Do blue blocking glasses help with dry eyes?

As a dry eye specialist, I’m often asked if wearing blue blocking glasses (or adding blue blocking filters to computer screens) can help or prevent dry eye disease. The short answer is possibly, but the better answer follows.

 

Scientists point to the regulation of our sleep schedule being dependent on a schedule that evolved over eons and was regulated by the sun. Long before we had homes with electricity, we commonly lived in caves or other primitive structures and the day began around the time the sun came up and ended around the time the sun set (or our campfires went out).

 

The “blue sky” we see in daylight is a strong “wakeup” signal that would prepare us for a day of hunting and gathering that could sustain us and allow our species to survive and thus evolve. At night, a small gland in our brain, called the pineal gland, would begin making melatonin around the time the world went dark and prepared our bodies (and brains) for sleep. As the melatonin seeped into our brain, it functioned as a type of sedative that allowed us to have the sleep-related rest that prepared us for the following day.

 

Today, our day often begins with an alarm (perhaps set on our smartphones) and with the electric lights coming on – often hours before a full sunrise. Conversely, our day often ends many hours after the sun sets – and during this “artificial daylight” our brains are denied the gradual buildup of that natural sedative (melatonin) that the bright blue sky would stave off so we can hunt and gather. Unless we use programs and filters to block the blue light we see while staring at all the screens that seem to rule our lives, this is a strong source of that “wakeup signal” that makes sleeping difficult.

 

Sleep is incredibly important to our health in general and to our eye-health in particular. Resting with closed eyelids can help restore the living surface of our eyes, as they are no longer exposed to the drying atmosphere - and the delayed blinking - caused by staring and visually concentrating while awake. Video screens (phones, computers, tablets, and laptops as well as TVs) are a great incentive to staring – and as I pointed out in earlier posts – staring is like giving your eye’s surface a “heart attack” as blinking is the “heartbeat” that churns the “clear-blood-like product we call a tear” over on the surface of your eye to sustain and support it.

 

The principal benefit of blue-blocking-glasses (or screen covers/filters) appears to be the return of the melatonin-related regulation of our sleep cycle – and the return to better sleep and better health. This is especially useful once the sun sets, so some computers have settings where you can reduce the blue in the screen automatically. Lighting can be dimmed around the house after sunset and aiming for the number of hours of sleep you need can be an easier task.

 

The limiting of screen time, the 20/20/20 “rule” of taking 20 seconds every 20 minutes to look 20 feet or further away (and doing some strong blinking to promote the function of the lid’s oil glands) is also helpful to maintaining healthy tears and therefore healthy eyes.

 

So do blue blocking glasses help dry eyes? If you, like most of us, spend “too much time” after dark, staring at screens that have the full spectrum of natural colors (including that bright blue-sky blue), then definitely consider blue blocking strategies and get some sleep!

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More on MGs (the tear oil glands)