The “Science”

March 19, 2021

At first glance, blue light glasses seem like the panacea for our online school-related problems. As one student put it, “why do I not have these?” The anecdotal evidence is there; a simple search in Google for blue light glasses will pull up dozens of glowing reviews claiming they helped users sleep and overall made their lives much better.

The glasses work by having lenses filter out the blue light that emits from phone and computer screens. Blue light isn’t necessarily bad during the day—it can help wake us up and boost productivity—but when viewed at night, it can hurt circadian rhythms, which regulate our sleep schedules.

So if blue light isn’t harmful and is in fact probably beneficial during the day, should you wear blue light glasses all the time? The answer is you shouldn’t (unless you like the glasses look, which I can completely understand). Those problems discussed before—eyestrain, headaches, dry eyes—aren’t due to blue light at all, but rather something called computer vision syndrome (aka digital eye strain), which is caused by your eyes constantly moving around the computer screen full of glare and contrast.

Sure, blue light glasses could be helpful before bed, but even that science isn’t really there yet.

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