This is especially handy during video calls where people are going to be looking at you for long periods of time. While there are clear or less obviously tinted blue-light-blocking lenses, they won’t filter as much blue light as darker options.Īnti-glare coating: Blue-light-blocking glasses may have anti-glare coating, which decreases the amount of light reflecting from your glasses to further reduce eye strain and make them more comfortable to use. Generally, the darker the lenses on a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses, the more blue light is blocked. Many blue-light-blocking glasses have an orange or yellow tint that is supposed to absorb the blue light while allowing other light to pass through. (Note that despite emitting blue light, most consumer tech is not harmful, and there is no scientific evidence that digital devices can damage your eyes.) Blue-light-blocking glasses work by absorbing those wavelengths to stop them from reaching your eyes.
To find the most effective and stylish options, we scoured the internet and spoke with eye doctors about what they recommend and when to wear them.īest overall | Best with clear lenses | Most stylish tinted lenses | Best reading glasses | Best clip-ons | Best for kidsīlue-light-blocking capability: All light is measured in nanometers (nm), and blue-light wavelengths that can have the most impact on your melatonin levels (and thus affect your sleep) range from 400 to 500 nm. But if you can’t tear yourself away from Instagram or the dreaded doomscroll before you turn in for the night, blue-light-blocking glasses can help. In a perfect world, you’d start to avoid blue light from screens four hours before bedtime. Our bodies associate blue light with daytime, so being exposed to it when you’re trying to go to bed “pushes our internal clocks later so that it’s harder to fall asleep and harder to wake up in the morning,” says Cathy Goldstein, associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center. When blue-light-blocking glasses can be most useful is at night, as blue light from screens can disrupt natural sleep patterns. In the end, he says you don’t need to wear blue-light-blocking glasses during the day. If that doesn’t help, Khurana recommends artificial tears to help lubricate dry eyes. “Ultimately, I’m not really sure how it’s going to help with digital eye strain, which is what’s bothering people,” he says, explaining that the digital eye strain most people experience can occur “whenever you focus on anything - from reading a book, looking at a screen, or watching TV.” It can be alleviated by shifting your eyes every 20 minutes or so onto something that’s 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds, he says. That’s why Khurana doesn’t recommend any special eyewear for daily computer use.
“We keep on thinking about blue light from our computers and smartphones, but the reality is that we get more exposure to blue light from the sun.” Essentially, it’s not the blue light that’s making your eyes feel bad after a day of staring at the computer it’s staring at a screen for hours without breaks. As a result, a cottage industry of blue-light-filtering glasses has emerged.Īccording to Rahul Khurana, an ophthalmologist and clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, digital eye strain and the negative effects of blue light on your eyes are two separate concerns. According to a survey by the Vision Council, a group that represents eyeglasses manufacturers, almost 60 percent of Americans experience some symptoms of digital eye strain due to extended time in front of a screen (and that was even before the pandemic started). If you’ve ever suffered from dry, irritated eyes after a long day of staring at your computer, you may have been tempted to purchase a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses. Photo-Illustration: The Strategist Photos: Retailers
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