Did you know that LED grow lights are bad for your eyes?
Were you aware that not wearing LED sunglasses can cause permanent damage to your sight?
Well, you’re not on your own if you don’t, as far too many people still don’t understand the dangers involved.
Rather than being an overly cautious measure or an excuse to sell us yet another product we don’t actually need, protective glasses are a very necessary part of indoor growing.
Should you be concerned about exposure to LED grow lights that often emit a very specific band of light wavelengths?
Perhaps not if it’s only for a moment, but when spending hours tending to your plants – then absolutely! And here’s why.
So, What Types of LED Lights Can Hurt Our Vision?
When spending hours exposed to LED grow lights, the damage caused will depend largely on the intensity and color, as well as the amount of time you’re under them.
When you don’t have the protection afforded by good quality LED sunglasses, any light can hurt your eyes if it’s bright enough.
There are certain types of light that cause much more eye damage than others, with much smaller amounts required.
It all depends on where they appear on the electromagnetic spectrum. Essentially, the shorter the light wavelength, the more likely it is that it will hurt you.
Both UV light and blue light – often used for indoor growing – fall into this category, with UV light being the worst offender.
Within this, UV rays are further categorized by, UVA, UVB, and UVC rays being contained within and UVA being the nearest variety to the visible light that surrounds us every day.
When talking about the sun, it has all of them – hence its ability to support all life on earth.
The reason why LED sunglasses are even a thing is that LED grow lights tend to contain an awful lot of blue light that comes from UV diodes.
The more intense the color, the more likely it is to cause damage to the delicate organ that is the eye.
Grow lights that emit these frequencies don’t require you to stare into them to cause damage either, as the scattered light can cause incremental damage indirectly and the longer the grower spends it in without protective gear, the more the damage adds up.
LED Lights Are Even More Complex
Exposure to too much blue light can also play havoc with your sleep, as it can have an impact on your circadian rhythm.
Your body is conditioned to feel more awake when the bluer parts of the light spectrum are present during daylight hours and more sleepy when they disappear towards the end of the day.
Introduce it at the wrong time of the day and you may have trouble sleeping at the right point of the day.
Don’t Take Chances With Your Vision
LED sunglasses aren’t just a fancy-looking accessory to buy to make you look cool while you’re tending your plants – they’re a bonafide safety measure that you shouldn’t forget to wear – ever.
Sure, squinting away in a grow room isn’t going to cause lasting damage if it’s only for a few minutes, but even then you will likely notice that for a few moments after, your color perception isn’t quite 100%.
Serious eye issues like macro degeneration (a permanent eye problem) can result from prolonged exposure to this kind of light.
It’s just not worth taking the risk when you’re only talking about $50 or so.
This is such an important thing to remember that we thought it was creating this blog.
If just one person gets to retain their 20-20 vision because they read it, then it was absolutely worth the time it took to write.