Has increased screen time during lockdown given you 'tech skin'?

The blue light emitted by LED screens can lead to premature ageing. Here's how to guard against its effects

19 April 2020 - 00:02 By nokubonga thusi
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Look after your skin, even during lockdown when you're indoors.
Look after your skin, even during lockdown when you're indoors.
Image: Getty Images/Rosdiana Ciaracolo

Are you spending a little extra screen time on your devices for those Zoom meetings, family video calls or bingeing on the latest IG Live content? We know the feeling. Sadly, as much as whiling away the time during lockdown this way is a plus, the effect it's having on your skin is not.

The LED screens on our devices emit a high-energy visible light (HEV), or blue light, which not only disrupts your body's ability to make the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin, but also the skin's ability to regenerate properly overnight. This leads to premature signs of ageing and sleep deprivation.

“As we are constantly exposed to light, all the frequencies of light have the potential to damage skin, so we have to protect daily,” says Dr Bradley Wagemaker, medical director at Lamelle Research Laboratories. That's why it is important to religiously apply moisturisers with antioxidant, SPF formulas and light filters that will protect skin from blue light damage.

Other practical things to enforce are reducing your screen time throughout the day and activating your night mode, which you can set the time period for, so that your phone screen light dims from a bright cool light to a warmer yellow light and reminds you to take a break or sleep.


Image: Supplied

1. Payot Blue Techni Liss Weekend Peeling Mask 25g R145 from Dis-Chem.
2. Dermalogica Phyto Nature Firming Serum 40ml R2,599.
3. Nimue Sun-C Environmental Shield SPF 50 50ml R690.
4. SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic 30ml R2,385 from Derma Store.
5. Uriage Age Protect Multi-Action Eye Contour 15ml R625.


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