I’ve never heard of blue light blocking glasses before. Until I saw one from ShadyVEU’s line of blue light pilot shape eyeglasses. I was curious so I did further research about it.
I realized that I had a problem: For my job, I needed to spend a minimum of eight hours a day staring at a computer screen. Plus, in my downtime after work, I would often find myself staring at another, smaller screen: the rectangle of my iPhone, which would consistently beam more blue light into my face.
My eyes were so red and tired at the end of the day; and wouldn’t feel the ache begin to lift until I finally turned off my devices. According to The Vision Council, 200 million Americans report symptoms of digital eye strain and eye discomfort which can be caused from looking at a screen for more than two hours at a time. Until fairly recently, humans were mostly exposed to natural light during the day and darkness at night. But now we’re constantly bathing in artificial light, most of it blue. Too much exposure to blue light at night suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep cycles.
When I saw ShadyVEU’s collection, I realized that blue light blocking reading glasses don’t have to be ugly. Their glasses filter out the higher end of the blue light spectrum, so the lens don’t look yellow. They also add an anti-glare coating on top to cut down on digital eye strain. The glasses are also adorably chic.
Another benefit that I got from wearing blue light blocking glasses is that it made me more aware of my screen time. When I’m driving, I only usually wear my prescription glasses. I found that when I hadto wear my blue light glasses every time I was looking at a screen, it made me more aware of just how often I was looking at a screen. I found myself surprised by how often I pulled out my laptop after I got home from work, or just mindlessly scrolled through my phone. As a result, I found myself getting more intentional about putting the phone away, and actually sat on the porch and read more in the evenings. Even though my eyes were still working by looking at the pages of a book, giving them a rest from one more screen (the one I would typically be watching Netflix on) helped a ton, and I slept better afterwards.
In conclusion, wearing them was totally worth it. Glasses like these are small miracles. My eyes felt more rested at the end of the day (probably from the reduced screen time and glare) and looked visibly less red and tired. Plus, I got tons of compliments on my new glasses.
-Catherine Ramos
ShadyVEU 