Blinded by the Blue Light: Are Filtering Glasses Worth Buying?

by Maura Sackett

As college students during this pandemic, we are relying on technology more than ever. Zoom class after Zoom class, homework, exams, social media, Netflix – it’s all online and it’s all adding to the stress on our eyes. With this in mind, eyeglass stores are pushing people to purchase blue light glasses, but are they worth the extra twenty to one hundred-plus dollars? In a lot of stores, people are roped into buying the extra filters and coatings for glasses just because the sales representative makes them sound nice and “necessary for a person your age.” I know even after I bought my blue light glasses, I still didn’t know what they were supposed to do or how they worked and I wanted to know what aspects of blue light made it ‘bad’ for my eyes.

So, what even is blue light? It is a type of light that produces a shorter wavelength and carries more energy than all the other colors, except for violet. We are exposed to it in almost every aspect of our lives, especially during quarantine. Our eyes take in blue light when we walk outside and bask in the sun, watch television, and look at our phones and laptops. Large quantities of blue light can prematurely age our eyes and cause eyestrain and retina damage. On the other hand, this type of light helps us regulate our circadian rhythm, otherwise known as our sleep schedule, which in most of us college kids is far from normal. It also gives us the boost of alertness we need to start our busy days.

At stores, sales representatives try to sell us on blue light glasses claiming that they may protect our eyes from overexposure and eye strain by filtering out a specific wavelength of visible light . We have all heard that looking at our phones or laptops right before bed will make falling asleep much harder. Blue light glasses claim to help with this as well due to the same light-filtering action. Reducing eyestrain and headaches, calming our dry, irritated eyes, and helping with our sleep issues sounds great in theory, but do these glasses actually work?

The answer is a resounding “we don’t know.” Dr. Ray Gariano, an ophthalmologist at San Diego’s Scripps Clinic, explained how no evidence has been found that fully supports the idea that blue light glasses help protect our eyes or prevent macular degeneration. Similarly, assistant professor Dr. Amir Mohsenin at the Ruiz Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science stated that doctors “don’t know if there’s any potential harm in wearing blue block glasses” due to the lack of data. Computer users can find other methods of reducing eye strain as ophthalmologists like Mohsenin are “‘not recommending blue blocking glasses.’” . Doctors are also not even sure that the blue light from our computers is damaging our eyes as there is not a measurable amount of UVA or UVB radiation from computer screens, so the blue light glasses trend might be a bit presumptuous of research findings  (Vimot, 2017). This is not to say that the hours we spend online everyday cannot harm our eyes though. The lack of strong support from ophthalmologists leads me to believe that more research concentrating on blue light’s effect on humans is needed before everyone starts using these glasses.

If blue light glasses, and blue light in general, are not the solution or the problem, then what can we blame our achy eyes on – certainly not our propensity to stare unblinkingly at our screens, right? Well, this just might be the issue. Our number of blinks per minute can reduce by half when we focus on our screens. This puts a large strain on our eyes and dries them out. An ophthalmologist at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Rishi Singh, suggests that computer vision syndrome (CVS) might be more to blame for these symptoms and other eye issues than blue light itself. CVS can be caused by our constant eye movements when we look at screens, reduction in blinking rates, and computer glare or contrast. Most of the time our phones are inches from our face as well, which does not make anything better. Blue light glasses may help with the eye fatigue and headaches, but they cannot help with dryness or strain from overactivity associated with CVS.

To buy, or not to buy, that is the question. Both the Cleveland Clinic and Texas Medical Center say we are better off changing our habits instead of purchasing blue light glasses. We can do this by using the 20-20-20 rule where we look away (*gasp*) from our screens every 20 minutes at an object about 20 feet away for 20 seconds. We should also sit an arm’s length away from our computer, hold our phones further from our faces, adjust room lighting so we are not looking at bright screens in dark rooms, and use lubricating eye drops. If all else fails, we could also just reduce the amount of time we spend on our laptops as well, but that would be hard during these weird times. 

On the other hand, blue light glasses have been shown to help with our irregular sleep schedules. This is because, at night, blue wavelengths suppress melatonin secretion for “about twice as long as green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much.” This might explain why so many of us rely on melatonin supplements to fall asleep nowadays. Blue light at night, and the resulting reduced amount of sleep, also increase our risk of depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular issues. If you don’t have, or don’t want, blue light filtering glasses, you could always put away your electronics one to three hours before bed or turn on dark mode to reduce blue light exposure.

Since getting my blue light glasses, I can’t say I feel a reduction in eyestrain, but they might be helping others who normally get headaches or have a harder time falling asleep after extended computer time – if even just through the placebo effect. I think one of the bigger issues, for me at least, is how much my blinking is reduced whenever I get into a one sided staring contest with my computer. Considering how dry my eyes are, I might have actually won a couple times, which definitely is not a good thing. Lubricating eye drops, the 20-20-20 rule, and spending less time on technology in general would probably reduce my eye strain and fatigue more than solely relying on my blue light glasses, but these techniques do not work for everyone. Buying blue light filtering glasses really depends on what the consumer, and their ophthalmologist, think will work best for them, but if given the choice again, I think I would rather save the money and just practice good eye care.