Is Screen Time Damaging your Eyes?

This sponsored post is a part of the campaign “Protecting America’s Eyes” by Reticare in order to inform U.S. citizens about the importance of eye protection from device screens. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

We spend a lot of time using electronics. Screen time has become so embedded in our daily lives that most of us probably don’t want to know how many hours we spend staring at a screen.

As a work at home mom, who spends way too much time on my computer, I often worry about the effects of too much screen time — for both me and my kids.

I’ve worried about not getting enough activity, the effect it has on my kids (and, who are we kidding, my) attention span, and screen time taking my attention away from other things.

It turns out, I may have been worrying about the wrong thing.

Did you know that exposure to high-energy light can lead to sleep disorders, computer vision syndrome, and a decrease in macular thickness, which can regress to macular degeneration?

These effects are especially damaging to children due to the fact that natural eye lens protection does not complete its development until age 25.

I’ve suffered from insomnia and other sleep issues for years so the possibility of my screen time impacting my sleep is disturbing to me.

As a mom of 6, I already do not get nearly enough sleep. I need all the sleep I can get.

I can certainly limit my kids’ screen time, but since my job requires lots of computer time, there’s no way around it for me.

Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to this.

Simply changing the color of the light that hits your eyes can reduce eye strain and prevent damage.

Reticare makes a great line of eye protector screens and glasses that naturally absorb high-energy light and provide different levels of protection based on the users age and amount of time spend in front of the screen.

Since there are so many screens in our house, we opted to try out a pair of their glasses. I’ve been amazed at what a difference it makes. I feel like it is easier to see the screen, especially after being on the computer for a while. it actually feels like it makes the screen clearer but I think that’s because my eyes don’t have to work as hard.

I can’t say whether it has helped my sleep patterns at all or not yet since my sleep has been interrupted, not by my screen time habits, but by a squirmy 4 year old who doesn’t want to sleep in her own bed but it has certainly helped my headaches and eye strain.

I love that such a simple change can make such a big difference. My Reticare glasses have a permanent spot on my desk and I’ve been encouraging my kids to use them as often as possible.