Computer Glasses Claim To Protect Eyesight Are Selling Like Hotcakes, But They Probably Aren't Useful (businessinsider.in)

People are increasingly concerned that bright light -- especially "blue light" from computer screens -- is causing harm, making it a potentially dangerous public health issue. Eyewear and screen protector companies have been selling products they say can protect people from these harms. But are they really making any difference? From a report: We do know that blue light at night can interfere with sleep, causing a host of negative effects. But the evidence that the amount of light screen expose us to during the day is harmful is not really there. Furthermore, many experts think these products are unnecessary and could perhaps do more harm than good. [...] The research that companies selling blue-blocking products cite falls into three categories: animal studies, in vitro studies of retinal cells exposed to light, and studies of people exposed to outdoor light. [...] "I think it's largely hype, not science," says Dr. Richard Rosen, Director of Retina Services at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai and Ophthalmology Research Director at Icahn School of Medicine. "They want to sell it; they know people get uncomfortable staring at screens all day, so they say, it's because of this [blue light issue]." The report cites insight from several other doctors as well studies to make a case for why these glasses aren't useful.

Comments

My own dumb experience

[ausekilis]

Sitting in front of a computer for hours each day makes my eyes tired, so I routinely turn the brightness down to nothing. I put blue-blocker on my latest pair of glasses and Bam!, my sleep cycle is screwed up. Turns out blue light is really useful for stuff like your circadian rhythm. Now I only really use those glasses sparingly, and will make sure to take them off or look over them every few minutes.

Re: My own dumb experience

[OrangeTide]

We'll eventually evolve, it's too soon to give up.

Re:My own dumb experience

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it is about selling, that and the placebo effect... if you believe it will work, then it does.

Reminds me of a stint I did on the semiconductor business. One of the engineers that I was interviewing for requirements went on and on about how a vendor of pens realized that semiconductor processes can get really screwed up by calcium.
They started marketing a line of "calcium free" pens, which sold at a premium and were used at semiconductor fabs globally.
Turns out that ink pens NEVER had calcium in them in the firt place, and they were just making more money selling the same pens as "calcium free"

Maybe making people aware of their sleeping habits has more to do with it than the glasses...

Re: My own dumb experience

[npslider]

All we have to do is figure out a way to reach Warp 10. Our new amphibian eyes will have built in blue light filters. It's already been tested on both a male and female test subject.

*As an added reassurance, our ability to procreate will not be inhibited by the test.

Re:My own dumb experience

[ShanghaiBill]

I used to stay up late in front of my computer. Ever since I started using my computer glasses, bam, proper sleep cycle restored.

I often wake up about 3am, and I avoid using a computer because of the blue light. Instead, I read a book illuminated by a "warm" led light that emits little blue light, and I usually go back to sleep around 5am. If these glasses could allow me to get computer work during those two hours, it would be a godsend. It would be nice if there was real data about this rather than just anecdotes.

Re: My own dumb experience

[Qzukk]

As an added reassurance, our ability to procreate will not be inhibited by the test. That was taken care by the pre-test scans.

-- Cave Johnson

My monitor has this built in

[innocent_white_lamb]

My computer monitor (Benq BW2765) has some sort of blue light filtering thing built in that can be activated via the buttons on the side.

I've never used it. My screen looks fine and dandy just like it is.

Oblig

[PPH]

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

The whole "blue light thing" is pure BS.

[BarbaraHudson]

Humans don't need complete dark to sleep. We evolved on the African plains, and there's this big thing called the Moon that regularly lights up the night sky - and that light is pretty rich in blue when the moon is high in the sky. Don't take my word for it - go out some night and look.

Or take a nice lazy nap in the middle of the day with the sun shining bright. You can get a nice sunburn doing that at poolside. The bright light didn't keep you from falling asleep or you would have noticed you've cooked yourself.

We evolved for this sort of situation. If blue light were a problem, we'd have an inner eyelid to filter it out, like Vulcans, or have an adaptation where it's not a problem (which, all SciFi aside, is what really happened). But people will believe all sorts of crap rather than see what's literally in front of their eyes, because people WANT to experience the frisson that comes from "knowing something new that someone else doesn't" - same as gossip and fake news.

Re:The whole "blue light thing" is pure BS.

[known_coward_69]

some frequencies of blue light are right about what you see in the mornings and they mess with your melatonin levels if you're exposed to them at night. that much is known. what is not understood is how much computer screens mess with your sleep

Re:The whole "blue light thing" is pure BS.

[BarbaraHudson]

Blue light is filtered out when the sun is close to the horizon - it's why sunrises and sunsets are redish-orange - so your original premise is off.

Before buying the glasses

[mykepredko]

If you're experiencing eye discomfort, might I recommend:

1. Setup your work area to have even lighting. Working in a dark room with only computer monitor(s) for light is going to give you eye strain.

2. Get up and walk around periodically. Let your eyes focus on something else and relax a bit.

3. If you need glasses, make sure they're the right prescription for sitting at a computer. Old farts like me should keep a reading glasses with the right prescription for 24" to 30" for looking at your monitors.

