Zoom meetings, Netflix binging, and TikTok-ing, oh my!
With social distancing in place, certain lockdown measures have accelerated our exposure to digital screen time with daily zoom meetings, virtual workouts, binging on even more Netflix series (remember Tiger King?) and creating TikToks in our kitchens.
What is blue light?
Essentially, blue light is a type of visible light. Blue light has a shorter wavelength, meaning it produces higher amounts of energy. Blue light can be emitted from any screen, such as your phone, laptop, TV, Nintendo Switch, the list goes on! You've probably heard about how blue light can strain your eyes and cause migraines (thank goodness for blue light glasses) and effect your sleep cycle, but blue light also effects your skin.
What are the effects of blue light on your skin?
According to Dr. Joshua Zeichner, "HEV light penetrates deeply into the skin. In fact, it penetrates to deeper levels than even ultraviolet light. Fortunately, energy levels from our devices are low. However, long-term exposure can still have a significant impact on your skin." That being said, there are some intense long-term effects of blue light on the skin, such as dryness, fine lines and wrinkles.
Just like how we protect our skin from harmful UV rays with SPF (a year round essential), we need protect our skin from High Energy Visible Light (HEVL) which is how we categorize blue light.
How to protect your skin from blue light?
Here are a few little things you can do every day to help prevent the long-term damage and effects of blue light on your skin:
Protect the Skin
It’s time to switch your phone to airplane mode, sit back and relax with our new biodegradable sheet mask, which helps to protect your skin from Blue Light, known to cause premature skin aging and inflammation.
Minimize Screen Time
One way to prevent the long-term effects of blue light on your skin, is by reducing your screen time. In March, The Washington Post reported that "screentimes are through the roof." Lucky for us, most smartphones have a screen time report feature that gives you a break down of hours spent on each application. You can even set notifications to limit time on certain apps (umm TikTok). A good way to substitute screen time is by reading a good book, the latest magazine, or going for a walk.
Adjust Brightness
One of our favourite tips to reduce your blue light exposure, is to adjust the lighting and brightness on all of our devices. In your device settings, you can adjust the warmth or coolness of the light (cool = blue light). Jenna from our marketing team sets her work laptop to "Night mode" during working hours to reduce the amount of blue light coming from her screens. You can set most devices and even most applications to "night mode" or "dark mode" to help with this.
How to protect your skin from blue light:
- Blue light defending skincare products
- Minimizing screen time
- Adjusting brightness on your devices