of blue light?

Blue light, just like the UVA and UVB rays, is just as harmful or if not more harmful as it can affect our health on the whole. Here’s how:

• The exposure to blue light at night tricks the skin into thinking its “day time”, affecting our skin’s natural repair system. This could result in signs of ageing.

• Exposure to blue light can affect our natural circadian rhythm, as it will impact the levels of melatonin, a hormone responsible for sleep. Ultimately it would make it more and more difficult for us to fall asleep.

• According to several studies, Blue light could take on a more active role in influencing the production of pigmentation as compared to UV light. 

• Compared to UVA and UVB rays, blue light can penetrate deeper into the dermis layer of our skin. The dermis layer often contains collagen and elastin which are responsible for ensuring our skin stays healthy and youthful. However if blue light accesses this area, it could disrupt the structures in the dermis layer causing our skin to age.

How can we protect ourselves from blue light damage?

Some help from our devices

One way to reduce the damage caused by blue light, is to make use of the “night mode” or “nightshift”. This could make it easier on the eyes and skin, which could be a great reducer of the damage it can cause.

Applying skin care with antioxidants

Although our skin has naturally produces Vitamin E, it gets reduced drastically when exposed to free radicals such as UV light, Blue light or pollution. To supplement that, using skincare with antioxidant ingredients could provide a boost to the skin’s defence against oxidative environmental damage.

As such many cosmetic brands are understanding the need to provide products which help to protect our skin from pollution not only from the environment but our devices too. Take for instance, Revlon’s Photoready Candid range that is aimed at anti-pollution or anti-blue light.

UV rays are mostly the focus when it came to skin damage. However in recent years, more and more research has shown that Blue light can actually do more damage than UV rays. Blue light emits from sources like the sun and our digital devices that we use every day. Prevention needs to be taken in order to reduce the damage it can cause.