OH! Magazine - Australian Version January 2018 | Page 18
( HEALTH )
THREE WAYS
YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN
IS DISRUPTING YOUR SKIN
Rebecca Mason reveals the impact computers
may be having on your skin.
e use our technology a lot more
than we realise sometimes, which
isn’t bad in and of itself, however there are
ways to leverage technology intelligently. light spectrum. These are known as High
Energy Visible wavelengths (HEV), which
‘flicker’ more often and more easily than
longer, weaker wavelengths.
We are fast-uncovering the little unknowns
about our non-biological appendages and
how you can work towards using them to
your advantage, not detriment. For
example, did you know that studies have
suggested that 60 per cent of people spend
more than six hours a day in front of a
digital device? So is this constant access
and exposure to our digital screens
impacting our skin? Any overexposure is most damaging in the
evening because this is when it can disrupt
our circadian rhythm the most. The
circadian rhythm is the 24-hour biological
clock the human body has been attuned to
for thousands of years. It is the timer to
which your body's inner rhythm operates,
based on universal elements. For example,
when the sun rises, it’s an indication for
the human body to awaken. The hormone
that stimulates our awakening is called
cortisol. We need this cortisol spike in the
morning to get us up and going.
W
Introducing... blue light rays
This was mentioned in a previous issue
(see https://joom.ag/tauL/p24), but here's a
refresher for you: Blue light is literally what
makes the sky blue; it's part of our human
biology to access the light to help us
regulate our sleep patterns (i.e. when we
wake and go to sleep – this is known as our
circadian rhythm). However, we can
become a little overexposed to blue light,
because we access artificial blue light in
our digital devices such as LED screens
and lights, TVs, laptop, computer and
phone screens.
Blue light has been found to be a short,
high-energy wavelengths on the visible
18
OH! MAGAZINE ( JANUARY 2018 )
When the sun sets and the moon appears,
acts as a signal that it's time for slumber.
At this stage, the cortisol should be at an
all time low, enabling our sleep hormone to
kick in, called melatonin. The circadian
rhythm has been the MOST distorted in the
past 30 years, according to research
,because of the many tools, technologies
and gadgets we are now so distracted with,
when it comes to preparing our bodies for
sleep.
If we expose ourselves to the blue light in
the evening, it is spiking our levels of
cortisol as our bodies interpret the light as
‘it must be morning time, secrete cortisol
because we need to get up and do things’.
But at night, our production should be at
an all time low, giving melatonin a chance
to do it’s job and make us sleepy, and ready
for bed.
The impact
So how does blue light actually impact
you?
1. Stress: Cortisol is known as the ‘stress
hormone’ – which isn’t bad itself (it is
literally the hormone that tells us to
run from danger, it keeps us alive).
But too much of a good thing can be
bad. For those of us with bad skin or
acne, we need to ameliorate our levels
of stress because the cortisol hormone
converts itself into testosterone which
lives at the surface of our skin. When
it hits the skin it converts into
something called dihydrotestosterone
(DHT). DHT sends a signal to our
sebaceous (oil) glands that tell it to
‘create more oil’. This is why an
overproduction of oil can occur when
we’re stressed, it’s the body’s feedback
loop letting us know we need to
prepare for a potentially harmful
situation.