As our exposure to devices and screen time increases, so is our concern regarding the effects of blue light on our sleep and our eyes. With multiple blue light protection devices becoming increasingly available, let’s explore the pros and cons of blue light glasses and see if they are worth the money!
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Pros and cons of blue light glasses
Below, I have compiled a list of the advantages and disadvantages of using a blue light glasses.
Advantages of blue light glasses
- May help reduce eyestrain
- Can minimize retina damage
- Helps promote normal sleep patterns
- Helps improve your mood
- Available on prescription glasses
- Available in clear and tinted options
- Offers blue light protection against multiple blue light sources
Disadvantages of blue light glasses
- Not all anti blue glasses offer adequate protection
- Need to be fitted by professional for best results
- Can be expensive to add blue light protection
- Not suited for people who work with colors
- People may feel self-conscious wearing tinted glasses
Blue light glasses can be an extremely useful aid to encouraging your sleep, but they are not without their flaws. Continue reading to see if the advantages of blue light glasses outweigh the disadvantages and whether they are appropriate for you!
Blue light is attributed to causing digital eye strain and disrupting your sleep patterns. Source
Advantages of blue light glasses
May help reduce eye strain
Blue light exposure can raise the level of eye strain in people who utilize devices or work in the presence of artificial light which emits blue light.
More and more people are spending considerably large portions of their day working on blue light emitting devices. This has led to an incremental rise in digital eyestrain, also known as computer eyestrain.
Some of the side effects of digital eye strain include:
- Sore eyes
- Irritated eyes
- Dry eyes
- Headaches
- Blurry vision
If these symptoms seem familiar, then you could be experiencing digital eye strain.
If you are looking for glasses to protect you from digital eye strain during the day, clear lenses which block blue light at a peak of 455nm are a good choice for most people.
By wearing blue light blocking glasses, it can shield your eyes from exposure to blue light and feel more comfortable to work on a device.
Regardless of whether or not you use blue light protection devices or apps, the best advice to reduce eye strain is to adopt the 20-20-20 approach.
This involves looking at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.
The advantages of the 20-20-20 rule include:
- Reminds you to take a break from staring at your screen
- Encourages your eyes to refocus
- Increases the rate at which your eyes blink
- Reduces the side effects of computer eye strain
Related: Where Should Light Be When Using A Laptop? + Helpful Tips!
Can minimize retina damage
Research suggests that exposure to blue light can cause macular degeneration which is damage to the retina of the eye.
Studies are currently mixed regarding whether blue light does in fact cause eye damage or not.
Wearing blue light glasses can be considered a preventative step towards guarding your eyes until stronger research becomes available on the effects of blue light.
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Helps promote normal sleep patterns
There is growing evidence demonstrating that exposure to blue light at night can disrupt your sleep.
The general rule of thumb is to put away devices about 2 hours before bed.
However, did you know that this is because blue light suppresses melatonin production.
Cortisol is a hormone that is responsible for waking us up, whereas melatonin is a hormone responsible for encouraging us to fall asleep.
When we are exposed to blue light, the cortisol hormone is produced, and melatonin production is suppressed.
Consequently, using devices and lights which contains blue light makes it challenging to sleep.
If you are inclined to use your phone or watch TV right up to bedtime, then this may be the culprit to your sleep problems!
Therefore, by wearing blue light blocking glasses while on your device, it blocks the blue light that you are exposed to.
Hence, it’s less likely to negatively affect your melatonin production or impact on your sleep pattern.
Tip: If you experience difficulty getting to sleep, evaluate how much time you spend being exposed to blue light before bed, including room lighting and devices.
Helps improve your mood
Blue light glasses are known to improve your mood. This is attributable to the fact that they help to increase the amount of melatonin production in the evening.
This encourages better sleep and thus a better mood by people wearing blue light glasses.
One study on elderly people showed that they experienced increased episodes of depression when they were exposed to blue light at night.
Related: Pros And Cons Of Blue Light Screen Protector – Hidden Truth
Available on prescription glasses
Blue light protection is not always a feature that is recommended by optometrists when you are picking out prescription glasses. You are typically asked about anti-glare and scratch protection coatings when you are ordering glasses.
However, a blue light blocking coating is another addition that can be added to your prescription glasses.
This is rather convenient as it will save you the hassle of having to alternate between your prescription glasses and your blue light blocking glasses.
Blue light glasses purchased from opticians tend to be higher quality than those bought elsewhere.
If you already invested in a recent pair of prescription glasses, all is not lost though!
You can purchase clip-on shades which can be placed over your existing glasses and flipped up or taken off when you don’t require them.
Available in clear and tinted options
Many people believe that anti blue light glasses are only available in tinted colors. However, they are now available in a range of shades from clear lenses to yellow and even orange and red colors.
Clear blue light glasses may also make people feel less self-conscious since they will look more like normal glasses and draw fewer questions from people.
Ultimately, the choice of tint that you opt for depends on your personal preference. Some people are likely to find the yellow tint irritating.
A tinted pair of glasses may also be unsuitable for certain professions, particularly if your job or activities involve working with colors.
Secondly, the level of tint that you choose will determine the level of blue light protection that you are offered. Clear lenses offer less protection than strongly tinted glasses.
Offers blue light protection against multiple blue light sources
Unlike blue light protection screens, blue light glasses offer you protection from multiple sources of blue light.
