Friends you’ve known for years have begun wearing glasses, and it isn’t necessarily because you’re all getting older. In many cases, these friends and colleagues have begun wearing blue light glasses.
Blue light glasses look like normal eyeglasses, but they aren’t specifically designed to correct vision. Are your friends clued in on a new trend you don’t know about, or are blue light glasses actually helpful?
If you’re feeling left out, we’ll get you up to speed on what blue light glasses are, how they work, and whether or not it’s safe to wear them all day.
What Is Blue Light?
Before we talk about the glasses, let’s talk about the light. Blue light is the range of light that is visible to the human eye. If you can see the light, it’s blue light. Blue light has the shortest wavelength of all types of light, between 380-500 nanometers. Blue light is also the form of light with the highest energy.
If you’re thinking, “High energy, short wavelength? That sounds like ultraviolet light,” you’re onto something. Blue light is a part of the visible light spectrum, which does separate it from UV light, which is not visible to the human eye.
Sources of Blue Light
Your friends that wear blue light glasses are probably in front of a computer screen all day. In fact, blue light glasses’ claim to fame is their purported ability to protect your eye health from damaging light from computers and devices. However, blue light isn’t just emitted from screens.
The biggest source of blue light is the sun. Other sources include:
- Fluorescent lights
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s)
- Energy-efficient LED lights
- LED televisions
- Smartphones, tablets, gaming devices
- Laptops
- Basically anything with a digital screen
You read that right. Essentially any technologically advanced screen-having device is emitted blue light directly into your eyeballs, and it’s doing so constantly, because let’s face it: we spend a lot of time on digital devices.
The bottom line: you’re surrounded by blue light-emitting sources all day, every day. Let’s look at how blue light can affect your eyesight.
Blue Light and Your Eyes
Your vision works like this: light enters your eye through the cornea and is filtered into the retina, located at the back of the eye. The cells in the retina make sense of the light and tell your brain what it sees. There’s a little more science involved, but you get the gist of it.
No shade, but the eye isn’t good at filtering out blue light. That means the blue light that hits your cornea is absorbed and delivered to the retina for processing. What does all this mean? It’s not an easy answer.
Some researchers believe that blue light exposure increases your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, a condition that can lead to total blindness over time.
Others believe the risk of macular degeneration from blue light is low, but the cumulative effects of blue light exposure can interfere with circadian rhythms, cause eye strain, and even make headaches more likely. Even if the “only” side effect is interference with your circadian rhythm, that means interference with your sleep cycle, which can lead to even bigger problems.
Not to mention, it’s more than just a little digital eye strain. Long periods of screen time have negative effects on your vision. Computer vision syndrome, for instance, refers to a condition that results in:
- Dry eyes
- Watery eyes
- Blurry vision
- Headaches (sometimes migraines)
- Shoulder and neck pain
- Fatigue
Couple that with reduced sleep cycles and more wake cycles, and you can find yourself relying on melatonin and caffeine in an unhealthy symbiotic cycle.
Ultimately, both camps agree blue light is in some way damaging to your eyes and, arguably, your overall health. It’s also agreed that the younger you are, the more likely you are to be exposed to more blue light. In other words, our kids are getting more blue light exposure than we did when we were children.
Blue light glasses to the rescue.
What Are Blue Light Glasses?
Blue light glasses are glasses that filter out some of the blue light emitted from your computer screen and other devices. The lenses of blue light glasses are coated with a protective film that allows them to protect your eyes from collecting as much blue light as you would without wearing them. At Stoggles, we embed our blue light tech directly into the raw material of our lenses, so you never have to worry about changing out your lenses or attaching clip-on shades.
Blue light glasses are the best and most effective way to mitigate the harmful effects of this light. In order to determine whether or not you have a quality pair of blue light blocking glasses, you need to look for a yellow tint in the lenses (this yellow tint is where the blocking powers come from). Glasses that promise to be 100% clear of a yellow tint are not capable of blocking a sufficient amount of blue light.
What If You Wear Corrective Lenses?
Never fear; if you wear prescription glasses, you can still get blue light protection. The use of blue light coating does not interfere with your corrective lenses and can be applied to your glasses very easily.
Many retailers, like Stoggles, allow you to order blue light glasses with your corrective lens prescription.
Be warned: Your optician usually has plenty of eyewear options, but the specialized coatings (like blue light) can add up fast. Instead, try shopping for eyewear that comes standard with these features, like Stoggles. Our blue light lenses are included in the price of every pair of Stoggles we create.
