Smartphone Use in the Dark Linked to One-Eyed Blindness: Study
Looking at Your Smartphone at Night with Only One Eye can Cause Temporary Blindness
London researchers found two cases of women with temporary blindness on the same eye for using their smartphone at night. Transient monocular visual loss occurred on both the right eyes of the women because they were using their smartphones in the dark while lying on their left side on the bed.
Temporary Blindness - Transient Monocular Visual Loss
The study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine detailed how women used their smartphones in the dark. They were lying on their left side while holding their phone with their right hand. In both women, their right eye was focused on the lighted device while their left eye was obscured by a pillow. Once they were done using the smartphones, they experienced temporary blindness. The longest temporary blindness lasted for about 15 minutes.
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However, when the doctors had the women look at their smartphones in the dark with two eyes, their blindness disappeared. The researchers successfully recreated the temporary blindness condition in an experiment. The vision problems went away when the subjects used both their eyes as well.
Brightness Adapted Eye Became Blind After Smartphone Use
The temporary blindness occurred because they were looking at their screens with only one eye and that only that eye adapted to the brightness of the screen. The same could not be said for the other eye as it was obscured by a pillow. When the smartphone is taken away, the eye that adapted to the brightness became "blind" as it had to once again adapt to the dark like the other.
More Temporary Blindness Cases in the Future?
At the rate of how many advanced smartphones are being introduced in the market, researchers say that cases of temporary blindness will increase in the future. The emergence of more brightly-lit screens for smartphones doesn't help as well. However, the study opened up a new understanding for doctors to properly diagnose vision problems that may only just be caused by using smartphones at night.
Furthermore, an investigation will be more efficient and less costly for the patient should eye doctors ask detailed questions about their smartphone use especially at night.
Do you think temporary blindness cases will increase in the future as researchers predicted?
