5 reasons to wear blue light blocking glasses

Australians are spending more time in front of a screen than they are sleeping. According to a survey by Lonergan Research, almost a third of the day - 9.4 hours – is being spent exposed to blue light emitted from your computer, mobile phone and television screen. This screen time equates to an astonishing 143 days every year.

Blue light is a high-energy light emitted from digital screens, certain light bulbs, and even sunshine. Long hours of blue light exposure can be harmful to your peepers, including strain, dry or watery eyes and irritated eyes, all of which can lead to blindness. Blue light is also known to sabotage your sleep schedule because it messes with your circadian rhythm (AKA your internal clock that tells you when it’s time to sleep or be awake).

So, what’s the answer? Office workers tend to spend more time exposed to blue light than any other work environment, spending almost half the day looking at a screen – up to 11.4 hours. Blue light is all around us, which makes it impossible to avoid screens altogether. If this sounds like you, wearing a pair of blue light blocking glasses may help to protect your eyes from harmful rays, reduce your headaches and help you to sleep better. Here are five reasons why you should be wearing blue light blocking glasses:

Blue light blocking glasses help to reduce the impact that exposure to digital screens can cause - like digital eye strain - using specially crafted lenses that feature tinted lenses with anti-glare protection to block or filter out the blue light given off. These lenses can also help reduce potential damage to your retina from prolonged exposure to blue light.

Ever felt like you’re nodding off all evening only to find yourself lying wide awake when bedtime arrives? Our bodies associate blue light with daytime, so being exposed to it in the hours leading up to bedtime can disrupt sleep patterns and make it harder to fall asleep. Ideally, we should avoid digital screens 4 hours before we want to go to sleep. If your lifestyle makes this problematic, wearing blue light blocking glasses in the evening may help you to sleep better.

Digital eye strain is "a group of eye and vision-related problems that result from prolonged computer, tablet, e-reader and cell phone use." It’s said that the physical discomfort of eye strain can be felt after two or more hours in front of a digital screen and can result in issues like tired eyes, blurry vision, itching and burning and dry eyes to headaches and neck pain. Relieving eye fatigue is as simple as taking regular breaks for your eyes each day, ensuring they get the exercise they need and limiting blue light exposure by wearing lenses designed specifically for work comfort.

One of the most common symptoms of digital eye strain is headaches, and it's possible that you can reduce those effects by wearing blue light blocking glasses. Harvard Medical School researchers conducted a study on 69 migraine sufferers in 2016, exposing them to various intensities of blue, green, amber and red light. Researchers discovered that pesky blue light exacerbated sufferers’ pain, since “blue and red lights generate the largest signals in both the retina and the cortex”.

Blue light impacts circadian rhythms by suppressing melatonin secretion, the hormone which makes our brains fall asleep and stay asleep. Reduction of melatonin makes it hard to fall asleep and/or remain asleep, drastically lowers sleep quality and causes sleep disruption like insomnia. The good news is, melatonin production suppression is proportional to the intensity and the length of blue light exposure - reduce these, and your melatonin production will increase. So wearing blue light protection glasses during the day when doing screen work could be an easy solution without having to give up your phone in the evening.

If you spend many hours per day in front of a screen, like working primarily from a computer, blue light blocking glasses are the perfect solution for you. Check out our newly launched range HERE.