DLMO

[epine]

The article has a poor to false understanding of how blue light interacts with DLMO (dim light melatonin onset).

I'm pretty sure the entrainment effect of blue light is via direct neuronal connection to the SCN, and I doubt it involves melatonin, except indirectly.

The homeostatic sleep pressure signal builds up (more or less linearly) for as long as you're awake. On its own, this would mean that you taper into drowsiness all day long. So the sleep system has another mechanism that suppresses response to the sleep pressure signal. I vaguely recall that what happens with DLMO is that melatonin onset signals the body to turn off the suppression switch, so that the body begins to notice the homeostatic sleep pressure signal.

DLMO, however, is easily inhibited by exposure to blue light at a point in time approximately an hour before bedtime. If you're outdoors hunting moose in the bright light of late-evening arctic summer, this is a useful adaptation.

You'll get to bed later, which means you'll sleep a bit later (but not much) and then you will get less blue light early the next morning, which will affect your entrainment, gradually, on the slow-drip program.

—

As a rough, empirical ratio, for every extra hour you stay up, you'll sleep about twenty minutes later the next morning. It's not uncommon to stay up for an extra two hours, then barely sleep in for an extra half hour. (We need to ignore here that modern society tends to run a massive, permanent sleep deficit, which can suddenly turn into sleeping four to six hours late at the first opportunity that allows this to happen. That's a different beast entirely.)

I have a circadian rhythm disorder, and I know from decades of sleep tracking that morning wake-up time is about three times more reliable in estimating my sleep phase than time of retirement.

—

This is a worthwhile paper from the top of my notes, but it's hard to wade through:

Estimating Dim Light Melatonin Onset (DLMO) Phase in Adolescents Using Summer or School-Year Sleep/Wake Schedules — 2006

I like this paper because it shows how social convention (adolescent schooling) also influences DLMO phase.

—

The sleep pressure signal eventually overwhelms the suppression of this signal, regardless of the DLMO mechanism.

James Maas is a good representative of the modern sleep science orthodoxy:

Surefire Strategies to Sleep for Success!

I just love the page break at the end of page 6. But then I'm really into microscopic moments of small page-formatting humour. (It's probably not unrelated to all those long, lonely nights, before I found a viable treatment.)

—

Here's a good summary, I just found for the first time.

Phase Response Curve

The reason I only vaguely remember this mechanism is that all the phase response curves in the literature are dose dependent.

There is no PRC I've ever seen that computes the phase response differential to endogenous melatonin levels. No, what you do is administer some dose/formulation (which can include sustained-release components) at staggered times over several weeks, and then you plot the graph averaged over your test population (which thus includes all the metabolic uptake and clearance variability).

There was a time I desperately wanted to consult one of these curves and then to declare "I am here", but it never happened. These are, in effect, better regarded as qualitative curves than quantitative curves.

The model was never predictive enough to be worth memorizing exactly. And thus I remain slightly dim on DLMO when I really shouldn't be after all these years.

instead of glasses use an app

[Kvasio]

A free app, f.lux does the job, https://justgetflux.com/
Set the desired white balance/temperature at night time and you don't need any glasses.

Re:instead of glasses use an app

[tehcyder]

Agreed. f.lux is more annoying than useful. Too dim early in the evening, too bright late at night. To keep screens from keeping you awake: negativescreen. If you want to read at night, set it for red text on a black background, then turn the brightness down as low as possible.

Best of all go for black text on a black background, you'll soon fall asleep.

Re:Breaks and outside time

[npslider]

However, what can have a detrimental effect is a lack of sunlight. So get out of your cave and get some fresh air and sunlight your eyes will thank you.

Living in Alaska, and working in a windowless room during the day, I can vouch for this suggestion.

- Driving to work in darkness
- Driving back home in darkness
- Working in a secure vault during the day.
- It's 40 below zero outside.

Adds up to much suffering.

Screen brightness should match paper

[raymorris]

> Setup your work area to have even lighting.

Specially, the room lighting and the monitor brightness should be related so that the screen appears roughly as bright as a piece of paper held next to the monitor. The white areas of the monitor should appear white, like the paper, not like staring at a lightbulb in an otherwise dark room.

What about optical power?

[TeknoHog]

I'm myopic, and I often read books without glasses, but the computer screen is a little too far for that. So I sometimes find it easier to use my old glasses for computing, compared to my regular glasses with a stronger correction. Around here, "computer glasses"* refer to glasses with the optical power optimized for screen distances. It's something you can get from your employer as a health benefit if you work at a screen all day.

I also use redshift on Linux to tone down the blues (the colour component) during the night, but it's a completely orthogonal issue. Plus if you're worried about computing ruining your sleep, there's also the psychological buzz, so I'm not sure which one dominates in practice.

*(One common term is "päätelasit" meaning "terminal glasses", not necessarily because you're so old they're the last glasses you'll ever need, but because our computing term-inology is ancient and we still think in terms of terminals.)