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Blue Light Glasses: What’s the Hype?

Blue Light Glasses: What’s the Hype?

If you consume any media at all, it seems like you can’t escape the topic of Blue Light Glasses – influencers are doing brand deals about them, just about every eyeglasses company has launched a line of them, the news is talking about how bad blue light is for us…There’s just so much information it’s hard to tell, are blue light glasses helpful or are they just hype?

What is Blue Light?

Blue light is the light you’re exposed to when you stare at your screens. TV, phone, tablet, computer, each of those screens emit high-energy blue light, and we stare at these screens all day, every day. While this sounds bad, there’s actually no evidence that blue light can damage our eyes. In fact, we get more exposure to blue light from sunlight than our screens. Blue light is also emitted from LED and fluorescent lights. That doesn’t mean there are no negatives to this type of light, blue light has been shown to impact our circadian rhythm, and too much blue light from screens at night can affect our sleep.

vintage style frame blue light glasses

What Do Blue Light Glasses Do?

With the average person now spending most of their day indoors looking at screens, our eyes are experiencing considerably higher amounts of digital strain than we’ve seen in previous decades. Blue light blocking lenses are designed to block a percentage of the blue light we are exposed to by our screens with a special coating.This helps reduce digital eye strain and disruptions to our circadian rhythm. Blue light blocking lenses may appear slightly yellow, or entirely clear but it’s important to note that lenses that appear slightly more yellow are likely to block a larger percentage of blue light.

blue light glasses on a book

It’s important to have your eyes checked regularly, but if you think you are experiencing eye strain or other possible impacts of blue light consult with Eyecare Plus or your optometrist.

What are the Possible Benefits?

While we don’t suspect that blue light emitted by screens impacts the overall health of our eyes or damages them outright, the technology we use for so much of our days is still really young. We’ve yet to discover the long-term impacts of our more modern ways of life.

What we have been able to see so far is that blue light glasses do tend to help with the eye strain and sleep disruptions that may result from overuse of phones, computers, tablets and TV.

blue light glasses on a computer

Do you need Blue Light Glasses?

If you spend large portions of your days looking at screens, whether it’s for work or entertainment, make sure you’re paying attention to how you feel at the end of each day. Look for signs of eye strain such as burning or sore eyes, blurred vision, headaches, sore neck, to name a few. If you’re experiencing any of those symptoms make sure to speak with your optometrist, and try implementing more breaks from your screen and more movement.

If you’re noticing changes to your sleep – you’re finding it more difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep or wake up in the morning, monitor your screen time before bed. If you’re consuming too much screen time late at night this may be impacting your sleep. You can try things like meditation, no screens an hour or two before bed, and yoga to mitigate this.

a girl wearing blue light glasses

If you and your optometrist have determined that screen time is likely the cause of your eye strain and/or sleep disturbance then it may be time to consider Blue Light Glasses in addition to some of the other techniques mentioned. Perspective Optometry is able to provide you with a comprehensive eye exam, and offers a wide variety of blue light glasses so your optometrist will be able to recommend the best option for you.

So, if you’re wondering what all the hype is about blue light glasses it all comes down to our screens! No matter the use, we are all so connected to our screens that sometimes it can be hard to step away, or make the connection between how we’re feeling and those devices that have become our lifelines and we need to remember that these seemingly harmless devices can impact how we feel.