Can You Wear Blue Light Glasses All Day?
The fact that blue light glasses filter out a portion of the blue light your eyes collect while sitting at a computer screen may make you wonder if they’re effective in filtering out other sources of blue light.
Blue light glasses do filter blue light from other sources and are perfectly safe to wear all day. In fact, the more you wear your blue light glasses, the more opportunity they have to protect you from the blue light you are exposed to.
The more protection you have from blue light, the less you’ll experience damaging effects of blue light like:
- Eye strain and fatigue
- Headaches
- Watery, irritated eyes
- Disrupted sleep patterns
In case you were wondering, blue light glasses don’t typically offer UV protection like a pair of sunglasses. You’ll need to switch to your shades when you’re outdoors. Unless, of course, you’re wearing Stoggles. Stoggles are all preloaded with blue light blocking lenses and made from polycarbonate material which is naturally UV-blocking.
Blue Light and Safety Glasses
If you work in an environment that requires safety glasses, chances are you’re under fluorescent bulbs all day and probably still going back and forth between some type of device or screen. Workers who require safety glasses may think they’re out of luck if they want blue light protection.
Thankfully, that’s not the case. Stoggles safety glasses offer the full, ANSI Z87.1 certified safety goggle protection (can you say that five times fast?). We also have the added bonus of blue-light filtering polycarbonate lenses. You can protect yourself and your entire team from eye hazards, including blue light.
Less time taking off your safety glasses to put on a pair of blue light glasses adds up and reduces the risk of your employees focusing less on their tasks and safety.
The Stoggles Promise
Stoggles are created for people who need more than just safety glasses. Each pair of Stoggles wears like eyeglasses, protects like safety goggles, and looks like your favorite, fashionable specs.
Our safety glasses are all blue light protective, which means you’ll protect your eyes from blue light sources while protecting your eyes from other project-related hazards. The best part? You’ll look good doing it because you shouldn’t have to choose between style and safety.
You can grab a pair of Stoggles with corrective lenses, too. In fact, we handle prescription orders in-house to save you time, money, and frustration.
Stoggles also offers safety glasses in smaller sizes, so you can protect the youngest eyes in your family while they help out with projects around the house or while they spend countless hours playing Fortnite.
Blue Light and Beyond
The benefits of Stoggles don’t stop there. In addition to blue light blocking lenses with ANSI Z87.1-2020 certification and UV protection, we added a few other important safety features so you can cover even more eye care bases.
- Anti-fog. Fogging lenses are a nuisance and create a safety hazard by requiring you to remove your lenses to wipe them down. Stoggles are coated with anti-fog compounds, giving you the green light to move from indoors to outdoors in any climate without experiencing fog face.
- Side and top shields. Don’t let your eyes become vulnerable by ignoring the spaces on the sides and top of your lenses. Side and top shields offer protection in these areas making sure your eyes stay safe.
- Light responsive lenses. Safety eyewear that also has photochromic lenses? Yep, we did that. Our Stoggles Dimmers are UV light-responsive in both prescription and non-prescription options, so you can wear your Stoggles in the sun or indoors.
- Polarized lenses. If you need polarized lenses, we’ve got you covered. Our Stoggles sun polarized lenses help you see clearly and reduce glare, a must for the ultimate outdoor adventurer.
You could say we thought of everything, and we’d probably agree. Why invest in blue light lenses when you could level up your eyewear game and grab eyewear that offers so much more?
Blue’s Clues: Blue Light Glasses Are a Must
Blue light is emitted from tablets, computers, phones, televisions, lightbulbs, and the sun. Blue light is difficult for your eyes to filter, and experts believe that overexposure to blue light can be damaging to your eye health.
While it’s impossible to avoid blue light, you can use blue light glasses to help filter some of the blue light your eyes receive. It’s completely safe (and a great idea) to wear blue light glasses all day, to avoid as much blue light exposure as possible.
Stoggles offers safety glasses with blue light filtering lenses that are safe, effective, comfortable, and definitely stylish enough to be worn all day. Whether you need corrective lenses or not, we’re able to outfit you with the best blue light blocking safety glasses available.
Blue light glasses are beneficial and definitely “on-trend,” especially when you wear the only safety glasses known for their protection and style.
Sources:
Is Blue Light From Your Cell Phone, TV Bad for Your Health? | UCD
Blue Light Excited Retinal Intercepts Cellular Signaling | Nature