Night Vision NV (thermal) bad for the eyes?

[ChiandChong]

It's common knowledge among optometrists that staring at a screen (tv, laptop, phones) in a dark environment without exterior lighting will degrade one's vision rather quickly.

Does the same not apply when we run around in our 14s and stay on the thermal scope for ours at a time, just observing the woods?

I do feel my vision "change" a little when I come off the 14 after 2hours of use.

Anybody done any research into this?

Edit to add link:

Here's a link to PCmag.com on the harm of using your phone in the dark.

Using Your Smartphone In The Dark Risks Speeding Up Vision Loss

New research is detailing how blue light, which emits from smartphone and laptop screens, can damage your retinal cells, and possibly lead to macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes vision loss.

www.pcmag.com

Interesting tidbits here and there:

"scientists at the University of Toledo said they've uncovered how blue light can lead to macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in the US. Essentially, the light waves contain enough energy to erode the health of your eyes over time. "

"But the researchers say that people should be careful about using their electronics devices in the dark. Doing so can focus the blue light directly into your eyes. That can actually intensify the light emitted from the device many, many fold," Karunarathne told Popular Science."

"That extra energy is why blue light can be bad for your eyes. Too much exposure can trigger a toxic reaction that'll kill the light-sensing photoreceptor cells in your retinas. Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye," said Kasun Ratnayake, a PhD student researcher who also worked on the study. "When they're dead, they're dead for good."

Here's the part that I think NV thermal manufacturers should focus on and come out with filters to reduce the damage from blue lights in OLED screens:

"People can also consider wearing sunglasses and other eyewear that's designed to filter out blue light. "

There are plenty of blue light filter products on the market for phones and tablets, why not for thermal optics?

 

[jwramp]

What do you mean by degrade quickly? Like a permanent effect to your eyes? Haven’t heard that one before, and I look at screens in the dark all the time, so if it’s a common thing that optometrists have proven... I’m all ears.

 

[TestnDoc]

No it will not degrade your vision quickly.

 

[Shifty6BR]

If loving it is wrong....I don't want to be right.

 

[TNVC_Will]

What do you mean by degrade quickly? Like a permanent effect to your eyes? Haven’t heard that one before, and I look at screens in the dark all the time, so if it’s a common thing that optometrists have proven... I’m all ears.

+1 - would like to see info/data if you have it. The info I’ve seen about it, is it can cause eye strain but that’s about it.

 

[niteshooter]

Yes it is bad for your eyes.
As in, you’ll be up all night playing around seeing green (or white if your a fancy person) instead of home in bed getting sleep.
And having tired eyes that don’t work as well from being open to long.

 

[acudaowner]

isn't it like going to make hair grow on the palms of your hands lol or a third limb on your back which could come in handy if you had to scratch that spot between your shoulder blades ? premature baldness ? projectile vomiting or explosive diarrhea oh that medication sorry ... tumors and skin lesions darn again that medication . you should be good to go have fun but remember its all fun and games till you find you now have testicular cancer and or cataracts or all the above .

 

[niteshooter]

Luck of the draw.
Everybody knows someone young who dropped way to soon and the 90 year old guy who helped keep the whiskey, beer and tobacco companies going through the hard times.

If you want bad for the eyes just look at some of the stuff posted in “The Pit”.
I won’t name names. But forget eye bleach, more like eye gasoline/napalm.

 

[wigwamitus]

As I've said a bunch of times ... "turn down the brightness" ... with thermal especially (not so much with 14s) my eyesight did temporarily go bad when I used to have the brightness turned way up on the thermals. It would be like I could hardly see out of that eye. Of course it was dark out there ... but turning the brightness way down helped a lot on thermal. On the 14s. I turn the "scinitillation control knob" all the way down ... and then back up until I see sparkles and then back down a little more. Usually around 80% level net/net.

