Ask HN: Blue light filtering glasses for computer use and improving sleep | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Blue light filtering glasses for computer use and improving sleep

20 pointsvanilla-almond24 comments

These are glasses that filter blue light from a computer screen. These are purported to reduce fatigue and strain when using computer screens for long periods.

There are also 'sleep' glasses that filter out some of the colour spectrum (in preparation for going to bed).

It's not clear to me why you would need both? Are they a way to sell more glasses variations, or a genuine difference?

Are these glasses based on sound science? Or are they pseudo-science?

The cost of these glasses vary wildly from cheap (cheap quality?) no-name products to more expensive brands.

BLUblox is one such 'brand'. They sell glasses for computer use, they sell "mood booster glasses that contain a light-yellow lens" for depression and anxiety. And finally, they sell glasses for a good night's sleep that "block blue and green light after dark with red lens".

Have you used blue-light filtering glasses for computer use? Did you find them helpful? Any brand you recommend?

Similarly, have you used 'sleep' glasses designed to help you prepare for sleep?

Anecdote: I bought slightly yellow very expensive tinted computer glasses. Cant say they made any difference.

I also had an add-on ( cant remember the name ) that would “yellow” the computer screen during evenings to minimize blue light. It irritated me so much that I uninstalled it in the end.

Those beautiful gaming colors completely ruined.

Personally removing pretty much all my social media accounts and only reading news in the morning, before noon, has been the greatest improvement on both my mental health and my ability to fall asleep.

Blue light avoidance, meh.

I think the health experts behind this science(tm) of blue light bad, is going to end up with their papers in the garbage next to “fat free food is better for you” and “bottle milk is encouraged over breast milk”.

I had no luck with blue light filtering glasses, the biggest impacts for myself were setting a very aggressive level of filtering on night mode (which admittedly does a similar thing to the glasses), and keeping general light levels in the house as low as possible once the sun was setting.

Low screen brightness, limiting the number of screens (3 to 1) and very low ambient lighting helped me a lot more than the glasses did.

Maybe there is something helpful for you in here?

https://sleepeducation.org/healthy-sleep/healthy-sleep-habit...

Hmm seems difficult to keep house ambient light low. Add dimmers to everything?

Overhead lighting is harsh anyways. It might be a better idea to buy lamps. There's also a cool Phillips bulb that changes intensity and color temperature by quickly flicking the switch; no dimmers required.

In our house we just don't turn on the main lights after sunset and have dim lamps in the corner of most rooms.

Generally about 200 lumens. This kind of thing:

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rollsbo-led-bulb-e12-200-lumen-...

I used to have trouble falling asleep and a doctor recommended I wear sunglasses an hour or two before bed. I eventually got a pair of these orange safety glasses that are supposed to block blue light.

https://www.amazon.com/Uvex-Blocking-Computer-Glasses-SCT-Or...

Anecdotal, but I do notice a distinct difference in my ability to fall asleep quicker and the quality of sleep vs when I don't wear them. I notice I have more of that drowsy, "can't keep my eyes open" feeling towards the end of the night when I'm wearing the glasses.

    anecdote++

I noticed exactly the same thing with a very similar set of orange glasses. Without them, I tend not to get that drowsy feeling in the night, at least before going to bed. I have to go to bed, and then wait to (hopefully) start becoming sleepy.

When donning the glasses in the evening a couple hours before desired bedtime, though, I can be reading a book or watching something on TV at night, and I start feeling sleepy before going to bed, which is a major improvement.

I think the answer is "maybe" but retailers are acting like the answer is a definite "yes" -- they help sleep. I think it comes down to the individual

Here's an article you might want to read.

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/are-computer-...

Also, I know that our bodies are primed to produce Melatonin(sleeping hormone) at sundown. I've never read anything about it but I would guess sunglasses will produce the same effect and help you get to sleep. Has anyone read anything in regards to that?

