# Why does the sun hurt my eyes; the brightness or the UV rays?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 5, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188 "2000-08-05T01:52:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Llardball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Llardball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llardball)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188/1 "2000-08-05T01:52:02Z")

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Which one is doing the damage?

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### Author: ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2000, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188/2 "2000-08-05T01:57:38Z")

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BOTH. I think the intense light can damage immediately and the UV rays do more gradual damage though. If you stare at a hot bright sun long enough and go blind, I would say that the briteness is what did it. If you are always at the beach and 50 years from now your eyes are bad and cancerous and not really working well, I would say it was the UV. But IANAED.

I am not an eye doctor.

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### Author: ![\_Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e47c2d/32.png) [@\_Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Tim)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2000, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188/3 "2000-08-05T01:57:52Z")

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The UV.

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### Author: ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188/4 "2000-08-05T14:52:22Z")

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Didja ever notice that it’s hard to look directly at a black light? Your experience the same reflex reaction as if you were staring into a blinding white light, and yet black lights seem to give off very little usefull ambient light. Are our eyes responding to light that is outside of the visible spectrum?

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### Author: ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2000, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-hurt-my-eyes-the-brightness-or-the-uv-rays/28188/5 "2000-08-05T16:01:57Z")

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yup. they emit a lot of UV. i’ve gotten sunburns from being in front of them for too long. odd half-the-side-of-my-face Close Encounters sunburns. then again i have been described kindly as “Deathly fair”.

i can’t imagine how much eye damage those things are doing.