Why There's Simply No Need For Blue Light Glasses

As more of our lives become digitized and we start spending more time looking at our phone and computer screens, there's a growing concern over how these devices are affecting us. A larger number of people — typically those who work with computers or spend large amounts of time on their phone — are reporting health issues like constant headaches, worsening eyesight, and a strain on their eyes than ever before. Many associate this increased health risk with the specific light emitted from most electronic devices: blue light. To protect against this, many people opt to get blue light glasses — glasses that filter out and block incoming blue light. While having a way to protect your eyes is nice, there's simply no need for blue light blocking glasses.

Most modern systems come with built-in features that you can turn on to put less stress on your eyes. This includes turning on dark mode, the hidden grayscale mode on your iPhone, or reading modes that shift the hue to a warmer tone. Many devices also come with the option to filter blue light, making blue light blocking glasses even more unnecessary. Even if none of this were true, you still wouldn't need to shield your eyes from blue light, as it has no proven harm according to present-day science.

In order to properly define the harms of blue light, we first need to talk about what blue light actually is. It's the light that comes out of your phone and laptop screen, but it's also the light that comes down naturally from the sun. Blue light is simply any light on the visible spectrum that is blue or has blue inside it, nothing more than that. 

Just like no one would tell you that sunlight is inherently harmful, there's no scientific evidence conclusively linking blue light to migraines, eye strain, or worsening eyesight. According to most professionals in the field, the studies that do show a link show cause, not correlation. This doesn't mean that we're sure that it has no effect, just that there's nothing in our current data that points to blue light itself being the cause of these issues.

For example, a person who's on their computer for the majority of their day being constantly bombarded with blue light might be more likely to develop migraines and eyestrain. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that the blue light is what causes it; it's more likely that spending most of your day looking at something near you and not going out as often causes these issues, something that we know to be a scientific truth. Whenever blue light was isolated as a reason for these issues in studies, no conclusive evidence was found directly linking it to the problems.

Blue light isn't dangerous and won't affect your health, but is there anyone that getting such glasses would actually benefit? Yes, actually. Blue light glasses can be a worthy purchase if you're someone that works night shifts, uses your phone before bed, or just aren't in a position where you can turn off any blue-light-emitting devices a couple of hours before you sleep.

Again, blue light isn't harmful, but it can mess up your sleep schedule and make it harder for you to fall asleep at night. One of the effects of blue light that we do have proof of is it messing up with your circadian rhythm, affecting your natural, instinctual sleep cycle. Just like how sunlight — a light that mostly consists of blue light — freshens you up in the morning, the blue light from your monitor or phone screen also makes it harder for you to fall asleep.

If you want to sleep better, you should actively stop using such devices before bed. However, if you can't help but do so, blue light glasses are one of many gadgets that can help you fall asleep even if you're working late on your laptop or have to open up your phone to check emails right before you sleep.