You’ll have seen influencers wearing them on Instagram. You’ll have noticed streamers on Twitch popping a pair on any time they’re playing games. You might even have noticed your friends are starting to wear them during Zoom calls at the weekend.
A lot of people are suddenly wearing oversized clear lenses glasses, especially people you’ve never seen wear glasses before. It’s a new trend, which, just like loungewear, is becoming a must-have for people staying safe at home. The glasses you see everywhere are blue light glasses, and I’m going to tell you a little more about them.
Really, what are those glasses?
So blue light glasses are non-prescription glasses anyone can wear if they think they need to reduce the level of blue light exposure they’re receiving from day to day activities which are reliant on using screens.
And why is everyone suddenly wearing them?
Screens. It’s all about screens, or rather, just how much time we’re all spending looking at them. For those people lucky enough to be working from home, the average workday now revolves around looking at your laptop and using your phone. Then in the evening, it’s sitting in front of your TV to scroll through Netflix before you take your phone to bed to have one last look through your socials. It goes unnoticed, but your day is slowly amassing a lot of screentime.
Everyone is using their screen a lot, and it is resulting in tired eyes and sleep patterns going all askew. This is what blue light glasses aim to curb.
Ok. So what exactly is blue light?
When you’re outside in the daytime, the sun is making you feel revived and ready to attack the day. Part of that is down to the blue UV light that hits your eyes and signifies to your brain something like this: “HELLO, IT IS TIME TO BE WIDE AWAKE NOW!”.
Annoyingly, the same blue light is also created artificially from pretty much all of the devices we use (and spend far too much time using). And with all that’s going in the world, the last thing you need is bad habits and too much screen time disrupting your sleep.
What do blue light glasses aim to do?
Glasses like these are supposed to help filter out the level of artificial blue light we get every day; it’s something our eyes can’t naturally do. Staring at screens also causes us to blink far less, which irritates your eyes no end, so any way to reduce that when most out the day revolves around screens is a must.
Do they really work?
The research is still relatively new, so there aren’t any papers out there which say everyone should suddenly be wearing blue light glasses, but it’s pretty much common sense that any chance you get to minimise light exposure indoors should be seized upon. Why do think The Rock, Bret Hart & Macho Man Randy Savage always wore glasses inside? They weren’t just trying to look cool, you know.
Are these glasses expensive?
Like buying most things online, there’s a pair of glasses to suit all budgets. I would recommend buying a pair of blue light glasses just like you would new sunglasses. There are some people out there who don’t care if it’s a cheap knock-off pair, as long as it works. At the same time, there are others who will only be seen in designer frames.
I recommend looking at a brand like Kanturo Eyewear to get a trendy pair delivered at a reasonable price.
And when should they be worn?
If you know you’re going to be spending a long period in front of a screen and won’t take many breaks, pop them on and see if they work for you. You should find that your eyes don’t feel as tired at the end of the day. As long as you give it a go for a few weeks, to see if it works for you, you might notice some positive differences.
And for those who have never had a pair before, you’ll be surprised just how quickly you get used to wearing glasses.
