Do LED Strip Lights Hurt Your Eyes? – All You Need to Know!

Do LED Strip Lights Hurt Your Eyes? That is undoubtedly a primary concern nowadays since everyone is decorating their house with LED strip lights. 

LED strip lights can hurt your eyes depending on their quality and how you install them. 

Preventing such damage involves learning about LED strip lights and correctly positioning them.

The guide below will address everything so you can safely use your favorite LED strip lights.

Do LED Strip Lights Hurt Your Eyes?

If you expose yourself to bright lights for too long, your eyes will hurt. That is independent of the type of light you have installed in your room.

However, a curiosity remains: do LED lights hurt more or less than other lights?

Can one take any cautions to avoid getting the eyes damaged from exposure?

We will cover all of that in the topics below. However, before we get to the proper answer, it is essential that you understand the technology of LED lights. 

We will get just a bit technical so that you can better understand and protect yourself adequately.

What LED Is Made Of

The acronym LED is an abbreviation for the term Light Emitting Diode.

The LED is a semiconductor electronic component composed of silicon or germanium crystal.

Its operation uses the same technology as computer chips that can transform energy into light, comprising blue wavelengths, invisible ultraviolet (UV), or violet.

What Are The Small Components?

A phosphor layer is added on top of the blue LED to produce the different LED color temperatures. It holds the energy that comes from the LED waves. 

In this way, the stimulus occurs for the phosphor layer to be lit, generating low-energy yellow light. Thus, part of the blue light is transformed into white light. 

The amount of phosphorus dye determines the shade of white. Thus the variations known as warm, neutral, and cold white are obtained.

Commercial LED lamps add yellow-emitting phosphors and blue LEDs in their composition to reproduce a light that resembles daylight.

LED, Incandescent, and Fluorescent

An ordinary incandescent light bulb transforms less than 10% of the energy that passes through it into the light.

The other 90% is lost in the form of heat. That is why the temperature rises when the lights are on for a long time.

Fluorescent lamps use less energy than incandescent lamps. However, they contain mercury (which is a toxic component) in their composition.

LED lamps produce the same amount of Lumens as incandescent and fluorescent lights, consuming less energy.

Lamp Type	Life (hours)	Power (w)	Luminosity (lm)	Luminous efficiency (lm/w)
Incandescent	1000	100	1300	13
Fluorescent	6000	20	1280	64
LED	30000	15	1320	88

As you can see, LED emits a much greater luminous flux and therefore has more luminous efficiency.

How Light Reaches Our Eyes

The image passes through our cornea to the iris when we see an object. Next, the amount of light is regulated through the pupil.

Afterward, the image arrives at the lens, a transparent and flexible layer behind the pupil and inside a capsule.

When the image reaches the lens, it is then focused onto the retina.

The lens produces the inverted image, and our brain converts it to the correct position.

The retina contains photoreceptor cells. Those transform light waves into electrochemical impulses.

Then, they are decoded by our brains. Those photoreceptor cells are responsible for making our eyes respond to light.

Is LED Light Harmful To Our Eyes?

Are LED strip lights bad for your eyes?

Now that we have seen the composition of LED and how the light reaches our eyes, we can better understand how this light can be harmful.

The LED is harmful to the eyes because it is a light source of greater power than others.

That makes the eye cells have difficulty managing the amount of light received, and because of that, they are damaged.

Is There Scientific Evidence?

The French National Health Security Agency (ANSES) published a 2019 study showing that excessive exposure to LED lights causes macular degeneration.

Such an issue is caused by the death of eye cells, which further causes blindness in older people.

One of the causes of macular degeneration is the retina’s sensitivity to blue light, which is one of the components of LED lights and devices.

The study carried out through animal tests by ANSES concluded that exposure to blue light in the composition of LED light affects the photoreceptor cells.

Such damage causes the loss of vision due to the inability to transform incoming light into impulses our brain can interpret.

How To Protect Eyesight From Damage Caused By LED Light

For vision to be protected early, it is possible to adopt some measures to minimize damage and diagnose potential problems.

The light, natural or artificial, as we saw in this article, reaches our eyes, crosses the cornea, and goes to the retina. 

In the lens, a distorted image is formed. Photoreceptor cells send this visual information to the brain through the nervous system, where the image is corrected, enabling correct vision and interpretation.

Before the brain makes this correction, our eyes perform several functions, one of which is regulating light input through the eye muscle.

To help your eyes and brain suffer less, it is essential to be in environments with adequate lighting.

Adjust Ambient Lighting

The pupil dilates and contracts according to the amount of light so that if the place is dark, there will be a larger pupil opening to capture more light.

Consequently, very bright areas force the pupils to close to capture less light.

When we are in the sunlight, this is very clear to us.

However, our eyes make the same effort each time we are faced with insufficient or blinding lighting in an attempt to adapt.

To reduce this effort, we have to adapt the ambient lighting to the established standards (in the case of commercial environments). 

Furthermore, use quality luminaires with adequate maintenance, so they do not flicker, causing unnecessary eye stress that can cause damage with time.

About home environments, as much as possible, prioritize lighting in less aggressive tones that contribute to visual comfort.

Seek Medical Advice

Most eye problems worsen over time. Because of that, regular visits to the ophthalmologist are necessary.

It is also essential to pay attention to how your body behaves over time.

Some of the symptoms that may indicate an eye problem include:

• Constant headaches
• Blurred or blurry vision
• Vertigo
• Redness
• A feeling of irritation or pressure in the eyes 

When it comes to health issues, as the saying goes, prevention is the best medicine.

Use As Less Blue Light As Possible

As was already discussed, the central villain in LED lights is the blue light.

Many companies use blue light in the composition of LED lights, but the amount will vary.

Thus, when buying LED light strips, check brands or models that use fewer blue lights or don't use them at all. 

Your eyes will undoubtedly thank such a decision.

What We Learned

Do LED Strip Lights Hurt Your Eyes? LED strip lights will hurt your eyes depending on how you position them and how they are made.

However, there are safe ways of using them.

When shopping for LED strip lights, pay attention to the manufacturer and the LED’s quality. LED lights with less use of blue lights will be healthier for your vision.