Don't turn off the lights and play with your phone! Experts warn: It can really make you blind!

Recently, a hot search topic "Never turn off the lights to play with your phone" has sparked heated discussions among netizens. Many netizens have said that they are "loyal fans" of turning off the lights to play with their phones, and some even joked, "I saw this hot search while playing with my phone with the lights off." However, ophthalmologists have seriously warned that this seemingly ordinary habit may hide huge health risks and may even induce glaucoma and lead to blindness. So, can turning off the lights to play with your phone really lead to blindness? How should we use our eyes correctly?

Why does the mobile phone screen in the dark become an "invisible killer" of the eyes?

After turning off the lights, our eyes are in a dark environment, and the pupils will naturally dilate to increase the amount of light entering. However, in this state, when we turn on the mobile phone screen, the eyes will be more sensitive to light and more susceptible to damage. At the same time, the dilated pupil also squeezes the iris, which accumulates at the outlet of the aqueous humor, causing the outflow of aqueous humor to be blocked, which in turn causes increased intraocular pressure (aqueous humor is a liquid inside the eye that flows inside the eyeball and exerts a certain pressure on the retina, which is the intraocular pressure). If this continues for a long time, it may induce serious eye diseases such as glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a complex eye disease, and its occurrence and development are closely related to intraocular pressure exceeding the normal range. When intraocular pressure rises, it will exert pressure on the retina, causing optic nerve atrophy. After the optic nerve atrophies, the patient's visual range will gradually narrow, and as the disease progresses, this range will become smaller and smaller until total blindness occurs. Therefore, once glaucoma occurs, it will cause irreversible damage to vision and may even lead to blindness.

****It is worth noting that glaucoma is the world's leading irreversible blinding eye disease. During an acute attack, patients will experience symptoms such as eye soreness, pain, headache, eye congestion, redness, and a significant decrease in vision . Timely treatment is required to save vision.

Who is more likely to become a "victim"?

Although cases of glaucoma directly induced by playing with mobile phones in the outpatient clinic are rare, experts remind that there are some susceptible groups, such as the elderly, those with hyperopia, and those with a family history of glaucoma . These people are more likely to experience a sharp increase in intraocular pressure when playing with mobile phones in the turn off the lights, thereby inducing glaucoma.

In addition to the risk of glaucoma, playing with your phone with the lights off may also cause other eye health problems. When the pupil is dilated, too much light may damage the retina, leading to many adverse consequences such as eye fatigue and dry eyes. Although these are not as serious as glaucoma, they can also affect eye health and quality of life. Therefore, ophthalmologists strongly recommend that people, whether they are susceptible to glaucoma or not, should avoid the bad habit of playing with their phones with the lights off.

How to use your phone in a healthy way before going to bed?

Some people may think that it doesn’t matter if I do this every day! But in fact, eye damage is subtle and silent, and it is difficult for ordinary people to detect it quickly. If you have symptoms such as: increased red bloodshot, conjunctival congestion (redness of the whites of the eyes), dry eyes, foreign body sensation, sore eyes, eye socket swelling and pain, conjunctival stones (white stones the size of rice grains appear on the surface of the eyes), your eyes are already sounding the alarm!

Since there are such great risks in playing with mobile phones when the lights are off, how should we use our eyes properly? Here are some suggestions:

1. Turn on the light when playing with your phone: Turning on the light when playing with your phone can reduce the brightness contrast between the phone screen and the surrounding environment, protecting our eyes to the greatest extent. You can turn on a soft desk lamp or background light, as long as you avoid a completely dark environment. At the same time, adjust the phone brightness to the lowest, which can reduce the stimulation of the screen light to the eyes and relieve eye fatigue.

2. Don’t play with your phone while lying on your side: Although playing with your phone while lying on your side is comfortable, it will put one eye under pressure for a long time, which is not good for eye health. Therefore, it is recommended to play with your phone while lying on your back or sitting down, keeping the phone and eyes in a straight line and at a distance of more than 30 cm. If you feel tired, you can use a phone stand to assist.

3. Control the time of playing with mobile phone: The time of playing with mobile phone before going to bed should not be too long, and it is recommended not to exceed 40 minutes each time. Every once in a while, you should close your eyes and rest for 3-5 minutes to let your eyes fully relax.

4. Do eye exercises: You can try some simple eye exercises to relieve eye fatigue. For example, squeeze and press the Jingming acupoint, rub the Sibai acupoint, press the temple and scrape the eye socket, etc. Do each exercise 20-30 times until you feel a slight soreness and swelling at the acupoint. These exercises can promote blood circulation in the eyes and relieve eye fatigue and dryness.

In short, although it is a common habit to play with mobile phones when turning off the lights, it may cause irreparable damage to the eyes. We should change this bad habit from now on to keep our eyes away from harm. After all, eyes are an important window for us to perceive the world. Only by protecting them can we better appreciate the beauty and colorfulness of this world.