Blue filter glasses: are they of any use?

Glasses with blue light blocking filters are being sold more and more every day, but is there really a pathology behind them that recommends their use? We will explain in this article.

Since the advent of LED lighting, our visual environment is turning, so to speak, blue. This means that the artificial lighting that surrounds us has gone from lights based on the incandescence of the tungsten resistor, which emits mainly in the red color spectrum, to cold light LED diodes, which emit in the wavelengths closest to blue light lagsses.

The reason is the savings that these wavelengths represent, more capable of illuminating with less energy input. Therefore, LED lighting is progressively imposing itself not only in our homes, but also in all kinds of digital devices such as smartphones, computers, televisions or tablets.

Everywhere we look today, we receive artificial blue light emissions. And it is safe to say that many of us spend the day looking at the screens of these devices. Does this fact require the use of glasses with blue light blocking filters?

A dangerous light?

Is this dangerous? Since the advent of blue light, speculations and debates about its convenience or its danger have skyrocketed. Some scientists have begun to study its effects on our eyes and our vision, and theories have begun to appear about a possible influence of blue light on the regulation of our sleep, alleging that it inhibits the secretion of melatonin, the hormone that help sleep.

On other occasions it has been claimed that blue light alters circadian rhythms and that this can affect a depressed immune system, cardiovascular problems or breast and colorectal cancer in the long term, within what is known as the ‘night watchman syndrome’ ‘.

This theory would be based on the incidence that the blue sky has on us as a stimulant and at the same time an inhibitor of sleep. Thus, like that of the sky, the blue light of an iPad screen at night would make us awake and alert.

Additionally, the blue light emitted by digital devices has been linked to ‘computer vision syndrome’, a picture of conditions such as eye pain, tired eyesight or eye irritation that occur in professionals who spend many hours in front of a computer.

Its domestic version has been called ‘digital computer vision syndrome’ and in this regard, it has been stated that although blue light illuminates better with less energy, it dazzles us and forces us to refocus the images, causing greater stress on the organs of the vision.

Finally, some scientists claim to have carried out studies that show that the wavelengths in which blue light LEDs emit damage the retina and in the long term can lead to age-related macular degeneration, one of the most common causes of blindness among the elderly. Therefore, they advise people with a predisposition to exposure to use special tools that can protect them. In this case it is blue light lagsses.