Blue light glasses are patently unscientific, your eyes actually need to absorb lots of blue light during the day. It’s just a way for eyeglass companies to make more money.

The science around blue light is being strongly questioned. https://theconversation.com/theres-no-evidence-that-blue-lig...

I think the science around blue-light-blocking glasses is being seriously questioned (and in my own experience, detailed in my other comment, most of the models on the market don't have any discernible effect).

But I believe the science does indicate that circadian rhythm regulation by the human body is strongly influenced by external light, and specifically blue light.

This doesn't mean that "blue light blocker" glasses work, though. And most of them don't even actually block blue light, they just diminish it somewhat.

I read the book Why We Sleep, by UC Berkeley professor and sleep researcher Matthew Walker, and that is one of the topics covered in the book. (In addition to sleep being fascinating topic generally that book has a number of practical suggestions for better sleep which have helped me, such as setting your bedroom temperature colder and using blackout curtains), so I recommend it if those things are of interest.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...

Required additional reading: https://yngve.hoiseth.net/articles/why-we-sleep-institutiona...

Hmm that is indeed very interesting. I’ll have to read through it more thoroughly (and Prof. Walker’s subsequent errata/responses) to make a judgement about whether the errors cited rise the the “actually, fuck that book” level or not.

Thanks for the pointer, though, I was not aware of such criticism.

The criticism of Dr Walker are often harsh. He made the subject accessible to the general public. He did make some poor connections, and drew conclusions that maybe aren't completely agreed upon across the sleep community, but the anger against him and people calling him a charlatan, I believe, is misguided.

I've found when confronted with new evidence, or evidence of his errors, Dr. Walker has been very good about owning up to his mistakes.

Yeah, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, because the very first time I heard from him (in an interview series in the Waking Up meditation coaching app), he talked about various mistakes and regrets about his book, or things he wished he’d done differently.

Blue light didn’t come up then, but talking about the stark alarming tone he sets in the book, about what the detrimental effect of not sleeping well can be on your body.

He said that he later realized how unhelpful this is for people who have real insomnia problems, and can’t sleep even though they do understand and take it seriously.

So my first impression of him was of a guy that is willing to own up to his own mistakes (partly why i bought his book).

I can't find the link now, but when asked about things he has changed his mind on since writing the book, Dr Walker says he highly over-stated the impact of blue light.

Yes, circadian rhythm has an impact, and it is influenced by light, but that isn't the only influence.

Dr. Huberman says it is actually the amount of light you get early in the morning, which sets up your sleep cycle later in the day.

I noticed no impact from LensCrafters which had this coating. Not did I see any evidence that the coating was there (I expected some evidence). YMMV but we did not get it again…

I've tried blue-light glasses and it didn't stick with me. What worked for me was reducing my monitor brightness (50 percent or lower) as well as reading on my Kindle before sleep.

Most monitors are too bright in general and so just reducing the brightness for all day use was helpful to me.

I empirically tested these types of glasses over the past 18 months with my own n=1 study. There are a lot of confounding variables pretty much wrecking my shit (a regrettable period of "crunch time" at work, sometimes drank too much last year, other times didn't get the usual exercise in, a few times I had a specific problem space where if I woke up I would churn that specific problem set in my mind and not easily regain sleep).

Nevertheless, I got a conclusion applicable to me, after trying 10-12 pairs of these things: these glasses really do absolutely improve my sleep, but only:

a.) if I buy the orange ones which block 99.9% of blue and green light, which have the side effect of making everything look really shitty (like Flux/Night Shift on steroids, delicious tangerines look like sour lemons)

b.) if I put them on 2-3 hours before bed (I set a calendar alarm)

Since around the time I had kids (10 years ago) I've had trouble both falling asleep and staying asleep.

I lost the orange glasses for a few days (actually, 4-year-old absconded with them to play "robot") and my sleep problems returned immediately. (Note that I use screens in the evening and night, even though it is mainly reading email and books at those house, I read books on iPad Pro including in bed, so I am bathing my eyes in blue LED light).

