there are so many blue light blocking glasses out on the market it can make it difficult to pick out
the best ones some lenses might be clear yellow orange red sunglasses might be five
dollars a hundred dollars 150 some companies might claim that their glasses have all these amazing
benefits but no proof to back it up so how do you pick the best anti-blue light glasses for you
let's focus in hey howdy everybody this is dr neal guymon, dr eyeguy and i do videos all about
the eyes as well as eye product reviews like this one and let's just jump right into how to pick the
best blue light blocking glasses now most people searching for blue light blocking glasses usually
fall in one of three categories either they're trying to protect their eyes from potentially
harmful blue light or they're trying to help with their digital eye strain or eye fatigue
from using the computer all day or they might want to help with their sleep cycle or their
circadian rhythm now from those three categories you want to know what wavelengths those blue light
blocking glasses are actually blocking as you can see on this diagram 400 to 500 nanometers
is what we register as blue light the blue light is from 400 to 450 nanometers is considered the
high energy visible light it's right next to uv light and that's the area that's studied to see if
it's actually harmful or damaging to the eyes and some studies suggest that that blue light could be
potentially harmful but there are definitely more studies needed to actually make this
determination if you're hearing claims from companies saying that you need these blue light
blocking glasses in order to protect your eyes so you don't get macular degeneration
potentially potentially that could be a problem but we can't make that definitive decision yet
we can't actually make that claim and so a lot of times when you hear companies saying that
they might just be trying to really sell you these blue light blocking glasses
so just kind of take that with a grain of salt now if you're looking for anti-blue light glasses that
will help with digital eye strain or fatigue from the computer screens then you want glasses that
will block 455 nanometers pretty much right smack dab in the middle that's the peak intensity of
blue light that's coming from the screens in your phones the blue light from 450 to 500 nanometers
actually affects your sleep cycle well all of it does but those are the peak intensities that
actually can affect your circadian rhythm and so if you're looking for glasses to help with
your sleep cycle you want glasses that will block that area of the blue light the best
now with that being said let's go over how you can best pick blue light blocking glasses
depending on what area that you need help with now right off the bat if you already wear prescription
eyeglasses it's definitely best to actually get your blue light coating or blue light lenses from
your eye care provider usually that technology is superior very high quality and can actually make
the lenses somewhat more clear than other generic blue light blocking glasses and that's usually the
best way to go if you're somebody that's working on the computer screen all day long and you're
looking for glasses that might help you with your eye fatigue or your digital eye strain then here
are a few tips that'll help you find the best blue light blocking glasses number one you want
to find out what wave lengths the glasses actually block and this can be something difficult to find
out especially if you're looking at glasses on amazon sometimes they don't even provide
that information or it's very very generic again you want to try and block that peak intensity at
nanometers and that can be difficult for certain blue light blocking glasses to do
if they mention something about a spectral analysis that's actually a really good thing
that means that they put money into actually proving that their blue light blocking glasses do
block certain areas of blue light number two would actually be the tint or the color of the lenses
usually when you get into the yellow or orange or red tints they progressively block more and
more blue light but the problem is if you're working on the computer all day long especially
if you're doing color grading or editing that red glasses or orange glasses can change the color of
everything and make everything look weird so there are certain blue light blocking glasses that can
still be somewhat clear they might have a little yellow tint to them but they can be somewhat clear
and still block that high intensity or high visible light as well as that peak intensity
of 455 nanometers so make sure that you're looking for that if they can keep their lenses
clear and still block that that's actually a good quality lens or good quality glass
the tricky thing here is that you'll find a lot of companies and a lot of glasses sold on amazon will
claim that they they block 85 of all blue light but they have no proof to back that up at all in
fact sometimes you'll scroll through the comments and there'll be people that have actually done
a spectral analysis on those glasses and find that it only blocks maybe 10 percent of blue light or
15 percent of blue light so if you're shopping on amazon definitely look through the questions in
the comments because some people have actually helped out quite a bit and done a spectral
analysis on those glasses because there are claims out there and no proof to back it up whatsoever
usually it's best to actually stick with reputable companies that have been out there for a while
and some companies actually have patents on the lenses to keep their lenses somewhat clear
but still block quite a bit of that blue light especially in that 455 nanometers coming from
your screens some companies that i like out there are gunner these are felix gray glasses pretty
clear lenses but still block quite a bit of blue light also blue blocks glasses have been around
for a while and so make sure that you stick with a reputable company that actually has the proof
to show that they are blocking the wavelengths of blue light now a side note here research does
show that some people do benefit from blue light blocking glasses with their digital eye strain
but some people don't benefit at all in fact more recent research has shown that people don't really
