What the heck is “Blue Light?”
Blue light is emitted by the sun, digital screens & LED lights in your home or office. If you're like most people, you spend a lot of time indoors - in your home or office. And because indoor lighting is often blue light-emitting, it can have negative impacts on your health.
Excessive blue light exposure can also cause eye strain, dry eyes, headaches, and blurred vision. This is why we launched our blue light-blocking eyewear line here at Nectar in 2015. We noticed these impacts from the typical life of a startup Company and set out to create a solution.
Nectar now offers several blue light-blocking frame styles and color options for men and women. Our lenses filter out 50% of harmful rays while ensuring there is no color distortion on your screen.
How Does Blue Light Affect You?
Almost all visible blue light passes through the cornea and lens and reaches the retina. In large amounts, blue light can increase your risk of eye disease and harm your health in many other ways. Some of the ways blue light can affect you include:
- Disruptive sleeping patterns
- Lead to eye strain
- Increase your risk of developing eye diseases such as macular
- degeneration
- Can cause headaches
- Can cause dry eyes
Is it okay to wear blue light glasses while wearing contact lenses?
Yes, you can wear blue light-blocking glasses with contacts! Some contact lens providers will offer the addition of a blue light filter when ordering your contact lens prescription, which typically will be an upcharge. For those contact lenses that do not have blue light-blocking filters, the best option would be to wear protective eyewear. You can always consult with your eye doctor to order a new prescription that comes with blue light-blocking filters within the contact lenses. The more protection, the better!
What are some other ways to help reduce the symptoms of Blue Light Exposure?
Wearing blue light blocking glasses is one way to lessen the symptoms of too much blue light. However, there are other steps you can take as well. For example:
- Take a break from digital devices every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This gives your eyes a break from the screen and helps them relax.
- Use eye drops if you are experiencing dry eyes from blue light.
- Avoid too much screen time and sunlight by limiting how much time you spend online, using your phone, or outdoors during daylight hours.
- Sit an arm's length away from your screen.
- Screen filters: You can install or enable certain screen filters that lower blue light exposure on certain digital devices.
- Adjusting your lighting: If you have LED bulbs in your home and you cannot change them, consider adding additional light sources that do not use LED bulbs.
- Wearing sunglasses: If you spend a lot of time in the sun, your eyes will be exposed to large amounts of blue light. Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes.
The bottom line about Blue light:
Wearing blue light-blocking glasses is a great way to protect your eyes from the harmful, high-energy blue light emitted from digital devices. We know it might be near impossible to avoid during this digital age where even Mcdonald's has massive digital touch screen ordering systems now!
The long-term impacts of staring at screens for extended periods of time are still being studied, and there is much we don't know about the possible health risks. However, research suggests that children who frequently use digital devices may be more likely to have vision problems down the line. This is because children are constantly using their eyesight to focus on small text or images on a screen.
Gen Z - those born between 1997 and 2012 - may be especially vulnerable due to how early they're exposed to technology. These children typically start using screens at an earlier age than previous generations, and they're often surrounded by digital devices from a very young age. This has led many experts to believe that Gen Z may be facing greater eye health risks than past generations.
Wearing protective eyewear will reduce these risks and promote a healthier sleeping pattern, more productivity at work, less eye strain, and help avoid dry eyes. Take a look at our selection of blue light-blocking eyewear here → blue light collection - and keep those eyes protected!
Shop our Blue Light Collection
