Three eye experts who spoke with The Washington Post said the usefulness of blue-light glasses had been overstated. The American Academy of Ophthalmology, for its part, doesn’t recommend glasses that block blue light “because of a lack of scientific evidence that blue light is causing lasting harm to eye health,” clinical spokeswoman Ami Vadada said.
If slapping on blue-light blockers isn’t the answer, what should we do if screens are hurting our eyes? We asked the experts.
Is blue light bad for my eyes?
Blue light comes with some benefits for mental and physical health. It’s risky for your eyes in large doses - but those don’t come from consumer electronics.
The sun is a much more powerful source of high-energy light than your phone screen, said David Ramsey, director of ophthalmic research at Lahey Hospital and Medical Centre in Massachusetts. Gadgets aren’t bright enough to hurt our eyes, and we don’t yet know the cumulative effects of years of phone use.
Blue light could affect sleep, as well. Phone settings let you change your screen to a warmer colour spectrum at night and dial down the brightness (On an iPhone, go to Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Night Shift).
But if you suspect your phone is messing with your sleep, you’ve probably got bigger problems, Ramsey said. Scrolling social media at night exposes us to content that makes us excited, upset or anxious, he said, and using your phone right up until you fall asleep can wind up your brain and make it tougher to drift away.
Do I need blue light protection on my glasses?
“Blue light protection isn’t going to hurt, but it’s not necessarily going to significantly help,” said Melissa Barnett, director of optometry at the University of California at Davis. So paying more at LensCrafters or Warby Parker for a blue-light coating might not be the best use of your cash. One 2021 study found no discernible difference between blue light glasses and placebo pairs.
Barnett said though blue light lenses were overhyped, she valued how they get people thinking about eye health. Treat any investment you make in blue light blockers as an experiment: do they relieve your symptoms? How do they compare to purposeful blinking, regular breaks or moisturising eye drops?
Neither LensCrafters nor Warby Parker responded to questions about what evidence or insights make them offer blue light protection at an upcharge.
In 2017, a regulating body in the United Kingdom fined retailer Boots Opticians for misleading advertising about the risks of blue light and efficacy of blue light blockers.
Everyone’s eyes are different, and it might take a visit to an optometrist and an eye exam to learn which accommodations will make a difference for your comfort using screens, she said. You can even bring in your phone, tablet or laptop so your eye health provider can look at your posture and settings. Do you need a new prescription, some artificial tears, more regular breaks or a higher desk? Your optometrist can help you discern.
What should I be doing instead?
Experts agree the most common cause of eyestrain is simply not blinking enough.
Humans normally blink about 15 times a minute, but when we’re using screens, that rate drops to about six times - a more than 50% decrease. For heavy screen users, that can mean a whole day of insufficient blinking and dried-out eyes.
Another contributor is holding screens up to our noses. Ideally, computer and TV screens should be about a metre from our faces at a downward angle of about 10 degrees, Barnett said. She recommended 20 minutes working, then a 20-second break to look at something at least six metres away.
If you’re worried about disrupted sleep, a phone-free hour before bed might take you further than changing the temperature of your phone display, but feel free to try both, Ramsey said.
Most importantly, treat comprehensive eye exams the same as teeth cleanings. You need one about once a year so an eye-care provider can check for signs of the 270 diseases that affect the eyes, Barnett said.
