Of Apparitions and the Dark

A weird thing struck me last night. There I was, at about 1am, sitting in the dark because I couldn't quite fall asleep. And it was pitch black, let me tell you! Something that living in the countryside and having no streetlights near our bedroom window affords us. Anyway, as I sat in the dark, I swore I saw light on the wall. Was I seeing reflections because it was a light-colored surface, or were these simple apparitions, the result of light pollution? Hey, I warned you it was weird! Point is, I know a thing or two about such things. As you may know, when the eye is exposed to a source of light, it causes a distortion in your eye of the opposite color for some time. The rods and cones doing there thing, as it were.

And in an average day, we get quite a lot of exposure to light that isn't exactly natural don't we? Colored light, incandescent light, florescent light, plasma and LCD displays, LED's, maybe even the occasional laser. In short, I figured that we get far too much artificial light in our daily lives. I have no stats to back it up, but I believe its been well documented and scientifically proven. And darkness is therapeutic, according to my wife. Sitting in a dark room for a little while every day allows the eye muscles to relax, probably ensures better long-term health and vision as well. And since I spend far too much time staring at this laptop of mine in an average day, I think I should make a point of it from now on! Darkness ho!

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