Blue light and its connection to digital eye strain has become an additional consideration when deciding on the type of lenses you want in your eyeglasses. Considering the potential cost of prescription eyeglasses, it’s fair to wonder if you’ll need to buy a separate pair for blue light protection.
You shouldn’t experience any negative effects from wearing blue light glasses all the time. Though it’s worth mentioning, you could notice some subtle vision changes because of the blue filter in the lenses.
Blue light isn’t the only thing linked to digital eye strain. This article also considers some other contributing factors with a few tips on relieving and preventing eye strain.
What Are Blue Light Glasses?
Although they may sound like a futuristic piece of eyewear, blue light glasses typically don’t look all that different from eyeglasses with regular lenses. Sometimes, you may notice a slight colour difference in the lens because of the blue light-filtering tint or coating.
The real difference happens within the lens itself. The way blue light lenses are manufactured can vary, but generally there is a tint in the lens or coating on it that creates a barrier between your eye and blue light.
This barrier’s job is to either block or reflect the blue light waves and keep them from reaching your eye.
Wearing Blue Light Glasses All the Time
There shouldn’t be issues with wearing blue light glasses all the time—but it may not always be in your best interest. Some blue light filters cause some slight discolouration or distort an object’s true colour.
In most cases, these changes aren’t drastic. But depending on your vision needs, blue light glasses may not be ideal. For example, some blue light glasses can cause “warmer” looking colour, which may not be good if you need to see crisp true colours.
What Is Blue Light?
But what’s the big deal with blue light, and why do we need to protect our eyes from it?
Blue light is a certain wavelength of energy that is invisible to the human eye. It’s similar to ultraviolet UV light but slightly less powerful. There is some division in the scientific community about the potential dangers of blue light, but there’s no mistaking that it can have some negative effects on our comfort and vision.
Blue Light & Digital Eye Strain
Blue light may not cause serious vision problems, but it can increase the negative effects of other conditions. Digital eye strain describes the strain that results from our constant focus on screens, computers, cellphones, fast food menus, or televisions—blue light is all around us.
The muscles in our eyes already have to contract and relax constantly to focus on objects and movements. When focusing on digital screens, blue light can cause this focusing to take more effort.
Digital Eye Strain
Although the name implies you would only feel the symptoms of digital eye strain in your eyes, that’s not the case. You can experience symptoms of this condition in your back, neck, and head as well.
Symptoms can include:
- Muscle stiffness and pain in the neck, shoulders, and back
- Headaches
- Blurry vision
- Trouble focusing
- Dry, burning eyes
- Feeling like something is in your eyes
- Tired, sore eyes
Contributing Factors to Digital Eye Strain
Although research points to blue light contributing to digital eye strain symptoms, it’s certainly not the only contributing factor. Other things that may cause or worsen symptoms include things like an uncorrected refractive error, poor posture or seating position, and environmental factors like lighting or dry air.
Treating Digital Eye Strain
Most cases of digital eye strain won’t require extensive treatments. Treatment typically revolves around symptom relief through lifestyle changes or the correction of an underlying problem.
Treatments and remedies may include:
- Adjust the room’s lighting so that it’s comfortable for your eyes. Lights that are too bright can cause glare on screens, which can also contribute to eye strain.
- Use lubricating eye drops if you’re experiencing dry eyes along with strained eyes. The more irritated they get, the harder it can be to focus.
- Make sure you wear an up-to-date prescription if you’re an eyeglasses wearer. Uncorrected or inadequately corrected refractive errors can cause eye strain.
- Adjust your workspace to relieve strain on your body. Make sure your screen is about an arm’s length away and slightly below eye level. Also, sit up straight to avoid feeling the strain in your back.
- Practice the 20-20-20 rule throughout the day. Every 20 minutes, focus on something 20 feet away from you for 20 seconds.
Discuss Your Blue Light Protection Options
Most people can’t avoid screens altogether. But there are certainly things you can do to minimize negative effects on your eyes, vision, and the rest of your body. A comprehensive eye exam is a great place to start. This rules out any underlying conditions that may be causing your digital eye strain discomfort.
Reach out to the Willoughby Doctors of Optometry team today and book an appointment with one of our optometrists.
