With people on their devices more and more, diseases and conditions of all kinds have developed – one of them being eye issues. In our office, we measure intraocular pressure (pressure in the eye) because patients come to us with a wide array of symptoms, often related to vision, including blurry vision, eye strain, headaches behind the eyes, pressure in the eyes, floaters, flashes, bulging, and all sorts of other issues. In short, many of these conditions can be resolved by addressing the underlying cause of the problem – loose supporting structures in the neck (typically due to excessive face-down posture and device usage). By strengthening these structures with natural healing injections into these support structures, these conditions can resolve.
But what else can we be doing to improve eye function, reduce, eye strain, and improve sleep? Blue light from our computers, tablets, and cell phones can strain your eyes. We don’t blink enough when using them, sit too close to our devices, expose our eyes to glare and brightness, and spend long hours looking at the computer. Taking breaks and reducing time with the devices is good for us for MANY reasons.
What about the blue blocker glasses? From Mercola.com: “Blue light rays are the shortest wavelengths of light and constitute one-third of all the sunlight we see. But smartphones, computers, tablets, e-readers, TV’s and LED and fluorescent lights also emit blue light and have significantly added to the amount of blue light we now receive. There are many well-documented risks associates with exposure to blue light from these electronic devices, one being impaired sleep…” Dr. Mercola goes on to site researchers at Manchester University who recently found that blue light actually helped mice sleep better – opposite of current beliefs. However, the caveat is that mice are nocturnal animals, so they are active at night – so we cannot necessarily compare this to humans. He summarizes by stating that studies have linked blue light with many serious effects including macular degeneration, insulin resistance, metabolic disorders, mitochondrial dysfunction, myopia, eye strain, and even cancer. So it is still best to try to avoid excessive exposure to it.
You can try some blue blocker glasses – and some people find them very helpful – especially if they work in front of a computer all day. If you can, we encourage everyone to cut back on device use, TV watching, and unplug (and the reasons for this are many!) Do not read from a device right before bed, sleep in darkness, keep the room cool around 70 degrees or less, move electrical devices away from the bed, reserve the bed for sleeping, and adopt a neutral sleeping position that supports your head, neck, and back properly.
We all need rest. We all need to disconnect. As NIKE says, “just do it!” With or without your blue blocker glasses.
