Blue Light Glasses Benefits for Sleep and Energy

You’ve been working all day. Your eyes are tired, your shoulders are tight, and you’ve even developed a headache. The trouble is, you can’t sleep.

Could be it be your bed? Your pillow? The awkward way you said “You too” when the cashier said, “Thank you for shopping?”

A lack of sleep can be caused by any number of reasons, but if you work behind a screen all day, your sleeplessness just might be tied to blue light exposure.

Let’s face it — most of us are on digital devices quite a lot. Laptops, smartphones, and LED televisions give us more screen time than ever before, and there’s a chance that these devices could be impacting our ability to sleep at night. Let’s talk about what blue light is and how it can affect your sleep.

What Is Blue Light?

Blue light is part of the visible light spectrum, with a short wavelength of 380-500 nanometers. We’re surrounded by sources of blue light every day — it comes from the sun, computer screens, televisions, tablets, and any fluorescent lights or LED lights.

Blue light isn’t all bad. In the morning, this high-energy light gives you the energy you need to wake up by promoting alertness, and it can even stimulate your cognitive abilities and boost your mood.

The problem with blue light is twofold. One, we aren’t sure what the long-term effects of blue light exposure will be on our eye health. Blue light can reach the retina, potentially increasing the risk of eye diseases like cataracts or macular degeneration.

Second, blue light suppresses melatonin production, impacting your body’s natural ability to wind down and get a good night's sleep. This impacts your circadian rhythm, which runs on light and darkness and can have harmful effects on sleep quality.

Thankfully, one solution for protecting our eyes from blue light comes in the form of easy-to-wear, great-looking blue-light filtering glasses.

The Benefits of Blue Light Glasses

Why is sleep a big enough deal that you’d want to invest in blue light blocking specs? Mainly because missing sleep causes a chain reaction of effectsthat produce negative health outcomes in the body.

Missing sleep can cause agitation, anxiety, forgetfulness, and response time. Miss enough sleep, and you can even find yourself depressed and more likely to become sick with every passing cold and flu that goes around the office.

Beyond that, sleep deprivation has been linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and many other chronic health problems.

Worried yet? It seems pretty overwhelming.

One helpful solution? A pair of blue light glasses.

Blue light filtering glasses can send blue light waves packing, protect your eyes, and benefit your sleep.

Blue light filtering glasses are designed to limit the amount of blue light coming your way, allowing melatonin to do what it’s supposed to and regulate your sleep patterns.

Blue light lenses come with either clear lenses or lenses with a tint, depending on how they’re made, and they can be non-prescription, so you can wear them even if you don’t need regular eyeglasses. They can also be an add-on to prescription glasses.

Do Blue Light Glasses Work to Reduce Digital Eye Strain?

While blue light glasses’ benefits include better sleep and, as a result, better general health, the evidence suggests that what they don’t do is address digital eye strain.

Digital eye strain — or computer vision syndrome (CVS) — is the result of spending long periods of time focusing on an electronic device while dealing with the glare from the screen — and not blinking enough.

Some symptoms include:

• Dry eyes
• Red eyes
• Watery eyes
• Itchy eyes
• Eye fatigue
• Eye pain
• Blurred vision
• Migraines

If you’re suffering from digital eye strain, blue-light-blocking glasses may reduce the glare slightly, but they’re not the solution. However, there are a few other simple things that can help:

• Try to blink more often, and if need be, use eye drops to keep your eyes moist.
• Apply the 20-20-20 rule: Take a break every 20 minutes or so to change your focus from your digital screen to something about 20 meters away for 20 seconds.
• Get an anti-glare screen to ease the stress on your eyes.

It’s also worth visiting your optometrist to check if you need contact lenses or computer glasses. While reading glasses and distance glasses help you see close and far away, respectively, computer glasses help you see clearly in the middle distance — which is where your computer probably is.

If you’re suffering from age-related presbyopia too and struggle to read anything close to you, an ophthalmologist may recommend progressive lenses for your computer glasses. These updated bifocals have a bottom section that helps you see clearly when you read and a top section for focusing on your computer in the middle distance.

Do You Need To See a Doctor for Digital Eye Strain?

If you’re experiencing the above symptoms regularly and aren’t finding relief, a visit to your eye doctor might be worth it. An eye care professional can help you determine whether you need any vision correction in the form of glasses or contacts, and they can also thoroughly examine your eyes to see if any underlying issues are making them uncomfortable.

