Last Updated on June 24, 2026 by Staff
Lighting has changed the way we live. It lets us work, study and have fun long after the sun goes down. This is really convenient. It may also have some bad effects on our health that we do not know about. A new study in GeroScience found that being around lights at night may increase the risk of getting serious eye diseases when we are older.
The study says that when and how much light we are exposed to can affect our eye health especially when we’re older.
Body Clock and Vision
Our bodies were made to follow the natural cycle of day and night. The sun rising and setting helps our body keep a schedule, which is like an internal clock that controls when we sleep, when hormones are made and other things our body does.
Our eyes help keep this clock working. They do not just help us see, they also detect light. Send signals to our brain, which helps our body do things at the right time. When we are around lights at night it can disrupt this natural schedule.
Scientists have known that being around lights at night can cause health problems like being overweight, having diabetes and heart disease. They did not know how it affects our eyes.
Tracking Real-Life Light Exposure
To see how evening light affects our eyes researchers studied 82,826 people who were part of the UK Biobank project. They did not include people who already had eye problems.
These people wore devices on their wrists that could measure levels every 1.2 seconds for seven days. This gave researchers an idea of what kind of light people are really exposed to.
Then researchers followed these people’s health for eight years. They checked if people got age-related degeneration, cataracts or glaucoma.
The 1000 Lux Threshold
The study found a pattern. People who were around lights at night were more than 1,000 lux, between 8 p.m. And 11:30 p.m. were more likely to get serious eye diseases.
Researchers found that these people were 31% more likely to get age-related degeneration, 18% more likely to get cataracts and 47% more likely to get primary open-angle glaucoma.
The more time people spent in the bright evening light, the more likely they were to get these diseases.
Most home lights are not this bright; they are usually between 100 and 500 lux. The problem is with bright lights like those from phones, computers and some work lights.
Why Bright Light May Harm Eyes
Scientists think that bright evening light can disrupt our body’s schedule, which can affect how our body fixes itself when we sleep. They also think that the blue light from phones and computers can cause stress in our eyes, which can damage the parts of our eyes that help us see.
When our body gets bad molecules that it can handle it can cause problems. This can hurt the parts of our eyes that’re sensitive. Much light can also cause inflammation and affect how our cells make energy, which can contribute to eye diseases.
Protecting Eye Health
The study says that bright evening light is something we can control so we can take steps to reduce our exposure.
Experts say we should turn down the lights and screens at night especially before we go to bed. We can use night mode on our devices, turn down the screen brightness and use lights to reduce blue light.
If we work in places with bright lights we may need to take extra steps to protect our eyes.
We need to do research to fully understand how bright light affects our eyes.. This study shows that being careful with evening light can help us keep our eyes healthy and reduce the risk of eye diseases when we are older.