The downgrading of blue light follows the theory that the use of dim, cooler, lights in the evening contrasted with the use of bright warmer lights during daytime may be more beneficial to human health. This is because twilight is dimmer and bluer compared with daylight.
According to scientists from the University of Manchester, since the body clock uses the features of dimmer light and blue-light to determine the appropriate times to be asleep and awake, the use of these lights created artificially are not as harmful in terms of ‘screen time’ than early studies suggest.
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Blue light (which has wavelengths 400-450 nm) has been subject to many scientific inquiries into the impact on people. Many electronic screens produce blue light, since white LEDs are created by pairing a blue LED with a lower-energy phosphor, which generates creating solid-state light (SSL).
The new research used a mouse mode where specially designed lighting where the researchers could adjust co lour without changing brightness, demonstrated how blue colors produced weaker effects on the mouse body clock compared with bright yellow colors.
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Lead researcher Dr. Tim Brown summarizes the experimental outcome: “We show the common view that blue light has the strongest effect on the clock is misguided; in fact, the blue colors that are associated with twilight have a weaker effect than white or yellow light of equivalent brightness.”
The new research is published in the journal Current Biology. The research paper is titled “Cones Support Alignment to an Inconsistent World by Suppressing Mouse Circadian Responses to the Blue Colors Associated with Twilight.”
