Blue light lenses: tinted or clear?

Protecting ourselves from digital screens blue light has become essential.

Different tools exist to avoid sleep disorders, eye fatigue, concentration problems, digital eye strain cataracts or even age-related macular degeneration.

Among these tools, we find the blue light blocking glasses, known as the most efficient solution to prevent the above mentioned health problems.

Moreover, we notice that the great majority of the glasses filtering the blue light have certain differences; but before seeing together which are they and in what they consist; let us explain clearly what is the blue light.

Blue light

Blue light is omnipresent around us, whether it is the sun that emits it or technological tools such as cell phones, computers, televisions etc.

In short, everything that has a screen.

This blue light is itself composed of blue-violet and blue-turquoise. They each have different wavelengths and distinct effects on our body.

The blue-turquoise light, between 455 nanometers and 495 nm acts as a regulator on our circadian rhythm, thus on our phases of awakening and sleeping. 

Millions of years of evolution have acclimated us to sunlight, which has caused our bodies to become accustomed to the light intensity of our star. 

When the sun disappears to make way for night, our bodies receive less of the blue-turquoise light that stimulates wakefulness and slows the production of melatonin to begin our rest cycle.

The blue-turquoise light helps us to be more vigilant, reactive, promotes our memory, but also our well-being and our good mood. This is why we feel less fit in winter. 

The blue-violet light has a shorter wavelength than the blue-turquoise, so it is even more energetic. Because of its high energy, blue-violet light, which is between 400 nm and 455 nm, flickers more easily. This can considerably dazzle us and affect our vision. 

Our eyes must then make more efforts to see clearly. This can lead to eye strain and a vicious circle that can affect our concentration and responsiveness. The more tired your eyes are, the harder they have to work to concentrate, which will tire them out faster.

Dry, stinging eyes, twitching eyelids, blurred vision, headaches, neck and back pain are all symptoms of eye strain. This can impair concentration and productivity.

A medical observation summarized by Dr. Petra Kunze in these words:

"The spectrum of daylight or artificial light includes color bands. Among them, blue-turquoise light, which is good for mental health. Then there is blue-violet light, to which we are increasingly exposed.

Even more annoying, the blue-violet light is diffused in a very intense way by the screens of all kinds. These screens emit peaks of blue light, known as "High Energy Visible light" (HEV).

These rays coming from digital devices represent a real risk for the retina of people exposed to light emissions. Various studies tend to confirm that the average person spends at least 6 hours in front of a screen and that 70% of them experience symptoms of visual fatigue. 

Tinted lenses

Tinted lenses, generally yellow in color, are very common in many brands offering anti blue light glasses.

Their average filtering rate is around 50%, which is a high enough rate to protect oneself from screens effectively.

Despite the various positive points that these glasses can offer, a complication returns quite often: the denaturalization of colors.

Many gamers, designers, computer specialists, etc. wishing to protect themselves from blue light can easily find themselves in a bind. The fact that the colors are different from reality can affect the performance and even the expected results. The distorted colors change the perception of the graphics projected by our screens and thus modify its aestheticism.  

Here is one of our pairs with yellow tint, the GMG Performer, filtering 50% of the blue light.

Transparent lenses

The transparent glasses are less common and generally slightly less effective.

Its average filtering rate is around 35%, which is sufficient to protect against violet and turquoise blue light effectively.

The particularity of these glasses, as its name indicates, is that they are clear and therefore do not distort colors.

This can be very useful for many gamers or for anyone who needs anti blue light glasses without disrupting the colors of the screen. 

Here is one of our models with clear lenses, our best-seller, the GMG Optimizer Mat.

Conclusion: 

As explained above, blue light is everywhere around us, omnipresent. Many solutions exist and some rather famous ones (Night Shift etc.) are rarely effective.

Overall, neither type of lens is worse than the other or less suitable for screens. Both are.

The differences in lens and which one to choose is more a matter of what the person looking for screen protection is looking for. 

As a gamer or designer, it is essential that the colors remain original, and in this case transparent glasses are the most suitable.

But the most important thing is still about the protection the lenses will provide to the person, and how much the computer glasses will block blue light and therefore provide a better sleep quality and prevent computer vision syndrome.

For someone who doesn't care about color change, tinted lenses can totally do the job!