Eye strain is a very common issue, but it usually doesn’t require a medical diagnosis. Taking breaks, adjusting your screen, and wearing anti-glare eyewear can all help you feel a bit less eye strain behind your desk.

So, When Should You Wear Blue Light Glasses?

You’ll benefit from blue light glasses most if you spend a lot of time in the evening on any of these activities:

• Watching TV
• Using your smartphone
• Reading on your tablet
• Working on your computer
• Playing video games

In these cases, investing in some blue-blocking lenses could dramatically improve your sleep and your health. As a side note, you should definitely wear them before bed if you’re on your phone or watching TV.

In addition, you should wear blue light glasses 24/7 if high screen use is common for you. For example, if you work on a laptop or desktop computer, consider making a pair of glasses with blue light-filtering lenses your primary eyewear. That way, you won’t have to swap out your blue light glasses for another pair whenever it’s time to log off for the day.

We also recommend wearing blue light glasses throughout the day if you want to improve your sleep. There’s no harm in wearing blue light-filtering lenses all the time, and they can be extremely helpful if you have trouble winding down before bed.

Where To Buy Blue Light Blocking Glasses

If you don’t need a prescription and aren’t too worried about quality, you can pick up a pair of glasses with blue light lenses from many major retailers.

If you need prescription lenses, though, or you care about quality and how your eyewear looks, you’ll get the best blue light glasses benefits from a professional eyewear retailer like Pair Eyewear.

Pair Eyewear has a unique concept that allows you to virtually try on a range of Base Frames to find the one that best suits your face. Then you get to add as many of our beautifully designed Top Frames as your heart desires. Top Frames are extremely light and clip magnetically to the Base Frame, so you can quickly swap them out when you want to change your look on the fly.

With a huge variety of Top Frame styles, from Classic Designs to Limited Editions or art, sports, and movie collabs, you’re sure to find a look you love for every occasion.

We offer non-prescription glasses as well as reading glasses, single-vision, and progressive lenses, and you can choose to add on:

• Blue light filters to protect your eyes for online work
• Responsive lenses which automatically darken as the light around you brightens
• Ultra-thin premium plus lenses, which we recommend if you need a strong prescription

Pair's standard lens type are made from hard-wearing polycarbonate and they come with UV protection and an anti-reflective coating to help reduce any glare further.

Protect your eyeglasses on the move with a Glasses Case. And if you have several pairs of Top Frames, keep those extras safe in your purse with a Top Frame Case.

How To Style Blue Light Glasses

Blue light glasses serve an essential purpose, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be stylish and on-trend. All of our glasses are available with blue light-filtering lenses, and we offer plenty of fashionable frames that can fit any personality and style.

To find the right frames for you, start by evaluating your look. Once you have a clear picture of the aesthetic you want to go for, it’s much easier to find the perfect pair of glasses. Our frames range from classic and timeless to more modern and new-fashioned, and you can use our virtual try-on feature to give each option a test drive.

Once you’ve picked out your dream pair of glasses, the best way to style them is with help from our magnetic Top Frames. Stylish and easy to use, these magnetic accessories attach seamlessly to your base pair of glasses to create a new look. Our Top Frame collection includes one-of-a-kind patterns, including many inspired by franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Take Advantage of Blue Light Glasses Benefits

Blue light is a high-energy form of visible light that has positive effects on your brain and your mood during the day. However, too much exposure at night can interfere with your sleep and wake cycle, leaving you feeling tired and groggy in the morning, and affecting your health in many other ways.

Blue light glasses benefits include blocking much of that blue light so melatonin production can happen normally. Get a pair of blue-light blockers from Pair Eyewear today — and protect your sleep, your health, and your quality of life.

Sources:

Blue Light Facts: Is Blue Light Bad For Your Eyes? | All About Vision

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) | Johns Hopkins Medicine

Systematic review of light exposure impact on human circadian rhythm | PubMed

Sleep Deprivation | Cedars-Sinai

Evening wear of blue-blocking glasses for sleep and mood disorders: a systematic review | PubMed

Do Blue-blocking Lenses Reduce Eye Strain From Extended Screen Time? A Double-Masked Randomized Controlled Trial - American Journal of Ophthalmology

Changes in blink rate and ocular symptoms during different reading tasks | PMC

Pros And Cons of An Anti Glare Screen | HP Tech Takes

Presbyopia | National Eye Institute