How Poor Lighting Can Affect Your Eyes
When your mom insisted that you read only with proper lighting, she was right and she still is.
Reading in poor lightdoes affect your eyes, and you may not realize it until you get your first pair of glasses.
Good if you're twenty and still having perfect 20/20 vision.
But you'll never really know when you'll start feeling the effects.
To prevent diminishing your visual acuity (your eyes' ability to distinguish visual details), always make sure you read with enough illumination.
That won't go only with your home lighting, but more especially in your office where you'll be needing all that light to focus on what you're doing.
If you're still not convinced why you need just the right amount of light when reading or working on your desk, consider the following effects of poor lighting on your eyes: 1.
Photoreceptors need to double their efforts.
If you read with poor lighting, photoreceptors in your retina, the rods and cones, need to produce more chemicals that will allow you to see what you're reading.
These chemicals are important because they are the ones that allow you to perceive light so it can be sent to your brain through electrical signals and you are able to distinguish the letters and make sense of what you're reading.
2.
Visual muscles are confused by mixed signals.
Normally, the iris relaxes when in a dark environment or when there is insufficient lighting.
But when you're reading, you are forcing it to contract so that it can focus on those letters and you can actually see them.
That means you are giving those eye muscles a hard time deciding whether to relax, which is its normal behavior when in low light, or contract in order to give you a focused image.
3.
Retinal nerve cells are forced to adapt to the lack of lighting.
Retinal nerve cells are those that allow you to experience visual sensations.
Because photoreceptors in your retina need to work overtime to allow you to see or read in poor lighting, the nerve cells in this part of your eye also need to adapt to these changes by increasing their sensitivity to light.
Again, this means additional load for those eye muscles to give you a visual sensation.
There is no evidence that reading in the dark causing any serious health or visual problems.
However, there is a recent discovery that indicates reading in poor lighting can be a cause of nearsightedness.
This has yet to be proven though, but in general, anything that is overworked usually gives at one point or another, eye muscles included.
So it's good to invest in good lighting, whether at home or the office.
Reading in poor lightdoes affect your eyes, and you may not realize it until you get your first pair of glasses.
Good if you're twenty and still having perfect 20/20 vision.
But you'll never really know when you'll start feeling the effects.
To prevent diminishing your visual acuity (your eyes' ability to distinguish visual details), always make sure you read with enough illumination.
That won't go only with your home lighting, but more especially in your office where you'll be needing all that light to focus on what you're doing.
If you're still not convinced why you need just the right amount of light when reading or working on your desk, consider the following effects of poor lighting on your eyes: 1.
Photoreceptors need to double their efforts.
If you read with poor lighting, photoreceptors in your retina, the rods and cones, need to produce more chemicals that will allow you to see what you're reading.
These chemicals are important because they are the ones that allow you to perceive light so it can be sent to your brain through electrical signals and you are able to distinguish the letters and make sense of what you're reading.
2.
Visual muscles are confused by mixed signals.
Normally, the iris relaxes when in a dark environment or when there is insufficient lighting.
But when you're reading, you are forcing it to contract so that it can focus on those letters and you can actually see them.
That means you are giving those eye muscles a hard time deciding whether to relax, which is its normal behavior when in low light, or contract in order to give you a focused image.
3.
Retinal nerve cells are forced to adapt to the lack of lighting.
Retinal nerve cells are those that allow you to experience visual sensations.
Because photoreceptors in your retina need to work overtime to allow you to see or read in poor lighting, the nerve cells in this part of your eye also need to adapt to these changes by increasing their sensitivity to light.
Again, this means additional load for those eye muscles to give you a visual sensation.
There is no evidence that reading in the dark causing any serious health or visual problems.
However, there is a recent discovery that indicates reading in poor lighting can be a cause of nearsightedness.
This has yet to be proven though, but in general, anything that is overworked usually gives at one point or another, eye muscles included.
So it's good to invest in good lighting, whether at home or the office.
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