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Can checking your smartphone in the dark make you blind?

A recent case from the New England Journal of Medicine talks about two women who went temporarily blind because of using their smartphones in the dark.

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Ensure that you use both eyes to look at your smartphone in the dark to prevent temporary blindness.
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Looking at your smartphone in the dark while laying sideways on your bed can be really bad for your eyesight. The Independent reported a case from the New England Journal of Medicine where two women with such habits went temporarily blind. 

Two women, aged 22 and 40 experienced 'transient smartphone blindness' for months after checking their smartphones in the dark. They both complained of losing vision for periods of 15 minutes at a time. Despite being subjected to various medical exams, MRI scans and heart tests nothing was found until Dr Gordon Plant, an eye specialist from Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London figured it out. 

He simply asked the ladies what they were doing when the blindness occurred.  They told him that they were resting on their bed in the dark and looking at their smartphone using only one eye. The other, covered by the pillow was in the dark. When they finally put their phones down, they couldn't see with the phone eye because it was taking time for the eye that had been in the dark to adjust to the light. 

Dr Plant said that this was ultimately harmless and easily avoidable, if only people used both eyes to look at their smartphones. One woman was relieved to find out that her temporary blindness wasn't a symptom of a larger problem like a stroke while the other woman was unconvinced and documented her periods of vision loss for another month until she believed Dr Plant. 

Dr. Rahul Khurana, a spokesman for the American Academy of Opthamology said that the cases were an interesting find but not enough to prove that looking at smartphones in the dark with one eye can lead to temporary blindness. He also tried to recreate the scenario with his wife but faced difficulty using their phones in such an 'odd' manner. 

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