Blue Light Filter Glasses – Do we Need them?

Blue Light Filter Glasses - A quick fix to our digital screen addiction?

We spend a lot of time in front of digital screens and displays. So wearing blue light filter glasses should be beneficial to us, right? WRONG.

If you are like me, you too sit in front of the laptop and mobile phone for hours together in the pretext of work, leisure, research, and whatnot.

It is possible that you too would have developed eye-strain, headaches, and other ailments over a period of time.

And now you are looking for that perfect cure and excuse to sit for long hours with your tech gadgets again.

You’ve heard about blue light filter glasses, you’ve seen a few informative ads about them, and your optical store ‘eye specialist’ has a great opinion about its curing powers.

So you go to your eye doctor for that long due eye appointment just to get a prescription for these blue light blocking lenses or at least get a blue light filter coating so that you can change your current glasses ASAP.

Your eye doctor doesn’t recommend these lenses, but looking at your enthusiasm, they don’t discourage you either. You wonder why they don’t include the words ‘blue light blocking’ in their prescription but you think maybe they forgot. That prescription is not mandatory to buy these glasses anyway.

The next day you visit a few optical shops to enquire which is the best blue light filtering technology and the best brands available for you to buy. You are willing to spend a bomb on your eyeglasses now because hey let’s admit, your eyes are important and your work (and fun) depends on gadgets.

Of course, the shop assistants show you the most expensive lenses with built-in blue-ray protection first. But looking at your reaction, they also give you an option of blue-ray coating over regular lenses. Finally, they hook you with some sort of time-sensitive combo offer where you seemingly get a lot for — an additional price.

You’ve almost decided to take that offer but you want to do some research (at the last minute, just before you visit your favorite optical shop to place that order) on the Internet about which blue ray blocking glasses/shops/tech is the best for you.

You knew research was not required, but nowadays, web research has become more of a habit before you buy anything so you decide to do it anyway.

And the information you see on the Internet SHOCKS YOU.

Here is why you DON’T NEED Blue Light Filter Glasses –

The other videos on Youtube, and even blog posts, also communicate something on similar lines, but more subtly – not as bluntly as this video. Only a very few Internet content creators seem to recommend this blue light filter glasses tech, but even they are dodgy – at best.

So you decide to visit your trusted optician and place the order for a regular pair of lenses WITHOUT blue-ray or UV or anti-glare or any other such MARKETING HYPED BLOCKING TECH.

This is not your story, of course. It’s mine.

And I am glad to share it here.

If you really want to cure your eye-strain, headaches, etc. and keep your eyes healthy, here are a few tips that I gathered from my doctor and research,

  • Follow the 20-20-20 Rule while working in front of a digital screen. That is, work for 20 minutes, look away at a distance of 20 feet, for at least 20 seconds.
  • Try to avoid looking at screens at night. Actually, it’s advisable to switch off the lights or dim them drastically for at least two hours before sleep. Exposure to bright light in the night signals to the brain that it’s still daytime and hence will affect your sleep/circadian rhythm.
  • Activate the night mode on your phone/laptop. It will automatically reduce the screen brightness and change the display light color to a more soothing tone.
  • Wash your face, soak cloth/cotton with water and apply them gently over your eyes, or apply lubricant eye-drops in between long and continuous work, when unavoidable. Make sure that your eyes don’t dry up due to lack of moisture.
  • For the same reason, Blink frequently. Yes, you need to practice doing this as it’s easy to forget to blink especially during intense and focused work.
  • Your eye muscles are not built to focus on a particular distance for elongated periods of time. So look away and take breaks frequently.
  • If you are able to arrange a large display that’s more than 20-feet away from your eyes, it’s better for the eyes. That’s why your eyes don’t tire at movie halls/cinemas. (I bought a projector so that I can shift my leisure video/movie viewing activities away from my phone/laptop.)
  • Sleep as much as possible.
  • Drink a lot of water.
  • Do some basic eye-exercises, like the ones shown in the below video, regularly.

As a tech blogger, I am concerned about maintaining the good health of your eyes. And more importantly, I am concerned about my own eyes.

Work and prosperity should not come at the cost of our health. Hence it’s better to find opportunities to stay away from constant exposure to digital screens than hoping for a quick fix and excuse in the blue light filter glasses.

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