 

[Geeb]

I would think researching 'military aviation' would be your best place to find information on that.
For all the aviators out there I sure hope it doesn't! There would a lot of crewmembers and pilots with poor vision if that were the case.

 

[WhereNow&How]

One of the many reasons I like to run Bridged 14's is that you have independent manual gain control for each tube. This allows one the ability to "turn down the brightness" through the eye that you use to sight through an optic to preserve your natural night vision.

Even with your "shooting eye" gain (brightness) turned down you still have the benefit of seeing a NV image albeit significantly dimmed. However, even though one tube is dimmed, the overall picture you see is combined into a only slightly dimmed combined view.

This offers several advantages many might not realize because they do not have the advantage of "dimming" one tube vs the other.

1. Allows for the eye/brain relationship to still provide good "depth perception" for when needing to move fast under NODS.

2. Preserves natural night vision so you can truly monitor ambient lighting conditions. On bright nights it is sometimes very important to stay in the shadows so your prey does not detect you. Who owns the shadows wins.

3. Provides a better fusion scene when using a COTI as your eyes are not "fighting" over which one is the dominant image. Point being one eye/tube is seeing a thermal overlay and the other is looking at just NV so your eyes and brain can struggle with providing a strong outline mode image sometimes.

4. Teaches you just how much a strong light shinning in one eye really degrades your natural night vision. The ability to "look under" your NODS and view the ambient lighting conditions with the eye that has been looking threw a bright tube vs a dimmed tube is a nice data point for one to truly understand, and subsequently understand how long it takes for your natural night vision to resume after it comes off a "bright" tube that it has been staring through for a length of time.

 

[WhereNow&How]

Luck of the draw.
Everybody knows someone young who dropped way to soon and the 90 year old guy who helped keep the whiskey, beer and tobacco companies going through the hard times.

True that.

Maybe this here Gent looked through too many bright tubes. LOL

But he can still get it up, but cant get it in.

 

[HenryTheAce]

I would think researching 'military aviation' would be your best place to find information on that.
For all the aviators out there I sure hope it doesn't! There would a lot of crewmembers and pilots with poor vision if that were the case.

I’m an air traffic controller and stare at radar screens all day in a dark room keeping dots (airplanes) separated, no vision degradation. I just notice my eyes get dry from lack of blinking lol.

 

[MarinePMI]

Ditto. Former imagery analyst. Spent many hours in a dark room staring at satellite imagery on a bright screen. No long term effects other than having sand paper in your eyes after a 12 hr shift of looking for stuff.

 

[NFAJohn]

NV bad for your eyes? Nah

Marriages and finances? My wife is cool, but after a 3 night grind I gotta give it a rest lol

 

[ChiandChong]

Here's a link to PCmag.com on the harm of using your phone in the dark.

Using Your Smartphone In The Dark Risks Speeding Up Vision Loss

New research is detailing how blue light, which emits from smartphone and laptop screens, can damage your retinal cells, and possibly lead to macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes vision loss.

www.pcmag.com

Interesting tidbits here and there:

"scientists at the University of Toledo said they've uncovered how blue light can lead to macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in the US. Essentially, the light waves contain enough energy to erode the health of your eyes over time. "

"But the researchers say that people should be careful about using their electronics devices in the dark. Doing so can focus the blue light directly into your eyes. That can actually intensify the light emitted from the device many, many fold," Karunarathne told Popular Science."

"That extra energy is why blue light can be bad for your eyes. Too much exposure can trigger a toxic reaction that'll kill the light-sensing photoreceptor cells in your retinas. Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye," said Kasun Ratnayake, a PhD student researcher who also worked on the study. "When they're dead, they're dead for good."

Here's the part that I think NV thermal manufacturers should focus on and come out with filters to reduce the damage from blue lights in OLED screens:

"People can also consider wearing sunglasses and other eyewear that's designed to filter out blue light. "

There are plenty of blue light filter products on the market for phones and tablets, why not for thermal optics?