Blue Light Glasses: Effective or Marketing Ploy?
Taking care of our eyes is vital for maintaining healthy vision as we get older. However, as more people spend time looking at computer, tablet and phone screens questions arise as to how this affects our health. Recently, many companies have developed glasses that block the blue light emitted from screens, claiming the glasses will improve eye strain and help people get a better night sleep. These blue light filtering glasses have become increasingly more popular, with researchers from the University of Melbourne finding that ‘74% of Australian optometrists prescribed blue light blocking lenses to patients’.
However, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists is not convinced of the effectiveness of these lenses, stating there’s a lack of evidence on the harm of blue light to the eyes, and therefore, no scientific basis for the glasses. 2SER spoke with Dr Mei Ying Boon, Director of the Optics and Radiometry Laboratory within the School of Optometry and Vision Science, at the University of New South Wales about these claims and the issues surrounding prolonged screen exposure.
