How does blue light affect you?

Blue light affects us in two primary ways:
  1. It causes glare and can make it harder to focus.
  2. It has been proven to impact our sleep cycles.
By managing our blue light environment, many find greater visual comfort, reduced headaches and enjoy better sleep. This is the newest frontier in eye care. There is not much new information on how blue light effects us. Rather, it is our environment that has changed. In recent times, we have introduced many new sources of blue light. We have changed how we communicate and how we get our information. Almost everyone spends several hours per day looking at a screen of some type: reading from our phones, sitting at our computers or just watching TV. Additionally, many of us have high efficiency lighting. Generally speaking, all of these things are blue light intense.
In the past, orange lenses (commonly known as Blue Blockers) were used to combat blue light by improving contrast and increasing visual comfort. However, these types of lenses greatly skewed the wearers color perception and were often too dark for full time wear.
Today, the technology available allows us to very selectively reduce or eliminate specific nanometers (meaning, specific waves of light). Similar to lenses that block out ultra violet (UV) rays, blue light lenses block select parts of the visible blue spectrum.  By very selectively reducing certain blue rays, wearers can experience significant glare reduction and greater eye comfort with little change in color perception.
Selective reduction of blue light is important because although some parts of blue light are harmful, other parts are quite important. The blue light we are naturally subjected to during the day helps regulate our sleep cycle and acts as a stimulus that increases energy and awareness.
There are several different products on the market designed to help wearers manage their blue light. Different products provide different benefits, and thus can be selected depending on the wearers’ needs. The following lens options can be applied to your unique prescription lenses:
  • BluTech lenses offer the most complete blue light protection for those most concerned with sleep deprivation.
  • Hoya ReCharge, designed to reduce glare and increase contrast, is perfect for those looking to enhance everyday vision reducing eye fatigue.
  • Crizal Prevencia offers the clearest lens, designed for the everyday eyeglass wearer most concerned with long term eye health.
Additionally, there are ChemTech blue-blocking glasses available for those who do not have any refractive condition, or as a pair of ready-made reading glasses. To learn more, visit or contact us at Williams Eye Works.
A Note from Founder and CEO, Chris Williams:
As a practicing optician for 36 years, I have found blue light technology to be very impressive. Our practice has gotten the most positive patient feedback for blue light technology as compared to any other product we have ever used. For those looking for more information on blue light, simply google “blue light” — there are a number of good articles written on the effects and dangers of blue light — or visit us at Williams Eye Works.