These days, everything has to be multipurpose. We have refrigerators that can transmit text messages, tablets that can operate as computers, and microwaves that double as air fryers. Being able to multitask can assist us make sure we cover all the bases when there is not enough time. It makes it reasonable that safety glasses would be used for purposes other than just improving vision.
Perhaps that’s how they got their start, but modern eyewear is so much more. You can flaunt your bright personality, shield your eyes from Ultraviolet and blue light radiation, and see-through glares with the aid of glasses. Which kind of protection from blue light or UV should you prioritize when selecting eyewear?
A clue for you: you may need to select Guardian safety glasses.
Understanding of UV Light
UVA and UVB are the two primary UV light types emitted by the sun. While UVA rays can penetrate farther into the skin and cause damage that may not be immediately apparent, UVB rays are the ones that cause visible harm like sunburns and black spots. For example, UVA rays cause wrinkles and uneven skin tone.
What Effects Does UV Light Have on Eyes?
When you read the word “UV light,” you most often picture the effects it has on the skin, including freckles, wrinkles, and sunburns. However, UV light can impact almost every region of your body because of the domino effect of free radical damage. The following are some ways that ultraviolet (UV) rays can harm the eyes.
Vision Modifications: While having some enjoyment in the sun is something we all enjoy, prolonged exposure to UV radiation can eventually lead to changes in vision such as:
Growths: Pterygiums, Pingueculas, and other growths can develop on the outer layer of your eye because your eye’s surface absorbs nearly all UV rays.
Cataracts: Partially brought on by UV exposure, these are hazy areas surrounding the lens of the eye. They may result in hazy and fuzzy eyesight.
Macular Degeneration: The retina’s macula is responsible for detecting light. The macula may deteriorate from excessive UV radiation exposure, resulting in impaired vision in the middle of your field of vision.
Corneal Damage: The cornea can sustain damage from gazing at the light that reflects such as that reflects off snow or waves. This may result in eye pain and blurred vision. While some of these illnesses cannot be treated, others can be resolved through medical interventions.
Age Spots on the Eyes: Even if you don’t currently have any wrinkles or fine lines anywhere else on your body, you could still get some around your eyes. Even in your twenties and thirties, forehead wrinkles can appear as some of the earliest creases to appear.
Part of the reason for these wrinkles is our habitual expressions on our faces. It is reasonable that this part would get wrinkles initially, considering how frequently we squint or smile. But there’s more to this skin’s predisposition to early aging than UV exposure. UV radiation can harm a cell’s DNA and impair its capacity to make collagen. Your eyes may appear worn out and dated as a result of the whole effect.
Understand Blue Light
The public’s awareness of blue light has grown recently, particularly as we’ve discovered more information about its potential health risks. Blue light is a specific visible light spectrum wavelength. This indicates that blue light is something we are exposed to daily; in fact, almost one-third of the light that we encounter is blue light.
Digital screens, which provide most of this light always surround us. Our phones, TVs, laptops, and some e-readers emit blue light. These days, blue light can even be seen in rather unusual settings, such as dashboards of cars and smart refrigerators.
How Are the Eyes Affected by Blue Light?
The blue light emitted by the sun might assist your brain and keep you awake. Blue light, in its pure form, plays a crucial role in our circadian cycle. Our bodies can sense when to go to sleep and when to get up if we get enough blue light from the sun during the day, as well as in the morning hours and late evening.
That’s not the only way that blue light can harm our health. Here are some more effects of blue light on the eyes.
Increasing Vision Issues
The way vision functions is because our eyes have been created to eliminate light and convert it into images. Our eyes aren’t designed to take in the huge amounts of blue light we are exposed to these days. Most of the blue rays that enter our eyes travel via the front to the retinas. This continuous overexposure can eventually cause cataracts, growths in the eye, and macular degeneration.
Adds on Eye Strain
Have you ever experienced eye pain or dryness, possibly accompanied by impaired vision? If this sensation eventually goes away, it can be eye strain. Everybody has occasionally experienced eye strain and excessive blue light exposure can exacerbate eye strain. In addition, since most individuals don’t blink when they focus on anything, this also contributes to eye strain when staring at the computer screen.
Blue light glasses vs. UV protection glasses
Now that we are aware of the differences between blue and UV light, which of them needs to shield your eyes from? However, radiation from both sources might harm your eyes. Even if you shield your eyes from one kind of radiation, you can still be vulnerable to harm from another. Finding the best eye protection like Guardian prescription safety glasses that shields you from both is essential if you wish to give your eyes the greatest chance of staying healthy, especially if you spend a lot of time in front of screens for work or pleasure.
The Final Word
UV rays can cause severe damage to your eyes besides your skin. The solution is straightforward when deciding whether to protect your eyes from UV rays or blue light: Choose both. Blue light coatings for our Guardian safety frames are simple to apply at SEG. If you’re buying Plano or prescription sunglasses, you can also add choices for customizing the lenses, such as polarization and reflective coatings. Your daily eye protection can be optimized in this way.
