Why Everyone Should Get a Pair of Blue Light Glasses

In an increasingly digital world, it’s really hard to find somebody living under a rock where most people are doing their living behind staring at a screen. That makes it all the more necessary to consider the implications. A lot of you I assume will think of your vision and eyes. It goes further than that which merits your attention.

First thing is first, we did not evolve to stare at bright screens all day despite the fact that it has become our bread and butter. As reported by Business Insider, Computer Vision Syndrome affects 58% of people who use computers where they are not just experiencing eye strain but headaches as well as back and neck pain. Screens emit a mix of red, green, and blue light — similar colors to sunlight. Over the span of a millennia, it was blue wavelengths in sunlight that helped keep our circadian rhythms in sync with our environment. It does not help that our circadian rhythms are more sensitive to blue light than others. As usual when the sun sets, our body produces melatonin where this hormone regulates our circadian rhythms helping us fall asleep feeling tired. It was found that the blue light from screens disrupt that process where participants who spent 4 hours reading e-books before bed for 5 nights produced 55% less melatonin than those who read print. They reported to be more alert before and were much more exhausted the next morning. As circadian rhythms were mentioned before, our physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24 hour cycle needs to be more attention to. The Society of Neuroscience found in mice that even a chronic disruption to our basic circadian can lead to weight gain, impulsivity, slower thinking, and other physiological and behavioral changes in mice similar to those of us who experience shift work or jet lag. The mice’s body temperature cycles were disorganized as well as hormones like leptin, which regulates appetite, and insulin, were elevated related to their peers. The crazy thing is they were fed the same diet as their peers yet gained weight and saw the size of their brains shrunken. This would be a good time to ask yourself if the study is a reflection of your lifestyle.

When looking at usage, a survey of 2,000 adults conducted by OnePoll that was commissioned by Vision Direct found that the average American spends 4 hours and 30 minutes watching TV, 4 hours and 33 minutes looking at a smartphone, over 3 hours using a gaming device, and nearly 5 hours on a laptop. That’s 17 hours and 9 minutes looking at digital devices each day adding up to 6,259 hours of total screen time. It’s important to note that there are 8,760 hours in a year. It’s also important to note that this survey was conducted before COVID began! When COVID happened, the daily hours climbed to 19 hours and 6 minutes. Get this, over the span of an adult’s lifetime, 60.7 years (18–78.7) translates to 382,652 hours and 48 minutes which equates to 43.7 years. That’s almost 72% and keep in mind life expectancy dropped because of COVID by about 2 years, the largest drop since World War 2 found by a study published in the British Medical Journal.

With all of this being said, I don’t expect a lot of you to pull a 180. This is the norm and for a lot of you, it might be demanded of you for your job or any other responsibility. That’s why you should look at your approach. There have been tips such as the 20–20–20 rule, taking breaks after 20 minutes or positioning the monitor to be 20–40 inches in front of you while lining up the top of the monitor to your eye level to prevent neck strain. You can also buy a matte screen filter to reduce glare on your smartphone. For me, I have been using a pair of blue light glasses since the beginning of last month and speaking from experience, it has paid off. Not only have I had better sleep, my fatigue has decreased since reducing my eye strain all the while improving my productivity and lessening brain fog. They can be purchased on Amazon or you can buy them at TJ Maxx or Marshalls depending on your opinion on Jeff Bezos. If this prompts you to act swiftly, blue light can cause generation of reactive oxygen species, an unstable molecule that contains oxygen and reacts with other molecules noted by the National Cancer Institute. This unstable molecule damages skin cells resulting in faster aging and can cause sustained pigment changes as Dr. Michele Farber of the Schweiger Dermatology Group in NYC. You only live once and the same goes for your eyes!