The lights are brighter than ever. Is this bad for your eyes?

A few years ago, Mary Gloskamb Perez started noting the brightness of severe headlights in Washington, where she lived – and felt bombed. “You wander around a curve and get these headlights in your face,” she says. “It makes you lose the reaction time. It is a real danger to safety.”

As an American actress, she is a job To change the federal regulations to reduce how to be bright headlights. Representative Gluesenkamp Perez- who also participates in the founder of the auto repair store in addition to its political service-although the safety of vehicle has improved in the past decade, the total deaths on the roads Rise. Female accidents occur Unparalleled at nightWith the brightness of the lamp.

It is not just the headlights. Our eyes are increasingly exposed by the advertisements of the highly advertising board, amazing street lights, and incandescent personal screens. The resulting glow can affect the long -term vision. “The high -density lights may be harmful because it focuses a lot of brightness in a small area,” says Jacqueline Bowen, president of the American Optics Association.

Here are what experts think about the risks of bright artificial lights and how to protect your eyes.

A bright new world

LED lights showed brightness in our environments. Compared to previous technologies, LED lights shine more Focus, beam directed In particular, the intense blue light package: the high -energy wavelength in the natural daylight.

He invented in the 1960s, LEDS was not adopted until the nineties, when engineers developed More efficient and long -term versions. Since then, LED lights have been RelyEnhancing vision and even productivity.

But they too Blame to Universal light pollutionVideo even from the International Space Station. Here on the ground, the additional blue light leads to complaints. LED headlights are Especially annoying. GlueSESENKAMP Perez recently conducted a poll in which he said approximately 70 % of its components and followers are very bright. The National Road Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Time said: Among the personalized vehicles manufactured in 2023, about 3 out of 4 had led the headlights.

LED laptops, tablets and other screens are a more treachery but continuous LED light. Do you remember my mother, who tells you not to stare in the light bulbs? Well, “The screen is just a flat lamp,” Bowen explains, and about a third of us stare on such screens More than seven hours daily.

Blind light

This intense light can harm the health of the eye. We do not know the extent of the problem. Experts say that people born after the first first decade of the twentieth century are participating in a normal experience in testing how their eyes will persevere throughout the life of bright exposure to light.

Even fireworks look brighter recently. Dr. Joshua Danayev was watching a night show at The Fajor Rocky Steps in Philadelphia on the fourth of last July. Although LED lamps are not having an incredibly bright fireworks, “he says. Professor of Eye Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Dunaef knows a lot about the risks of leaving its shadows at home.

“Excessive light can harm the retina.”

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An extreme example is a glow of the sun. Looking at it for a long time can create a permanent blind spot. Deniev says that modern technologies – such as fireworks, front lamps and personal screens – say much less intense than sunlight, but cumulative exposure can be harmful over time. However, researchers were unable to calculate these exposure.

If the stable bright lights destroy our eyes slowly, it may nourish more cases of age -related macular degeneration, or AMD, which already It affects 11 million Americans. It can also contribute to the cataracts and sunburn that is called opticalitis.

Eye color plays a role in an individual’s ability. Because blue and green eyes have a lower dye, it transmits more light to the retina Risk From damage, on average, from darker eyes, says dunaief.

The safety of the driver

People with some eye conditions are more affected by bright light. Especially in people with such disorders, the bright LED can contribute to eye pain and traffic accidents when driving at night.

LED headlights produce a large glow, making it difficult to distinguish between one object, and it is called the sensitivity of contrast. “You may miss things that you will usually see if there are no headlights or dim watches,” says Cennatia Osley, who studies the effect of aging on vision at Alabama University in Birmingham.

The headlights may also cause bleaching, as the explosion of the light over the neurons dominates the retina. They must reset before the light sensing again. “It is very uncomfortable and makes it difficult to see for several seconds,” says Danayev.

