3 signs you need blue light glasses

With a rise in the average screen time of the majority of the world population, digital eye strain has become a common term. There are many signs of eye strain that you may be experiencing but never went to the cause. As blue light glasses are a popular option for filtering artificial blue light from digital screens, we’ll walk through the signs that mean you need a pair of blue light glasses.

Why do you need blue light glasses?

“For starters, all digital screens emit blue light. These rays have higher energy than any other visible light and shorter wavelengths (380 nm-500 nm).”

If not from the screen, blue light is generally beneficial for our health in different ways. It promotes good health by boosting alertness while improving memory and cognitive function.

Blue light rays have many sources, the biggest one being the sun. The other sources are LED lights and digital devices like computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets and others. The biggest problem for our eyes is usually blue light emitted from these electronic screens.

How would you know if you need blue light glasses?

The right way of knowing if you are in need of blue light glasses is by visiting an optometrist for a comprehensive eye test. You can book a free eye test appointment at your nearest Specscart store in case you live in Manchester. After an eye test, the optometrist would accurately inform you about your concerns, symptoms and the solution for improving the health of your eyesight.

Apart from an eye test, you can use other vital signs that indicate the need for blue light glasses.

Read them below -

1. 6+ hours of screen time in a day

Whether you are an employee or a pro gamer, if a large amount of your time goes into consuming digital media, then it’s safe to assume that you require blue light glasses. Apart from these two professionals, there are many of us whose digital media consumption if summed together adds up to 6+ hours. The amount of time an average person spends on their laptop, and then on a smartphone is often more than 6 hours.

It’s quite concerning how digital media has deeply integrated with our daily lives across all age groups, so much so that blue light has turned out to be a concern for everyone.

According to a report from the Sun, adults in the UK spend 34 years of their lives staring at a screen.

Due to the numerous devices in their home, often adults find it difficult to keep screen time down. It gets even worse when it comes to kids and teens.

Four in 10 parents have shown concern for their kids spending an excessive amount of time glued to their gaming devices or smartphones. While a fifth of the parents find it difficult to reduce the tract of their kid's screen time.

From kids to youngsters and adults, excessive digital dependency and overexposure to blue light rays is the biggest concern. In such a distressing environment, blue light glasses turn out to be a big help.

2. Face eye conditions and discomfort

Once your screen time increases, so are the chances of you getting numerous eye conditions and discomfort. Staring at a screen for too long leads to excessive penetration of blue light rays which can cause various symptoms of digital eye strain. Here are some of the common symptoms of digital eye strain:

• Blurry vision
• Headache
• Blurry vision
• Dry or watery eyes
• Light sensitivity
• Burning sensation
• Difficulty in focusing

The problems mentioned here are quite common for people with significant screen use every day. If you are facing some or all of these, you are likely experiencing digital eye strain.

It usually starts by being a small and irrelevant problem that we often tend to neglect. But with time it only increases pain and discomfort in our eyes.

In these cases, blue light glasses can significantly help to reduce such symptoms and contribute a comfortable screen time. People also have a misconception about reading glasses to be helpful for computer use. Reading glasses can help with your prescription but you need blue light glasses to filter harmful blue light. You can get blue light coating with your reading glasses as well.

3. Uneven Sleeping Pattern

Exposure to blue light before heading to bed can lead to the suppression of the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin. Which in return, disrupts your normal circadian rhythm and negatively affects your sleep-wake cycle.

Whenever you check a last-minute email or scroll through Instagram at night, the blue light rays entering your eyes convince your brain to consider that it’s still daytime.

As a result, your brain under the influence of blue light makes you feel alert, active and awake for a longer time than usual. And you get dragged down the YouTube rabbit hole and spend half your night on unimportant tasks.

Uneven sleeping patterns lead to sleep deprivation and insomnia in many people.

Here are some of the issues you’ll face due to sleep deprivation:

• Excessive sleepiness
• Easily irritation and annoyance
• Daytime tiredness
• Impulsive behaviour
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Productivity Loss

Sleep is extremely essential for living a healthy life. Just when you thought blue light could only bother your eyesight, it proved to be extremely harmful to your overall well-being.

Sleep deprivation caused by anything shouldn’t be ignored as its after-effects are quite worrying. Issues like depression, unproductivity and impulsive behaviour aren’t normal to experience.

Lately, research from MIT students proved sleep quality to be the biggest factor in people's health and mental well-being, followed by a healthy diet and regular exercise. Focus on prioritising your sleep before anything else.

Final Thoughts

Try working on limiting your screen time and upgrade to blue light glasses. Avoid using any digital screens before going to bed. If the temptations are too high, keep your phones in another room and try to maintain healthy habits before sleeping like reading a book, or creating a sleeping ambience by dimming the light.