Working from home has never been more popular. Many people have chosen to throw out commutes and stay home with their jobs. Even those who still work at the office spend a lot of time at their computer. Children are even spending a record-breaking amount of time in front of screens. How can we practice good eye health like this? The answer lies with blue light glasses.
Six of the benefits of blue light glasses include:
- Improves sleep quality
- Reduces eye strain
- Fewer Headaches
- Prevents dry eyes
- Improves Productivity
- Slows Macular Degeneration
It wasn’t until recently that ophthalmologists spoke out about the harm of blue lights suggesting we stay away from them as much as possible. What is blue light and why is it important that we protect ourselves from it? Keep reading to find out more about this new warning.
What Is Blue Light?
Before you can learn why blue light glasses are needed, you should first understand what blue light is.
Blue light is a type of electromagnetic wave. Most of these waves are not visible to the human eye. A small portion of these waves called visible waves can be seen and that is where blue light falls. Blue light is produced by the sun and any technology that has a screen.
Since we have begun holding our phones closer to our faces and sitting closer to the TV, blue light has become a concern. In the last 20 years alone the average person spends approximately 13 hours in front of a screen. Blue light is all around us and is even responsible for the sky’s captivating hue.
How Does Blue Light Affect Us?
Blue light falls on the high-energy visibility scale with an extremely short wavelength. This means not only that our eyes can see this form of light but has a hard time filtering it from racing our innermost portions of the eye.
Our eyes are equipped to protect the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye and it does a wonderful job of reflecting harmful UV rays away but falls short when it comes to reflecting blue light.
Our eyes can filter out some of this light like the amounts found in the sun but screens produce much larger quantities of these waves.
Benefits of Blue Light Glasses
Now that we understand what blue light is and how it affects us let’s take a look at the benefits of blue light glasses.
Improves Sleep Quality
Since blue light is naturally produced by the sun, spending too much time in front of a screen, especially at night can mess up your body’s internal time clock. This means your body can think that it isn’t time to sleep even though you’re tired. These glasses help filter out the blue light and keep your body’s time clock on schedule.
Reduces Eye Strain
It’s no surprise that the bright blue light coming from your computer screen is not good for your eyes. It’s late into the night and you can’t help but notice how badly your eyes are hurting so you push away from your desk and rub your tired eyes.
Eye strain has officially set in. Blue light is so bright for your eyes that it causes your pupils to tightly dilate for long periods. Blue light glasses will allow your eyes to relax, putting an end to those painful late nights.
Fewer Headaches
Along with eye strain come headaches and migraines. The long exposure to these light waves and the extended tight constriction of your pupils cause headaches and migraines. Blue light glasses filter out these harmful waves reducing the likelihood of headaches or migraines.
Prevents Dry Eyes
Dry eyes may not seem like something that can be prevented by glasses but they can help significantly. Sore eyes lead to rubbing and touching of the eyes which remove vital moisture from your eyes. Increased touching also increases the likelihood of transferring bacteria into your eyes.
Improves Productivity
No one wants to work with sore tired eyes. Working long hours in front of the computer without breaks would tire anyone out but working until your eyes are dry and sore means you’ll have to stop working for longer periods to recover. Blue light glasses paired with frequent breaks will improve your productivity and your eye health.
Helps Slow Macular Degeneration
The biggest and most important benefit to blue light glasses is your eye health. Macular degeneration is caused when the macular begins to deteriorate causing vision loss when looking straight ahead. This disease is progressive which means once it starts it continues to worsen over time. As always, talk to your doctor about any concerns you may have.
Conclusion
In conclusion, blue light is extremely harmful with long exposure and blue light glasses have a lot of benefits not only for your work productivity but your eye health as well. Talk to your doctor before choosing any type of non-prescription glasses.