I ordered anther pair, and my sleep (both subjectively, and as tracked by my phone and watch (to the limited ability of those devices to track one's sleep)) went back to okay/good immediately. I mean literally the second orange glasses arrived from Amazon in the morning, and I slept well that night.

Anecdata, but life-changing for the anecdoter (me). I'll never be without such glasses again, until such time as science devises something even better.

NOTE: I tried like 8-9 pairs of the clear normal-looking kind that purport to block blue light. These had no measurable effect at all on my sleep. It was only the color-warping orange ones that worked.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that these glasses block blue/green light so strongly that they have the side effect of substantially dimming ALL light. So it is entirely possible that wearing regular sunglasses might have the same effect — I haven't tested that.

[1]: The first ones I bought: https://spectra479.com

[2]: The replacement ones I bought after my kid stole the first ones: https://www.yamamoto-kogaku.co.jp/safety/product/detail.php?...

Why didn't you just get the first pair again? Is there something better about the second pair?

Yes, they are larger. I noticed with the first ones that when I lie in bed horizontally, and read a book on my iPad (positioned on my chest), the very bottom of the screen is visible under the bottom edge of the first pair of glasses.

It's just a tiny band of white, and I could reposition the glasses to block it, but this process was (very slightly) annoying. So when I had to replace them, I went for a larger, more goggle-style shape.

You look hella weird wearing them anyhow, so who cares if they look even weirder, was my thinking. :-P

(That kind of matters because I wear them from around 19:00 since I aim to sleep around 22:00 or so... and sometimes I go to the grocery store around 20:00. It's Omicron, so N95 Mask + orange alien visor glasses + metal AirPods Max does in fact look pretty fucking weird lol.)

The second ones look nice but navigating the checkout with Google translate it looks like they assume you only want to ship to Japan. Do you live there or did you order them some other way?

yes, I live in Japan. I bought the first pair from Amazon Japan, and then when my kid stole them (ha ha) I went back to Amazon and the second pair was in the algorithmic recommendation list.

Most of the glasses sold for blue-light blocking don't block nearly enough of the blue light to make a meaningful difference. I think the main thing is to reduce the amount of blue light that you're exposed to at night.

My first purchase for night driving was some orange safety glasses, but these blocked out too much light to be safe. I now have yellow safety-style glasses that I use for driving. These knock out enough of the blue to turn the bad blue-white headlights green. They say overx.com on the side... Ahh: https://cocoonseyewear.com/shop/safety/lightguard-medium-fit...

My bulbs around the house are mostly low-blue. I have three light switches in my bedroom. I replaced the 1995-ish 5000k fluorescent tube hidden above the closet with a 6 or 8-bulb fixture from a thrift shop. I have a mix of red & orange single-color bulbs in this, which renders to a pleasant amber color. My bedside lamp has a Feit red bulb, which is a nice deep red. The fan has halogen bulbs on a dimmer switch, for the occasional time that I care about color rendition, or need a little extra light in the room. They're too blue full power, but I hardly ever use them.

My bathroom has halogens on a slider dimmer switch, which starts at the lowest light output. It's nice & yellowish at night.

The kitchen is lit with Citizen 2200K COB (Chip On Board) [0] LEDs on top of the cabinets. The terrible hangy-lights, that someone put in to replace the old canister lights over the kitchen stove, now have Philips Amber 2000K LED bulbs. There are some 2700K lights in the kitchen too, but I try not to use those.

I also use https://JustGetFlux.com to reduce the blue light from monitors...

tl/dr: I use yellow glasses for driving, day and night. Most of my lights around the house are red, orange, and amber bulbs, and all the important fixtures ahve dimmer switches. I hope to keep my vision for a while longer.

[0] https://led.cdiweb.com/products/detail/clu0481212c422al1k3-c...

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