Blue Light

From continent to continent and around the world, there are very few people that go a day without having a screen in front of them. For me, as a student of architecture and a part of the younger generation, my eyes are plastered to a screen for most of the day. As many people face the daily strain of all the screen time we get, many companies are trying to take advantage of the untapped market.

The Vision Council, a council that represents the community of eyeglasses manufacturers, reported that around 60% of Americans surveyed have at one point experienced symptoms of digital eyestrain. Digital eye strain symptoms can range from headaches to itchy, dry, red eyes. Taking the statistic above and applying to the whole country, as it suggests, equates to a little less than 200 million Americans. Much of the blame for the eye strain has been pointed at blue light, the seemingly harmful light that comes from electronic screens as well as the sun.

A diagram showing how the blue light is not let through the special blue light blocking eyewear

Much of the craze over blue light has resulted in the emergence of a new market, blue light blocking glasses. Although these glasses have been around for a while, recently the market has turned to making the eyewear more attractive, rather than the distasteful goggles of the past. The article I looked at for information regarding blue light, linked here, also referenced the American Academy of Ophthalmology. They quoted Dr. Rahual Khurana, an ophthalmologist and clinical spokesperson, in stating “We keep on thinking about blue lights from our computers and smartphones, but the reality is we get more exposure from blue light from the sunlight.”

A more recent pair of the more unattractive “goggles”

The article then goes on to reference Dr. Khurana more as he blames the strain on staring at screens for long periods of time without taking breaks. No special eyewear is recommended during the day because of this. Instead, other professionals in the field suggest using this eyewear four hours before bedtime as the blue light at that time can interfere with one’s circadian rhythm, your internal clock.

For me, when it comes to my busy screen filled days being a student, I experience a lot of blue light. At the start of the day, I work in studio where I am staring at two screens that I do my work on. Then, two days out of the week, I go to work, where I am faced with two more screens for around 5 hours. On top of all this, I have another screen in my pocket, being my phone, that I look at regularly throughout the day. With all this screen time adding up, I got myself a pair of blue light blocking glasses last spring to stop the headaches I was having. The very day I started to wear them, I noticed a difference right away as my headaches faded away like magic. Whether its just the Placebo Affect or not, I still wear them almost every day to protect my eyes.

The pair of blue light blocking glasses I own

The technology and research of blue light and the harm it may cause us is still fairly new information, but with every passing day we learn more about it. My Great Aunt Bess, now 104 years old, once told my sisters and me that in life, we should always protect our hearing and our eyes. I purchased my first pair of blue light blocking glasses with those words in the back of my head, and I have never looked back.