hink you’re exposed to an excessive amount of blue light? Higher give yourself a little bit break out of your favorite gadgets now. A recent study has found that the harmful effects of blue light is strongly age-dependent and the damages it causes will worsen as you age.

For a study, published within the Nature Partner Journals Aging, researchers used the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as they’re considered a reliable model organism. They’ve similar cellular and developmental mechanisms seen in humans and other animals.

The team led by Jaga Giebultowicz, a scientist on the Oregon State University (OSU) College of Science, conducted experiments on flies kept in darkness after which exposed to continual blue light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs), at different ages.

The flies were exposed to light at two, 20, 40 and 60 days as researchers studied the impact on their mitochondria.

Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cells and is accountable for generating energy in the shape of adenosine triphosphate or ATP.

“The novel aspect of this recent study is showing that chronic exposure to blue light can impair energy-producing pathways even in cells that should not specialized in sensing light,” Giebultowicz said. “We determined that specific reactions in mitochondria were dramatically reduced by blue light, while other reactions were decreased by age independent of blue light. You possibly can consider it as blue light exposure adding insult to injury in aging flies.”

Aside from LED bulbs, people can get exposed to blue light from on a regular basis devices like television, computer and laptop. There are studies that time to the harmful effects of blue light on one’s eating and sleeping patterns.

“This technology, LED lighting, even in most developed countries, has not been used long enough to know its effects across the human lifespan,” Giebultowicz said.

“There are increasing concerns that prolonged exposure to artificial light, especially blue-enriched LED light, could also be detrimental to human health. While the total effects of blue light exposure across the lifespan should not yet known in humans, accelerated aging observed in short-lived model organisms should alert us to the potential of cellular damage by this stressor,” she explained.

Their previous research showed long exposure to blue light had dire consequences on the brain, motor abilities and lifespan of the fruit fly.

“Now we’re reporting that the damaging effects of blue light on the flies are strongly age-dependent – the identical length of exposure to the identical intensity of sunshine decreases lifespan and increases neurodegeneration more significantly in old flies than in young ones,” she said.

People can take some precautions to safeguard themselves from the harmful effects of blue light. Spectacles with blue-light filters will be used to guard the retina. Also, the display settings in your phones and laptops could possibly be modified to stop blue-light emissions.