These Blue Light Glasses Can Help Protect Your Eyes From Your Phone and Computer Screens

You’ve probably read all about the correlation between insomnia and the digital blue light emitted from phones, computer screens, and televisions. And while it's a good idea to limit your exposure to blue light at night, you'll also want to limit it as much as possible all day long. For that, you can pick up a pair of blue light glasses, like the kind put out by Swanwick.

What is blue light?

For those who aren’t familiar, blue light is exactly what it sounds like. It's the blue section of the visible light spectrum, between 380 nm and 500 nm. During the day, exposure to natural blue light is a good thing; it helps tell your brain that it’s time to be awake, thus boosting attention, reaction times, and mood. However, exposure to blue light at night has been shown by numerous studies to suppress the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that signals to your brain that it is time to power down for the night, according to the Harvard Health Publishing blog.

This can throw off your circadian rhythm, which is the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, and can lead to occasional and sometimes chronic insomnia. But even outside of nighttime hours, there's evidence that excessive blue light exposure, especially from screens, could potentially be harmful to the eyes and speed up age-related macular degeneration.

Needless to say, humans are exposed to more blue light than ever before. According to one recent poll, the average American spends 42 percent of their waking hours looking at a screen. That works out to roughly six hours and 43 minutes looking at phones, tablets, laptops, and television every single day. And 79 percent of respondents said their screentime had increased over the last five years.

How blue light glasses work

Unfortunately, making significant cuts to screentime is probably not an option for most people, but blue light glasses can help block the light from your eyes. Day Swannies, by Swanwick, are specifically designed to be worn any time you are using devices with screens during daylight hours. Because we all need some blue light to help regulate our sleep-wake cycle, Day Swannies do not block out all blue light. Instead, they only block 42-80 percent of blue light between 400-450 nm, and 22-42 percent of blue light between 450-500 nm.

Day Swannies currently come in eight different models with different size and color options, so you are guaranteed to find a pair that suits your personal style. These include models designed specifically for kids, for reading, and for prescriptions. Regardless of the model, all Day Swannies have CR-39 lenses, which means they are made from a prescription-grade material that allows for maximum optical clarity. And all styles block 100 percent of UV light. You can get more details here.