Blue light is a hot topic right now with many companies offering their products to people who are serious about managing blue light for better health. But for the hype surrounding blue light glasses there is a lot of misinformation about what color lenses do what and what do blue light blocking glasses actually do?

Blue light

Blue light is high energy light that is emitted from artificial light sources such as your TV, Smart Phone, House Lights, Fridge, Computer Screen and Car Headlights. Too much exposure to artificial blue light during the daytime leads to issues such as dry eyes, digital eyestrain and tension headaches. Exposure to any type of blue light (and also some green light) after sunset disrupts our body’s production of melatonin which harms our sleep quality and leaves us feeling tired the next day. Blue light is essential during the daytime as it helps us feel great and keep active, however there is too much blue light in our digital devices, work and home environment which is leading to an epidemic of digital eyestrain.

By exposing ourselves to blue light after dark we are losing sleep and leaving ourselves more susceptible to circadian diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease according to Harvard University. Blue light after dark tricks the brain into thinking its daytime, which keeps stress levels high and damages our sleep.

Lens Colours

There are three main lens colours when it comes to blue light filter glasses, clear, yellow and red. All three of these lenses have different applications and should be worn at different times depending on your situation and current light environment. Blue blocker glasses come in these different lens colours so its important to understand exactly what each pair of blue light glasses does in order to determine which are the best blue light bocking glasses for you.

Computer Glasses – Clear Lenses

Computer glasses are trending right now. These blue light glasses are to only be worn during the day when working at your computer or when you are exposed to artificial light during the day. They typically filter down blue light across the entire blue spectrum (400nm to 495nm for the science geeks like me reading this) by 5%-30%. Remember that we do not want to block blue light during the day as we need some blue light to be healthy and active, just think of the sky, its blue for a reason!

You would wear your computer glasses only when inside under artificial blue light during the day and take them off when outside. The sun’s light is very beneficial for optimal circadian health.

But how do we know what the best computer glasses are? Well this is quite simple, many of the leading brands claim to block blue light, but when you test their glasses through a spectrometer they usually focus on violet light.

Violet light isn’t often present in artificial light sources which means when you buy a cheap pair of anti blue light glasses or computer glasses they are often not filtering any blue light at all. Blue light that damages the eyes spikes at 440nm, don’t worry about the technical side of this, just be aware that most clear computer glasses do not target this wavelength of blue light.

Remember if you see any blue light whilst wearing your blue light glasses after dark they aren’t working.