How Bad Blue-Light Glasses Are?

An analysis of previous trials suggests blue-light-filtering glasses may increase eye strain or sleep problems,

Blue-light-filtering glasses are becoming more popular day by day for shielding our eyes from electronic display near-inescapable glow light that is commonly related to eyestrain and poor sleep quality. In recent years we have become influenced by celebrities and ranked in style guides. But a recent study shows such glasses might not be as good as people think.

The paper, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, analyzed data from previous trials that studied how blue-light-filtering lenses affect vision fatigue, sleep quality, and eye health. The authors of the paper also found that wearing blue-light-filtering glasses does not reduce the eyestrain people feel after using computers. The results were inconclusive whether wearing these filtering glasses before bedtime improves sleep quality or not.

“It is an excellent review,” says Mark Rosenfield, a popular professor at the State University of NewYork College of Optometry, who was not involved in the study,” The conclusions are not surprising at all.. There have been a number of studies that have found exactly the same thing, that there’s just no evidence that blue-blocking glasses have any effect on eyestrain.” He adds that the new review reinforces that there is virtually no evidence that blue-light-blocking glasses affect eye strain despite them being specifically marked for that purpose.

For the new study, Downie and her colleagues defied 17 randomized controlled trials from six countries. Studies had from five to 156 participants and ran from less than a day to five weeks. The results of the trials showed that there is no short-term advantage to using blue-light-filtering glasses for reducing vision fatigue, compared with standard cleanse lenses. Only one of the studies examined the impact of blue-light-filtering glasses on eyesight, and it suggested that there was little to no effect. The researchers also couldn’t draw a conclusion about the lenses’ impact on other eye health conditions, such as retinal damage, because none of the included trials studies such outcomes.

Popular belief that blue light causes worse eyestrain, Rosenfield thinks the connection is weak. The biggest source of blue light is the sun. Electronic displays emit less than 1 percent of the amount of blue light that people get from sun rays, and there is no known fact that eye fatigue is related to blue light.

Sleep Issues

Poor sleep quality is heavily related to exposure to the blue light emitted from digital displays. Studies have indicated that late-night device usage disrupts sleep patterns, Resonfields says. Bluelight is known as interference with the release of melatonin, the hormone that sends sleep signals to the brain. This cycle is disrupted by blue light.

However, analysis shows that filtering before bedtime does not really help sleep. Although six trial studies show wearing blue-light-filtering glasses before affecting sleep quality, the findings of the trials are inconsistent, three out of the six studies show significant sleep quality improvement, while the other three reported utterly different results. The participants were also mostly people with sleep disorders. Downie and colleagues could not draw any conclusion.

In conclusion, there may not be as much effect of the blue-light-filtering glasses on improving your sleep quality as you are expecting, but it could hamper your sleep, even if you are not using a computer or mobile for a long time before bed, 

There may be a reason, at day time high blue light radiated in the environment because of the sun which helps us to stay awake, but when you are using blue-light-filtering glasses the natural blue light gets eliminated so you feel tired all day, and if are trying to awake yourself by drinking caffeine contains drinks on regular basis, your mind gets trained to be awake in this eliminated blue light condition, so at night, in bed when there is no light (no blue light), your poorly trained mind keeps you awake, 

So What You Can Do?

If you only have problems with blue light which is emitted from electronic displays like computer screens, mobile, and tablet displays, then why cover your whole vision by using blue-light-filtering glasses, Simply turn on blue light filter mode, Dark mode, or Night shift mode in your computer and mobile phones. It will reduce blue light emissions and also try not to use electronic devices before bed. This practice can provide you a better sleep quality.

Turn On Night shift mode on the Mac.

Go to settings → Displays → In the bottom right corner there will be ‘Night shift’ option, You can schedule sunset set to sunrise, and it will automatically reduce blue light.