What Are the Best Blue Light Glasses Amazon Has Right Now?

What to Know About Blue Light Blocking Glasses

If you’re shopping for the best blue light glasses Amazon offers, there are a few considerations to keep in mind.

There are thousands of choices, but you’ll notice that in our rankings of the best blue glasses on Amazon, we didn’t include any with clear lenses. There’s a reason for this. Amber, orange, and red lenses are much more effective at blocking blue light than clear lenses, and we’ll go over this in more detail below.

In general, blue light blocking glasses can be an important part of good mental and physical health. We are exposed to more light than our ancestors ever were. Light impacts our health and sleep, especially if that exposure is at night.

Screens are a big source of blue light, but so is environmental lighting. For example, the lighting in our homes, particularly energy-efficient light, can be problematic for our sleep.

We can limit screen time as one way to control how much light we’re exposed to, but that’s often not enough, which is where blue light blocking glasses can become relevant.

The following are some of the critical things to know about blue light and blue light glasses.

Blue Light Disrupts Sleep

Blue light is the shortest wavelength of light that we can visibly see from the light spectrum.

The sun has blue light as does digital lighting and energy-efficient lighting. Blue light exposure isn’t inherently harmful, but most of us are exposed to way too much. It becomes particularly problematic when we’re exposed to it too close to bedtime.

Blue light slows your body’s natural production of melatonin.

Melatonin is a hormone responsible for regulating your circadian rhythms, helping you fall asleep and stay asleep. Blue light can suppress melatonin for twice as long as other visible wavelengths of light.

While blue light is suppressing your melatonin, it’s also increasing your production of cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone.

If you’re exposed to a lot of blue light, especially in the evenings, you’re more likely to have trouble falling asleep, and you’re also more likely to wake up throughout the night.

There’s also a growing body of evidence that blue light can damage our eye cells, increasing the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration.

Research is showing that wearing blue light glasses can help improve insomnia symptoms and sleep quality and also reset your circadian rhythms. Wearing blue light glasses might also help your cognitive function. You might see improvements in memory and learning, for example.

Some research shows that blue light exposure during the night can not just impact sleep quality but may also increase your risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. These risks likely stem from the effects of blue light on circadian rhythms.

For example, in one Harvard study, researchers put ten participants on a schedule that shifting their circadian rhythms. Their blood sugar levels went up, putting them in a prediabetic state. Their leptin levels were also altered. Leptin is a hormone that plays a role in helping you feel full after you eat.

As has been touched on, exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, which is the hormone that influences circadian rhythms. Even dim nighttime light can interfere with your melatonin secretion and your circadian rhythms. Light at night is one of the reasons doctors think so many people don’t get enough sleep. There’s also the potential that these effects contribute to a higher risk of depression.

Any kind of light can suppress melatonin secretion at night, but blue light has a more powerful effect. In one study, blue light suppressed melatonin for around twice as long as green light waves and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much.

There was a study at the University of Toronto that looked at melatonin levels in people exposed to light wearing blue light goggles versus exposure in people not wearing them. The group wearing the goggles was exposed to bright light, and the group not wearing them was exposed to dim light. The hormone levels were similar between the two groups, showing that blue light is, in fact, a powerful melatonin suppressant.

Blue Light and Mental Health

There are links between blue light and mental health, which are both direct and indirect.

There have been studies showing structural changes in the brains of people with severe disruptions to circadian rhythms.

Our circadian rhythms are responsible for mediating a wide variety of biological but also behavioral processes. Blue light is one of the strongest environmental influencers of our circadian rhythm.

Blue Light Glasses Don’t Darken Your Vision

Blue light glasses with orange or amber lenses tend to be better at blocking light than the alternative glasses with clear lenses. Some people worry they’ll darken their vision, however. While amber lenses do absorb blue light, they let less stimulating wavelengths pass through, so you can still work or watch TV.

How Different-Colored Lenses Work

Again, when you’re searching for the best blue light glasses Amazon offers, you’ll see them with different lens colors. We focused on Amazon blue light glasses with red, orange-amber lenses and that’s for a reason.

Clear lenses only block at most around 40% of blue light. These clear glasses can be perfect if you’re working during the day and you just want to avoid eyestrain. However, if your goal is to use blue light blocking glasses to fall asleep or relax in the evening, the clear lenses probably won’t give you the best results.

Yellow lenses block around 75% of blue light, which is okay, but orange lenses block anywhere from 98 to 99% of blue light.

You wouldn’t necessarily want to wear orange lenses during the day, however, which is important to note. This is because orange lenses would block too much blue light that you need during the day. You want your circadian rhythms to be aligned with the sun, which means during the day, blue light is good, whereas at night, it’s not.

Red lenses block not just blue light but also green and violet light. That can have an effect that would be similar to dimming the lights throughout your home, even if you haven’t done so.

Is Blue Light Bad?

It’s worth discussing when comparing the best blue light blocking glasses Amazon offers, whether or not blue light is inherently bad. As has been touched on, it’s not. At the right times of day, blue light exposure is healthy and important. Exposure during the morning and afternoon are necessary.

Blue light during the day helps your cognitive function and keeps you alert.

A lack of blue light in the winter is one of the reasons some people experience seasonal depression.

Indirect blue light, such as what we get from the sun, is the best source, compared to the direct exposure from digital devices.

If you were to attempt to filter blue light during the day, it would probably disrupt your circadian rhythm.

That’s why you shouldn’t buy prescription glasses with blue-blocking filters. Blue blocking glasses really need to be something you wear in the evening before bed.

If you’re working on a computer during the day and you want to protect your eyes, then clear-lens blue blockers are probably fine.

Don’t wear total blue blockers during the day unless your doctor tells you otherwise.

20-20-20 Rule

Along with looking for the best blue light blocking glasses Amazon offers, if you’re experiencing eye strain, you might want to try the 20-20-20 rule. For every 20 minutes you spend looking at a screen, you should spend 20 seconds looking at something 20 feet away. Essentially, you’re giving your eyes a break regularly to prevent strain and the things that can come with it, such as headaches.

You can also just an anti-glare screen or adjust the contrast settings on your computer if you’re dealing with strain.

Final Thoughts—the Best Blue Glasses Amazon Offers

While much of what we know now as far as the use of blue light glasses is anecdotal, many people find that wearing these glasses in the evening does help them fall asleep better, get more restful sleep, and generally feel better. Our above rankings of the best blue light glasses Amazon offers are based on customer reviews, lens color and other features such as fit and comfort.