Blue light glasses
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Hi there
I am thinking of purchasing some Blue Light Glasses. I emailed the company that sells them to ask whether, if I have F.lux installed on my computer, whether Blue LIght Glasses are still necessary. They responded as follows:
"The F.lux definitely helps with blue light exposure, but it doesn't get rid of it all (otherwise the screen would be black). We find a lot of customers still benefit and notice a difference when wearing blue light glasses even with F.lux." I am just emailing to seek your opinion - do you believe that Blue Light Glasses will provide additional benefit over and above the F.lux program? Thank you -
I think it depends on many factors, one of which is what kind of indoor lights you have. Is your indoor lighting bright and 'cold', or can you go dim and very warm at night? Do you have any dimmers installed anywhere? I recommend dimmers on all lights you use during the last few hours of your day before going to sleep (but of course, that requires lights that can be dimmed).
Another factor is how you're using f.lux. What color temperatures are you using in those last few hours before you go to sleep?
Yet another factor can be your monitor's brightness setting. Do you keep it bright in those last couple of hours before going to sleep? Or do you reduce its brightness?
I personally don't need glasses that block blue light because: (1) I switch to very warm dim indoor lighting, (2) I reduce my monitor's brightness to its lowest setting, and (3) I set f.lux to 800K using the Alt+Shift+Page Down keyboard shortcut. I also don't get any blue light exposure from anything else because I've made sure of that.
I also don't watch TV, so I never get blue light exposure from that. I mean, I know that most people will watch TV until they're too tired to stay awake and then go straight to bed, but I don't. Those people should be using glasses that block blue light if they wish to keep living the same way, but I would expect them to hate what it does to the look of everything they're watching. heh I would also expect them to think they look ridiculous with orange glasses on, and I would expect them to feel ridiculous - as though they're wearing tin foil hats. heh
There are also people who have "daylight" lights installed in various places in their home and will use them while getting ready for bed not realizing what that light is doing to them.
I think that you should hold off on buying glasses that block blue light and just see what you can accomplish by using dim warm light at night coupled with a very dim monitor and f.lux set to something very orange or red (like 1900K or warmer). You can also increase the black level by adjusting f.lux's brightness with Alt+Page Down.
I dunno, I just think using glasses that block light is a bit unnecessary unless you are absolutely unable to avoid alerting light at night.
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The signal your body's surfaces should be getting is darkness. And specially not 400-500nm light. Blue Light glasses might help you with this. At least for your eyes.
What might be better, or in addition, is to buy a filter to put on your monitor that blocks 400-500nm. This way you do not expose the opsins on other body parts either.
I've bought this filter and it works fine for my purposes:
BlueShield #2–Design-It-Yourself Flat Screen TV Filter 20″ x 32″ by lowbluelights.comBest of course is to just go sleep, in darkness.
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For most people, room lighting is brighter than the screen with f.lux running.
This is because your room is just a lot bigger than your monitor, so all those surfaces add up to a lot of photons.
For these reasons, blue glasses are beneficial. But not because f.lux is ineffective at what it does, which it does pretty well.
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@Sophie There are many glasses that say they block blue light and don't, because different companies all have a slightly different definition of what blue light is. Some of them don't seem to know the difference between UV light and visible blue light that affects sleep. So you must be very cautious as a consumer.
I am a fan of the Uvex SCT Orange glasses. They cost under $10, you can buy them from Amazon, and they are very easy to pack in your suitcase for bright hotel rooms. f.lux runs all the lighting in our house so we don't use blue blockers after dark, but I own them, and the Uvex are by far my favorite. -
Hi,
Blue light glasses are really good because presently, there are different types of glasses which we are using but it’s important for us to wear glasses which are capable of blocking the BLUE LIGHT.
Blue Light blocking glasses are specially fabricated with UV protection coating for blocking the blue light which is emitted from displays.
Most of us in our day-to-day life we spent a lot of time using gadgets which emit BLUE LIGHT, like a computer, mobile, TV, etc. So that’s the importance of wearing blue light blocking glasses or UV glasses.
I have bought blue light glasses from an online store called kind eyes and it is handcrafted Scratch & Glare Resistant and they also donate a pair of reading glasses for every pair of blue light blocking glasses purchased.
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HI John - we do not allow commercial spam (link removed), but I will address a second problem with your post: mainly, UV filters are not the same as blue filters. They are two different things, and the tendency to lump them together by eyewear companies is causing a lot of confusion in the market.
