Lawrenson, Hull & Downie, 2017 completed a review study to find out if there was a significant difference in groups that were given blue light blocking glasses vs control who received glasses without anything. They used three studies with total of 136 participants and compared their data findings. This study concluded there was no significant difference between the groups that wore blue light glasses vs control glasses. Which means wearing blue light blocking glasses are no more than a marketing gimmick.
This study used three research studies and compared their data; however, they all used subjective reporting instead of objective reporting. The first study they used 20 volunteers who reported difficulty sleeping. Volunteers were randomly assigned to two groups, one group wore control glasses that had no tints and another group that wore amber tinted glasses for three hours prior to sleep, keep a sleep diary before and after using the glasses, and report their eye strain on likert scale from 1-10.
The Second study included on this review study included 80 computer users who were also randomly assigned to two groups. One group with amber tinted glass and another placebo control group. Participants were told to wear those glasses for two hours before bed. Participants subjectively reported their experience using 13-item questionnaire and rated their eye strain on likert scale from 1-5.
The third study used 36 participants and asked them to perform 2 hour computer task and was asked to rate their eye strain using the subjective 15-item questionnaires. As you have seen, all three studies included in this review used subjective questionnaires to assess eye strain and fatigue, which I am concerned about because how can you collect quantitative and valid data using subjective questionnaire? That is the limitation I found and I think it would be better and the validity of their study would increase if they tested participants' eyes using professional eye exams instead of subjective questionnaires.
This review did not find any significant differences in participants who wore blue-light blocking glasses vs those who wore control placebo glasses. Therefore, I cannot say with guarantee whether or not you should wear blue-light blocking glasses. However, you could do other things to reduce eye strain and fatigue from computer screen. American Optometric Association suggests some ways you could better your vision and reduce fatigue, which includes:
1. Get extensive eye exam once a year at the doctor's office.
2. Use a glare reduction filter on your electronic devices. Keep your screen clean and minimize fingerprint touches and dust particles to reduce glare.
3. Place the computer screen 16 to 30 inches away from you. Keep your computer slightly below your eye, so you are not looking up but rather straight and slightly down.
4. Take a break every 20 mins to look at a 20 ft distance for 20 seconds so your eyes don't have to focus on something up close.
Should you keep it or skip it? I would suggest do more research and find more information and use good eye hygiene to reduce eye fatigue and strain.
References:
Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emjbrown/best-digital-protection-glasses-online
American Optometric Association: https://www.aoa.org/healthy-eyes/eye-and-vision-conditions/computer-vision-syndrome?sso=y
Lawrenson JG, Hull CC & Downie LE. The effect of blue-light blocking spectacle lenses on visual performance, macular health
and the sleep-wake cycle: a systematic review of the literature. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2017; 37: 644–654. https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12406
Hi Sabitra! Great read-- I actually was just reading an article about the lack of evidence surrounding blue light glasses. Most of my family are engineers and the number of times I have heard that their glasses are helpful makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteWhile blue light filtering may not be worthwhile, I am curious how we can continue to protect the eyes in a digital world. I liked your suggestions but more needs to be done especially in the COVID-19 world. The impact of doing virtual learning has led to increased levels of eye damage.http://jddtonline.info/index.php/jddt/article/view/4672
While the filtering may not help, I think the long solution may be reducing exposure to screens as a whole. Our eyes are too valuable and sensitive.
Of course, I had succumb to the pressure and bought myself blue-light blocking glasses during covid year. I haven't used those for many months now and realized that they did not make a difference with/without while on my devices. However, I found this study that had a p-value of < 0.001 with data showing that participants with amber lenses had improved sleep and even mood. The study was done with 20 participants. Do you think the differing outcome is due to the small amount of participants? If not, what do you think could contribute to the differences?
ReplyDeleteBurkhart K, Phelps JR. Amber lenses to block blue light and improve sleep: a randomized trial. Chronobiol Int. 2009 Dec;26(8):1602-12. doi: 10.3109/07420520903523719. PMID: 20030543.
Hi Sabitra!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this blog post. I, too, have been guilty of purchasing my own pair of blue-light blocking glasses, and I have even incorporated these “blue light lenses” with my regular prescription glasses. I found it interesting how in this study there was no significant difference between the control placebo glasses and the blue-light blocking glasses, despite many online prescription eyeglasses websites promoting them to reduce eye strain. This made me curious on the topic of blue-light blocking glasses, and I encountered a meta-analysis stating that blue-blocking glasses have been also studied to see if they could be used as an intervention for insomnia, delayed sleep phase, and jet lag (Hester et all., 2021). Out of the 29 studies they analyzed, 24 studies had substantial evidence for blue-blocking glasses to actually be a successful intervention for reducing the amount of time it takes for a person to fall asleep after turning off their lights, jet lag, and also aid in a person to fall asleep if their work schedule had been recently altered. These studies concluded that blue-blocking glasses improved sleep by inducing dim-light melatonin by decreasing the activation of photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, which play a large role in circadian regulation (Hester et all., 2021). The exact mechanism of how this occurs is still unclear, but I thought this was very interesting. So, even though blue-light glasses don't aid much in preventing eye strain, perhaps that $15 you spent didn’t go all to waste!
Reference:
Hester, L., Dang, D., Barker, C. J., Heath, M., Mesiya, S., Tienabeso, T., & Watson, K. (2021). Evening wear of blue-blocking glasses for sleep and mood disorders: a systematic review. Chronobiology International, 38(10), 1375–1383. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2021.1930029