John Stan

Blue Light is the specific section of the visible light spectrum that can have harmful effects to our eyes and sleep.

Artificial blue light is emitted from LED lighting and from digital devices. Our close proximity to the device when viewing, especially over long periods of time, means that the harmful blue light can affect us and our children’s wellbeing.

The rays of the sun may appear to be colorless, but they're actually made up of red, blue, orange, yellow, green and violet hues. Red and orange are located at one end of the visible light spectrum, while blue and violet are at the other.

Red rays have long wavelengths, but produce less energy. At the other end of the spectrum, the wavelengths are shorter, but the energy is stronger. Because blue rays emit higher amounts of energy, they're more likely to affect your eyes.

Most of your exposure to blue light comes from the sun, but you can't avoid exposure simply by staying indoors. In addition to computer monitors and smartphones, blue light is produced by tablets, LED and fluorescent lights, LED light from TVs and compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Although blue light plays an important role in maintaining the sleep/wake cycle, regulating your mood and keeping your memory sharp, it may harm your eyes.

Long exposure to blue light may have been responsible for your symptoms. Blue light lowers the contrast on screens, causing the condition. Other factors that can contribute to eyestrain include poor lighting, failing to take regular breaks, less frequent blinking and dry air.

Long-term exposure to blue light may increase your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD occurs when the macula, the area of the retina responsible for central vision, is damaged.

It is known that light exposure suppresses melatonin secretion. Melatonin is a hormone which can influence circadian rhythms. Lower melatonin levels may explain the preliminary evidence of links to cancer.

Fluorescent light bulbs and LED lights do provide more energy efficiency than traditional incandescent bulbs. They also give off more blue light. Incandescent lights do produce some blue light, although less than most of the fluorescent light bulbs available.

During the two to three hours right before bed, avoid viewing bright screens.

Wear blue-blocking glasses or download an app to filter blue and green wavelength at night. This will help those that need to use electronic devices at night and individuals working night shifts.

Red light has the least influence on the circadian rhythm. Consider using dim red lights in bedrooms.

Add screen filters to computer screens, tablets and smart phones to reduce blue light emissions.

Use computer glasses that have yellow-tinted lenses that increase contrast and help block blue light.

Wear anti-reflective lenses to block blue light from digital devices and the sun.

Consider choosing an Intraocular lens (IOL) that protects eyes from blue light. This will replace a cloudy lens during cataract surgery.

For children, especially from birth to age three, the crystal lenses in their eyes are not fully developed. So it goes straight through, it causes a lot more damage in children’s eyes than it does in adults.

Blue light does affect the body’s circadian rhythm, our natural wake and sleep cycle. During the day, blue light wakes us up and stimulates us. But too much blue light exposure late at night from your phone, tablet or computer can make it harder to get to sleep.

Blue light from computer screens and digital devices can decrease contrast leading to digital eyestrain. Fatigue, dry eyes, bad lighting, or how you sit in front of the computer can cause eyestrain. Symptoms of eyestrain include sore or irritated eyes and difficulty focusing.

Studies suggest that continued exposure to blue light over time could lead to damaged retinal cells. This can cause vision problems like age-related macular degeneration.

After cataract surgery, the cloudy lens will be replaced with an intraocular lens (IOL). The lens naturally protects the eye from almost all ultraviolet light and some blue light. There are types of IOL that can protect the eye and retina from blue light.

Screen filters are available for smart phones, tablets, and computer screens. They decrease the amount of blue light given off from these devices that could reach the retina in our eyes.

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.

If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

Thank you is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.

Gratitude always comes into play; research shows that people are happier if they are grateful for the positive things in their lives, rather than worrying about what might be missing.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first or the last time, then your time on earth will be filled with glory.

When you give and carry out acts of kindness, it’s as though something inside your body responds and says, ‘Yes, this is how I ought to feel.

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives.

Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.

Inspiration and genius – one and the same.

To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says: “Leave no stone unturned."

If you would create something, you must be something.

Every artist was first an amateur.

The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be.

Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself.

Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration?

No great man ever complains of want of opportunities.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all they can.

Men’s best successes come after their disappointments.

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. – Destitutus ventis, remos adhibe

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

The best way out is always through.

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Fortune favors the brave.

When the best things are not possible, the best may be made of those that are.

He who hesitates is lost.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

For hope is but the dream of those that wake.

Constant dripping hollows out a stone.

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose–a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

You can't always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.

Once you accept, truly accept, that stuff will happen to you and there is nothing you can do about it, stress miraculously leaves your life.

The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.

We all have those things that even in the midst of stress and disarray, they energize us and give us renewed strength and purpose. These are our passions.

Remember that stress doesn't come from what's going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what's going on in your life.

Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things.

Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started.

Take chances, make mistakes--that is how we grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.

In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.

You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find they haven't half the strength you thought they have.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.