BLUE LIGHT GLASSES: IS IT HEALTHY TO WEAR THEM ALL DAY?
Computers, mobile phones and tablets have all become crucial tools for people to participate in modern life. We use them to carry out daily tasks from ordering food to paying bills, we use them to follow the news and stay in touch with loved ones, and we use them to access outlets for entertainment like social media platforms, dating apps, and streaming content. We live in the multi-screen era, with digital screens as a key part in just about every element of life. Unfortunately, these devices are also all major producers of a specific wavelength of light, called blue light, which can cause headaches, impact our sleep, and even damage our sight in large enough amounts. Read on to learn more about why blue light is harmful, and what you can do to protect yourself from it.
WHY BLUE LIGHT EXPOSURE CAN BE HARMFUL
According to the Vision Council, more than 80% of Americans use digital devices for more than two hours a day. Of these, nearly 67% say they use two or more devices at the same time. 80% also reported using a digital device in the hour before sleep, which is a sleep-disrupting habit that can increase the brain's alertness at the very time when the body is trying to wind down and rest.
All of this can lead to digital eye strain, a threat to the health of your eyes that still isn't as widely recognized as it should be despite the vast increase in our daily digital exposure. As Dr. Justin Bazan, an optometrist and medical adviser to the Vision Council, puts it:
"Based on my experience and research, the light emitted from screens may be linked to issues with sleep, not to mention recurrent headaches, issues seeing content on a screen, and red, itchy and dry eyes," says Dr. Bazan. " . . . Our eyes weren't designed to look at digital devices, let alone as much as we all do in this era. So, it's key to be proactive about mitigating the effects of digital devices on our eyes."
Here are some statistics that put the full extent of the change we're living through in perspective:
- America's digital population, the percentage of the population that are active internet users, is presently just over 288 million strong, or in other words, just over 82% of Americans.
- Of these, at least 85% use their mobile phones to go online, with some estimates ranging as high as 95%.
- At least 73% of American adults are users of home broadband, while some 17% depend solely on their smartphones for connecting to the internet.
No matter which part of the digital population you fit into, the digital screen — and with it, the risk of digital eye strain — has become a ubiquitous part of life.
An important part of dealing with digital eye strain is mitigating some of its major causes — which brings us back to blue light.
WHY IS BLUE LIGHT A PROBLEM FOR OUR EYES?
One of the colors in the light spectrum visible to human sight is blue light: a short-wavelength form of light that carries higher amounts of energy than most other colors. In the pre-digital era, the world's major source of blue light was the sun. The digital era has changed this state of play, though; we've brought large quantities of blue light indoors through the screens of our TVs, smartphones, computers, laptops, tablets, and even LED and fluorescent lighting.
The human eye simply hasn't evolved to contend with this much blue light at once. The results of overexposure to blue light can be pretty noticeable as a result — symptoms can range from eye strain to headaches, as well as sleeplessness or otherwise disrupted sleeping patterns, since its high energy output can disrupt circadian rhythms. Smartphones are particularly strong blue light emitters, a problem that's only exaggerated by the fact that we tend to hold them much closer to our faces than other devices.
Fortunately, once we realize that using our phones and other screens for such long hours can have an effect on healthy sight, we can take precautions to protect our eyes.
3 STRATEGIES FOR FILTERING BLUE LIGHT AND PREVENTING EXPOSURE
- Simple lifestyle changes can help. Try to avoid digital screens for at least two hours before going to bed. It might seem hard to resist the temptation of endlessly scrolling but leaving your phone and other devices in a different room than the one you sleep in can help. Some of these fixes are very simple to implement. For example, use an actual alarm clock instead of using your phone to wake you up. If you simply can't stomach the idea of leaving your phone unattended in the case of an emergency, consider looking into an app to help you limit your screen time. You can even put on “night mode” from your phone, however it may change your screen overall to an unsightly warm yellow tint.
- Restrict device usage to certain times of the day. When you wake up in the middle of the night, don't immediately seek out your phone or head to your computer. Remember that it's the blue light from these very screens that may be disrupting your circadian rhythms and with them, your sleep. If you need something to keep you busy when you can't sleep, consider reading a book or listening to music, a podcast, or audio book with your phone turned off, and more importantly no light now emitted from your phone.
- Wear JINS SCREENglasseswhen working in front of your computer and phone, especially at night. When using these, you can see digital screens clearly without any warm tint unlike how “night mode” does, a big plus.
WHAT DO JINS SCREEN GLASSES DO? HOW DO THEY WORK?
JINS SCREEN is for anyone who spends long hours looking at computer screens and other gadgets. These special lenses block 25% - 60% of blue light, depending on the type of blue light lenses you choose, and help protect your eyes by minimizing the amount of blue light striking your cornea. In fact,severalexperimentswe conducted with Keio University in Tokyo clinically proved that wearing JINS SCREEN reduces eye fatigue and helps improve the quality of sleep.
What makes JINS SCREEN effective and easy to use is that you can put these blue light blocking lenses in any of the 1,200 frames we have in our inventory. In Japan, we've sold millions of pairs of JINS SCREEN glasses. As protective eyewear takes off in popularity in the United States, the time has come for you to discover the difference that it can make to your eye health and sleep patterns.
We also want to cater to your individual needs and lifestyle for blue light eye protection. Which is why we created 3 blue light lens types that you're able to freely choose from. First, JINS SCREEN DAILY USE blocks 25% of blue light, is good for your everyday use on digital devices, and comes clear with a blue filter coating. Second, JINS SCREEN HEAVY USE blocks 40%, is good for heavy screen time use, and has a light green tint. Third, JINS SCREEN NIGHT USE, blocks 60%, is good for night time use before bed, and comes in an amber orange tint.
HOW BLUE LIGHT GLASSES HELP
Computer glasses will help you minimize the damage to your eyes over the long haul while also protecting your productivity. Our specially designed and engineered blue light glasses help you achieve the best of both worlds so that you don't miss a beat, and you also won't but wind up sacrificing healthy eyesight later in life.
The bottom line is these days it's simply not realistic to think that you can put your devices down and walk away for days or even hours at a time. Our new reality is that screen time is necessary, and in many ways, unavoidable. As such, we can either face reality and try to mitigate blue light's effects or ignore it. Our team of eyewear professionals has chosen to help you not only face reality but to embrace it in comfort with JINS SCREEN blue light glasses.
HOW TO BUY JINS SCREEN BLUE LIGHT GLASSES
- Go onto www.jins.com
- Pick any frame you prefer
- Select JINS SCREEN DAILY USE, JINS SCREEN HEAVY USE, or JINS SCREEN NIGHT USE as the lens option
- Check out
JINS SCREEN Boxed
We also have available conveniently ready-made boxed JINS SCREEN glasses(no prescription needed!) — ready to go, so that you can start protecting your eyes as fast as possible.
JINS EYEWEAR: THE BEST IN BLUE LIGHT FILTER GLASSES
The time has come to embrace the reality of the multi-screen age. Our always-online lifestyles make protecting our eyesight all the more important, and JINS SCREEN blue light glasses will do just that.
Computer glasses are already becoming almost standard equipment for modern workers but preserving your sight and defending your eyes from blue light is too important to leave to a "standard" solution. With JINS Eyewear, you get the very best protection on the market. Find the pair of blue light glasses that work for your style and take on your multi-screen days with confidence, knowing that you're doing everything you can to continue enjoying healthy eyes for a long time to come.