have a benefit it doesn't help with their digital eye strain and that's how we see it in clinic as
well you'll get half the people to get blue light blocking lenses will rave about it say that it's
life-changing it's great it's helped with their headaches and eye strain and then you'll get some
people to get the blue light blocking glasses and say that it didn't help them at all so i think it
depends on the person if they're more sensitive to that blue light coming from the screens but you
may be someone that it doesn't help at all now what's actually been proven is that blue light
does affect your sleep cycle or your circadian rhythm and if you're somebody that will be working
on computer screens especially towards the evening later in the day before bedtime or you're going to
be gaming then you will be wanting to look for lenses that block 450 to 500 nanometers that
higher wavelength of blue light and that's where these glasses with a slight tint to them come in
handy if you're going to be on the computer or any screens at least two hours before bedtime
this will help this can help with your circadian rhythm this will help you actually have a more
restful sleep at night and once you actually start researching the different tints of lenses you'll
start seeing that they come in different sections or categories of lenses that might help with your
sleep they usually start out about blocking about 35 of all blue light and then they'll step up 65
is a little bit darker yellow that's what these glasses are and then i'll go up to a kind of an
orange color and that's about 85 then you'll get into these darker orange amber red colors
again almost 99.9 of all blue light now here are a few tips of finding good quality lenses and frames
whether you're looking for yellow tints or even clear lenses if you see that they're talking about
anti-reflective coating on their lenses that's a really good thing because that will cut down
on the glare coming from the computer screens if they talk about anti-reflective coating on
the back surface as well so front surface and back surface of the glasses that's even a bonus
and that's actually what i prefer by having the anti-reflective coating on the back surface you
won't see the reflection of your own eyeballs staring back at you now that i've said that
you might notice that in your glasses if you don't have an anti-reflective coating in your
glasses you might look at the screen and look at your glasses and notice that you can see your
own eyeballs reflecting back at you sorry about that but yeah it's going to drive you crazy now
now if you're kind of nervous about trying tinted lenses on the computer wondering if you're really
going to actually like having a slight tint to it then i would probably recommend or start with a 65
blue light blocking glasses that will have this kind of yellow tint to it
and then you'll know if you need to go down maybe to the 35 area or if you might be okay to go up
to maybe the 85 percent area either way the 85 or the 65 percent i actually liked both of them
i liked working on the computer screens my eyes felt great and made me feel all nice and warm
inside because it had warm colors to it and so it really doesn't bother me in fact i actually prefer
it but i would start with the 65 if you're kind of nervous about it it will have a slight yellow tint
to it but i actually really like it if you know for sure that you're getting these glasses to help
you with your sleep you're having trouble sleeping right after you work on the computer late at night
then you want to go as high as possible maybe into that 85 range or if you are brave you can go into
the very very dark dark red or dark amber lenses that can block 99.9 percent but uh the colors will
be weird they're a little bit much for me 85 is probably as much as i'll go another side note
is if you have prescription glasses but you're interested in the yellow or orange tints to block
more of that blue light to help with your sleep patterns but you don't want to buy
permanent prescription glasses that have that tint to them then they do sell these clip-ons
on amazon that easily clip on your glasses and wear right over the glasses and you can get them
in different tints depending on what percentage of blue light you want to block and they actually
work quite well too a lot of them will have that anti-reflective coating on there but yeah that's
definitely something to look into if you just want to wear it right over your prescription glasses so
here's a quick summary if you really are looking for the best blue light blocking glasses for you
for the lenses you want to see if they have anti-reflective coating on the front and back
surface if possible if you're somebody that's working on the screens all day long and you're
looking for glasses that might help you with your digital eye strain or your eye fatigue then you
can stick with the clearer lenses as long as they are blocking that peak intensity wavelength that's
coming from the screens it's 455 nanometers so pay attention and research on that if you're somebody
that's working on screens toward bedtime or you're looking at your phone getting closer to bedtime
and you want something that might help with your sleep cycle then you want glasses that
have a slight tint to it that can block that higher wavelengths of blue light so make sure
that you're looking for different wavelengths or different colors of lenses that might help
you with your sleep cycle now again like i said most glasses that i have found that are 30 dollars
and under aren't really doing the job either they're very uncomfortable the lenses are
not very good quality i would stick with thirty dollars and over and i think that will actually be
the best bang for your buck so again check the description below i put links to all the glasses
that were in this video and all the glasses that i recommend and i'll also put a quick summary of
this video so you can use it as a quick reference of how to actually find good quality blue light
blocking glasses that actually work and thanks for watching the video make sure that you check out my
other videos on blue light or if you're interested in any of my other videos right here i'm dr neal
guymon, dr eyeguy focusing on you and your eyes stay focused and i'll see you in the next video