So, whether you’re in a room with artificial lighting that emits blue light, you’re glancing from one device to another or outdoors, blue light glasses can offer protection from all these blue light sources.
This makes it much more cost-effective than having to invest in an anti-blue light blocker for each device that you own.
Furthermore, if you double up with both the glasses and a blue light protection app or a blue light blocking screen filter, then you’ll have even more protection again!
Disadvantages of blue light glasses
Anti blue light glasses can be expensive
Not all anti blue light glasses are costed equally. Some budget blue light glasses can be purchased for as little as $13.99 and range up to $129.99+.
On top of that, not all anti blue light screen glasses have the same level of quality or protection.
Some of them can be bought for budget prices whereas others are on the more expensive scale.
Reading their reviews from other customers is important. This will give you an indication of how good the product is and the quality of service from the company.
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Not all anti blue glasses offer adequate protection
When choosing blue light blocking glasses, it’s important to review the spec as well as the range of blue light that it is offering you protection from. Some anti blue light glasses with only offer a limited range of blue light protection.
When searching to purchase blue light blocking glasses pay attention to what wavelength of light is blocked.
- 380-450nm of light is high energy light which is attributable to retinal metabolism
- 450-500nm of light is the blue light range that affects the sleep cycle
- Digital screens peak around 455nm for most devices
High energy short wave blue light between 415 and 455 nm is the most harmful. Source
They may not shield you from the hazardous blue light range, such as the range mentioned above.
This should be a key parameter to look for when choosing blue light protection.
Related: How To Choose Blue Light Screen Protectors – 10 Easy Steps!
May distort the color of your screen
Some of the cheaper blue light screen glasses are known to distort the color of the screen. This is in an attempt to reduce the blue light emitted and convert it to another color.
Consequently, your view of the screen may be distorted, or it could make it difficult for you to accurately see which colors are on the screen.
If this could pose a problem to you, validate with the company if color distortion is likely to occur.
There are anti blue light glasses that will allow you to see the screen in the normal color without a yellow tint which also offer you protection from blue light.
Related: How Do Blue Light Screen Protectors Work? + Myths Debunked!
Not all anti blue glasses offer adequate protection
In the previous section, you would have seen the wavelengths of blue light and the potential effects of it at that level. When choosing blue light glasses, each lens is different in the level of protection that it offers.
Extra caution needs to be taken with blue light glasses purchased from sites which are not reputable.
Some well-known blue light glasses companies to opt for include BLUBlox, GUNNAR, Felix Gray and Ocushield.
Furthermore, if they are low-cost blue light glasses around or under $30, then these often lack adequate protection.
In fact, they may even advertise them as blocking 80%+ blue light. But this is often not true.
Consequently, it’s important to not only choose good quality blue light glasses from a reputable, but also to ensure that they offer the necessary protection.
Need to be fitted by professional for best results
While blue light protection glasses can be purchased off the internet, there’s no guarantee that these will be a perfect fit.
Unless you are comfortable measuring the dimensions of your face, it’s often better to get the glasses fitted by a professional optician.
This rings true especially if you are investing in prescription glasses which generally cannot be returned after they are bought.
Can be expensive to add blue light protection
If you are purchasing prescription glasses, they may be advertised as being relatively budget-friendly investments. But as you add on different finishes, from anti-glare to anti-scratch, it can get rather expensive.
Add anti-blue coatings to that and you can be talking about hundreds of dollars for a pair of glasses.
Generally, it is rather difficult to add on a blue light coating protection retrospectively.
Therefore, if you have recently purchased prescription glasses, it may be a more feasible option to choose a good quality blue light screen protection filter.
Tip: Blue light glasses which have an anti-reflective coating on the front and back of the lens helps prevent a shadow of your eyeball on the glasses.
Not suited for people who work with colors
Tinted glasses can pose issues for people whose role or activities involve working with colors. If you are looking at distorted colors, it could have severe implications for the task that you are performing.
Imaging a painter picking out paint colors for a wall while wearing tinted glasses. Or an engineer mistaken drain colors on a drawing!
For activities such as these, tinted glasses should not be worn.
However, if this is just a portion of your job, then it’s merely a matter of taking off your tinted glasses while that task is being completed.
Alternatively, it may be a safer choice to choose clear colored lenses altogether.
Tip: Lenses that are clear colored are often suited to prevent computer eye strain during the day.
People may feel self-conscious wearing tinted glasses
When choosing blue light glasses, many of them come equipped with a yellow tint. If you are seeking a higher level of protection, this is a sacrifice that you may need to accept.
Yellow tinted glasses can be less attractive to people as they do look rather strange. Furthermore, they may attract stares from people and questions for nosy neighbors.
However, if you’re happy to receive the attention, then this might only be an advantage!
Tip: Turn off artificial lighting when it is not required to reduce excess blue light in the area.
Related: 21 Pros And Cons Of Natural Light + Surprising Benefits!
Conclusion
Blue light blocking glasses are one of a multitude of options when it comes to blue light protection. However, like all other types of blue light blocking devices, they come with their strengths and weaknesses.
When choosing blue light protection, they’re require some scrutiny to ensure that you choose a quality product which offers adequate blue light shielding.
After all, it is a device to improve your health and sleep.
Do you own blue light blocking glasses or a blue light filtering device? Or would you consider investing?
I was so overwhelmed by how much damage that blue light is cause to my precious eyes that I went looking for a blue light blocking filter. Now I have it on full time!
