Blindness on the eye due to smartphone usage at night

Nightly smartphone use: Temporarily blind in one eye
The smartphone has long been indispensable for many people from everyday life. Even if the devices make life easier for us in many areas, frequent use also poses health risks. It can even lead to temporary blindness, scientists report.

Not without my mobile
Chat with friends, surf the Internet, play games, shop or even search for a partner for life: the smartphone is part of everyday life for most people. The constant use also carries some health risks. For example, myopia increases as a result of constant use of smartphones. In addition, people who look at the bright display in the dark can even go blind for a short time. This disturbing effect was observed by British scientists in two patients.

The smartphone is almost indispensable for many people from their everyday lives. Even in the night bedroom it is often still on. But people who look in the dark on the bright display, can even go blind for a short time. (Image: Ana Blazic Pavlovic / fotolia.com)

Temporary blindness due to smartphone use during the night
The bedroom should actually be taboo at night for smartphones. The bright light of the screens disturbs the inner clock of the person and can lead to sleep problems. But this is obviously not the only disturbance emanating from the small device. Because who in the dark looks too long on his phone, may under certain circumstances go blind for a short period of time. A team of doctors from Great Britain reported in the journal "The New England Journal of Medicine".

Tests do not explain
The fact that the bright light of the display can rob us of sleep during the night is not the only consequence of the nocturnal use of the mobile phone. Because like Dr. Gordon Plant of Moorfield's Eye Hospital and his colleagues write that two cases from England have shown that cell phone use in the dark can lead to a short-sightedness. The two women, aged 22 and 40, had independently experienced a temporary blindness in one eye, each lasting up to 15 minutes. Extensive tests followed, but the results of eye and cardiovascular examinations were normal. The review of vitamin A levels, ultrasound, MRA and a thrombophilia screening showed no abnormalities, according to the experts in their article.

Eyes adapt to different lighting conditions
First a questioning by the eye specialist dr. Gordon Plant literally brought light into the darkness: "I simply asked her, 'What exactly did you do when this happened?'", According to an article in the Guardian. It turned out that the women always went blind for a short while after lying in the dark and lying in bed for a few minutes looking at the glaring smartphone screen. That does not sound unusual at first - but because of the lateral lying position they had only looked with one eye, because the other one was covered by the pillow.

"Smartphone blindness" is easily avoidable
"So you have an eye that adapts to the light, because it looks at the phone and an eye that adapts to the darkness," Dr. Plant. After the women had put the smartphone aside, they could therefore see both with the "cell phone eye" nothing more. According to the physician, this would be because "it takes many minutes to catch up with the other eye, which is adapted to the dark." Accordingly, the physicians conclude that the "smartphone blindness" is ultimately harmless and, above all, easily preventable A message from Moorfield Eye Hospital. For those who do not want to give up their mobile phone in the dark bedroom should at least always look at the display with both eyes. (no, ad)