Smartphone Can Cause Temporary Blindness When Used in the Dark

I know I find the light from my smartphone irritating, and it can keep me awake, but I had no idea that my smartphone can cause temporary blindness.

Here’s the scene at the doctor’s office.

On June 23rd, 2016, the New England Journal reported that two women, aged 22 and 40, experienced what they now call “transient smartphone blindness.” for 15 minutes at a time, and then their vision returns. This went on for months before they each decided to visit the doctor.

The doctor asked each woman what she was doing when the blindness started.

Both women explained that they were web surfing on their smartphones in a pitch-black room before falling asleep. They were laying in bed on one side so that one eye saw the phone and the other was covered by the pillow.

The doctor explained that one eye adapted to the light of the phone, and the other adapted to the dark. When they put the phone down, they couldn’t see with their phone eye. The phone eye was taking several minutes to adapt to the dark.

Read more about transient smartphone blindness

The solution – look at the phone with both eyes.

Dr. Rahul Khurana, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said this was a fascinating hypothesis, but said 2 cases are not enough to prove this was the cause. He and his wife even tried to replicate the scenario but didn’t suffer from the temporary blindness.

If you must, then turn the screen options to night time which changes to light from blue to more yellow, and turn the brightness down as far as you can and still see.

Is surfing your phone at night your best option?

Instead of gluing yourself to your phone, what if you asked yourself:

• What went well for me today?
• What am I grateful for today?
• What am I looking forward to tomorrow?

The best solution, don’t use your phone in the bedroom at night.

There are many other issues with having a phone or other electronics in your bedroom at night.

Bright Lights and EMF in the Bedroom can affect your Sleep

7 Things You Can Do to Protect Yourself from WiFi Radiation

The number 1 item on this list is to turn off your WiFi at night.

Might your exposure to WiFi or Other People Be Affecting your Mood or your Health? Take Our Quiz and Find out!