The bright light tends to affect the elderly more. Osli says that those who suffer from AMD, in particular, may see fine during the day, but at night, they may take longer to recover than light flashes. This interferes with Childing of pedestriansalso. As Owsley gets old and developed the condition of the eye, it avoids night driving due to these vision problems.

Danger and damage AMD He increases After the age of 65, but the bright lights also affect young people. One interpretation Dry eyeWhere the tear -tear layer becomes uneven, scattered for light for more glow. “It is like having a dirty windshield,” says Bowen, which says worse, says Bowen.

Read more: Dry eyes fight? Here’s what really helps

Decorations are usually when people get a chronic dry dryness, but some autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren Syndrome This caused young people. Many screen time is the other perpetrator. When focusing on the screens, our reaction is respression. “It is a horrific thing about the amount of tear gland loss in adolescents,” says Bowen. the condition It may decompose She adds that a long -term vision.

The repair – in addition to reducing the screen time – is simply reminding yourself of more flashing. You can also use Reinstalization of drops (As long as they are free of preservatives), but these drops provide very temporary comfort, says Dunaef.

“What is difficult is that people with dehydration often do not feel dehydrated,” Boen added. So if you notice the bright lights that hurt your eyes at night, this may be the only waking call to set an appointment with the ophthalmologist to check whether a condition such as dry eye explains this.

“Much of this is due to individual differences,” says Osli. “Some people are very sensitive. But if you are young and I have difficulty driving at night, I will definitely see an ophthalmologist.”

Protect your eyes from bright light

For eye health, “the best strategy is prevention,” says Osli. “Even in the 1940s, you should have comprehensive eye tests” with an ophthalmologist or ophthalmologist. If a problem is determined, they can start treating it.

Nutrition can also help. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Find Two antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin, reduce the risk of AMD. It is abundant in green leafy vegetables such as spinach and turnip, as well as yellow and orange pepper. Reducing blue light sources at night (which can also Sleep). If you are watching screens, Dunaief recommends using Programs like f.lux To reduce blue light and brightness.

When you are on the road, look at your path instead of the upcoming traffic. Dunaief tries to look a little on the right of its hot. Trace research It indicates that the modernity of the very bright headlights attracts people to look at them. This increases exposure to description and recovery time.

Read more: Amazing health benefits for hot food

It may also be aimed at a preventive strike: some evidence indicates that the most recent car drivers with bright headlights enter into fewer incidents related to glow. “Laboratory experiments refer to more driver’s vision, whenever they are affected by the glow from other sources,” says Brompello.

In 2022, NHTSA Put the final touches on the base To allow a new LED front lamp, the symptoms of adaptive driving, which prevent parts of the package “to ensure that other drivers do not glow” while maintaining vision, according to NHTSA. BROMBEOW says they are promising, but a few American manufacturers have added these headlights because the regulations make it difficult. Europe allowed them More than a decade.

Meanwhile, to help ensure that the bright headlights do not cause an accident, the maintenance is the key, says GluesESENKAMP Perez. “Old LEDS can start flashing and merging – another danger to more glow,” she says.

More data is needed about LED headlights and the safety of the driver. Brombilo has Find The high -ranking headlights of the IIHS for the vision – which include many headlights, not all LED, were 19 % less than night accidents compared to cars with bad front vision.

It is difficult to follow the incidents caused by glow, but the prices seem very low, according to Bombello. “When glow is a worker, drivers are likely to be older.”

The elderly may benefit from eyelid surgery – falling eyelids reflect bright light directly in the eyes. Dr. Charles Hermann, a plastic surgeon in a special practice near Philadelphia, says the main reason for his visit to people to perform eyelid surgery is complaints about glow from bright lights. (From the paradoxes, it is also lesson How bright lights in the operations room harming surgeons.)

People of all ages can consider obtaining night driving glasses, which reduces blue and glow – but protect the lenses. If it is scratched or stained, it creates more Glow, as your windshield does, says Bowen.