The Best Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Let’s face it we all enjoy watching our favorite television shows, surfing on our iPad, or texting with friends. 

We don’t want to compromise on our lifestyle or our screen time by having to eliminate all sources of artificial light in the evenings so that we maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. 

So you find yourself in need of blue light filtering glasses but you don’t know where to start or what to screen for. Fear not, that’s where we come in. 

We’ve put together all the key features you may want to consider in order to make your selection. Get ready to buy a pair of the best blue light glasses on the market.

Blue Light Blocking Glasses

To maintain a healthy circadian rhythm and to have restful sleep, you should control how much blue light you consume or protect yourself from blue light exposure in the evenings before going to bed. 

You can eliminate all sources of artificial light 2 hours prior to going to bed (this is something that’s difficult to do for everyone). 

The other option is preventing blue light from entering your eyes by wearing blue light glasses, which are designed to explicitly block blue light from all these artificial sources of light playing havoc with your circadian rhythm and causing eye fatigue. 

Wearing blue-light-blocking glasses allows you to watch television, use your computer, surf on your smart screen, and still maintain a healthy circadian rhythm.

The best blue light blocking glasses are those that also block green light. Greenlight can also suppress melatonin, leading to the disruption of the circadian rhythm. 

TrueDark, Ra Optics, Safety Blue, and Felix Gray are all renowned for their blue light glasses and many brands offer free shipping.

Health Benefits of Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Glasses that protect you from both blue light and green light will maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. 

Allowing deeper sleep cycles, permitting you to fall asleep faster, your body can spend greater time in deep sleep where recovery occurs and you produce more melatonin which is a hormone that promotes anti-aging, amongst other benefits.

You will also experience greater energy during your day, not feeling sluggish when you wake up as your body feels rested and is ready to hit the ground running. 

Whilst the benefits of wearing blue light glasses are plenty, they may take getting used to. The lenses are dark, which makes it more challenging to see a person’s eyes and adjust to your new tinted vision. 

If you’re socializing this can be challenging, it’s understandable to feel strange wearing them in public, especially if you’re the only one. 

The other thing to note is wearing glasses that block blue light can decrease your color visualization when you’re watching TV or on another smart device. This can be difficult for people to get used to.

Features of Best Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Lens Color

The star attribute of blue light blocking glasses is the lens and how well equipped the lens is in light blocking technology. 

You’ll find a few different arrays of lens colors from clear to flame red. The different lenses do have various benefits and it’s good to know when you need what color lens and the health benefits you are getting, and most importantly exactly how much harmful light is being blocked.

Clear Lenses

These block out a maximum of 40% of blue light. Clear lenses are a good option if you want to minimize digital eye strain and you want to continue seeing true colors on your screen, but maintain your focus whilst still having some protection for your circadian rhythm.

Yellow Lenses

These block out a maximum of 75% of blue light. Yellow lenses provide greater light-blocking capability than clear lenses and yet allow you to consume some light blue light during the day which is beneficial to keep you alert. 

Remember we said ‘beneficial during the day’. Yellow lensed glasses are a good option to wear during the day when you are getting light from the sun.

Orange Lenses

These block out around 98/99% of blue light. Orange lensed light filtering glasses are perhaps the most popular. 

Despite the benefits orange lenses are tricky. They provide too much protection from blue light during the day (when you would want to consume some blue light) and not enough protection in the evening.

Red Lenses

These can block up to 100% blue and green light. When you wear red lensed glasses you’ll experience a dimming of the lights. 

Not all red lensed glasses provide protection from both blue and green light. For the right protection, you need red lensed glasses that provide protection to both types of light. 

Red lenses that are styled in a wrap-around style are the best choice of blue-light-blocking glasses to wear pre-bedtime. 

Ideally, you should have a pair of yellow lensed glasses for daytime UV protection and in the evening you should have a pair of red lensed blue light blocking glasses. 

If you wear glasses, you may want to get blue-light-blocking glasses that compliment your glasses prescription.

Anti-glare Technology

In addition to finding blue light blocking glasses filtering out blue and green light, you may also want to screen for whether they are anti-glare and anti-reflective glasses to reduce eye strain and overstimulation when in front of screens.

Daytime or Nighttime Use

Not all blue light is bad, in fact, you may want to consume a small amount of blue light during the day and block it out completely in the evening.

Design

You’ll want to find glasses that compliment your individual style, the environment you work in. There are lots of frame colors, lens colors, and styles. 

If you want a pair of glasses for the evening, you will want to opt for red lenses and a wrap-around style, not a sexy choice but functionally they are the best. 

If you’re not a fan of the wrap-around style, there are plenty of non-wrap-around options to choose from.

Head Size

Measure yourself and ensure you find the right size that fits you. You may want to opt for spring-loaded arms that are flexible in extending if you need to widen them.

Comfortable

It’s advisable to spend a little more on a pair of quality blue light blocking glasses that are well-made and are comfortable for you to wear, otherwise, you’ll never wear them.

Prescription Glasses

Many brands offer prescription glasses which also are blue light blocking glasses. If you can find prescription glasses that dually function as blue light blocking glasses, you may be more likely to wear them when your surf on countless digital screens. 

Some blue-light-blocking glasses can come with magnification options to aid your sight needs and can be tailored to your prescription needs. 

Look for brands that provide prescription glasses along with UV protection, if you need this.

Price

This depends on your budget, the purpose you want to buy blue light blocking glasses for (daytime or nighttime use), what your budget is. Blue light blocking glasses range from $60 - $200. 

Whether you buy blue light blocking glasses with a prescription or a standard pair, the price is not cheap. However, think of them as an investment into your health and all that harmful light you are blocking.

Trials & Warranty

The general idea is you’ll be using your blue-light-blocking glasses for a few hours a day. Glasses are fragile, we can accidentally break them, sit on them, the list goes on. 

Before you make a purchase make sure you look into whether the blue light glasses come with a warranty.