Can Blue Light Glasses Protect Eyes, Improve Sleep? See What Experts Say

Despite their popularity, blue-light glasses might not be as beneficial to our eye health as previously hoped, a new study has revealed. 

Blue-light glasses gained popularity in recent years with the idea they protect our eyes against screen usage or help with sleep at night. However, a new review led by researchers at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with colleagues at City, University of London and Monash University, has found that spectacles that are marketed to filter out blue light probably make no difference to eye strain caused by computer use or to sleep quality. 

"We found there may be no short-term advantages with using blue-light filtering spectacle lenses to reduce visual fatigue associated with computer use," said senior author Laura Downie in a statement. 

"It is also currently unclear whether these lenses affect vision quality or sleep-related outcomes, and no conclusions could be drawn about any potential effects on retinal health in the longer term. People should be aware of these findings when deciding whether to purchase these spectacles." Ms Downie added. 

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In their study, the authors explained that in reality, it is not the blue light emission from our devices that is causing eye strain for most people. Most of them have "computer vision syndrome," which is related to sitting at a computer screen for a long period of time, they said. 

"I don't typically recommend blue-light filters to my patients," said ophthalmologist Dr. Craig See, a cornea specialist at Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, as per CNN. "There's no reason to think that blue-light filtering is harmful, other than the cost associated with adding it to your glasses. The takeaway here is that it may not be doing as much as we were hoping," he added.  

Further, the study authors explained that blue-light filtering lenses only filter between 10% to 25% of blue light from artificial devices such as computer screens. "Filtering out higher levels of blue light would require the lenses to have an obvious amber tint, which would have a substantial effect on colour perception," said author Dr. Sumeer Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Downie Laboratory, advised for future research. 

However, the quality and duration of the studies also need to be considered, the authors said in the study.  

"[More studies] should examine whether efficacy and safety outcomes vary between different groups of people and using different types of lenses," Dr Singh added.