so there's a lot of talk about blue
light right now and they need for anti
blue light glasses but do blue light
glasses really help or is this a bunch
of marketing hype that's why in this
video we're answering do blue light
glasses work let's take a look hello and
welcome this is dr. Allen here from the
doctor eye health show helping you learn all
about the eyes and vision and on this
channel we do a lot of different
educational videos about different eye
diseases as well as vision product
reviews on glasses and contacts that sort
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down below so you don't miss any of my
future videos now I'm excited to be
talking about blue light and really kind
of answering some of the questions I've
been getting about blue light I have a
lot of people asking hey is blue light
real? do I really need to blue light
glasses and do they really work so
that's what we're covering today and to
answer these major questions I'm just
gonna tell it to you just how I tell
patients in the clinic almost every
single day the first major thing that
you'll hear about blue light and the
need for blue light glasses is that blue
light affects our sleep and that is true
blue light has been found in studies to
affect retinal cells in the back of the
eye which then speak to the pineal gland
in your brain which produces melatonin
which is known as the sleeping hormone
and the presence of melatonin helps
improve your overall nightly sleep which
of course affects different health
aspects including affecting memory and
that's why people who don't get as very
good sleep have increased risk chances
for things like early dementia and
Alzheimer's and blue light has this
effect because most of the blue light
you'll ever experience in a lifetime
comes from the Sun and so staring at
your computer screen or your cell phone
for long periods of time especially in
the evening kind of acts like staring at
the Sun early in the morning tells your
brain to wake up and to stay alert that
means that people who spend a lot of
time in front of digital screens are at
higher risk of diminishing the melatonin
production and therefore risking having
poor sleep which i think is really
important for younger individuals such
as children who are starting to use more
digital products in their learning
regimen whether they're a homework in
front of a computer staying up all night
writing a paper or maybe learning on
something like an iPad and for this
reason blue light glasses are
recommended for people who spend a lot
of time in front of digital screens
however I think overall most eye care
professionals
we'll recommend that people one try to
reduce the amount of screen time use
especially in the later evenings try not
to use any sort of digital screen at
least two hours before going to bed time
in addition if your digital device has a
blue light or nighttime mode turn that
software on most Apple products and
Samsung Galaxy phones do have some sort
of a blue light protective mode and
you'll notice the screen kind of turning
a dim yellow studies have found that
those apps do reduce the amount of
effect that blue light can have on your
melatonin production however it's not a
hundred percent and so again people who
are spending a lot of time in front of
computer screens can consider blue light
glasses the second big thing you'll hear
all marketing companies talk about their
blue light glasses is the reduction of
eye fatigue I strain it also known as
digital eye strain or computer vision
syndrome which can basically lead to
things like headaches and as far as the
scientific validity for these statements
it is very mixed some studies have found
that people do benefit from using these
blue light protective glasses and these
yellow filters to reduce eye strain
however many studies also find really no
benefit
I personally on an anecdotal level see a
lot of patients who can go either
direction some people will come back
into the office saying thank you so much
for these blue light glasses because
they have reduced my eye strain on the
computer well some people don't really
notice a benefit at all but again the
results are very mixed I personally
don't find a huge benefit from the dark
yellow tints unless I'm currently
experiencing a headache or a migraine
now before we get down to the most
controversial subject about blue light
and how blue light could be affecting
the retina in the back of the eyes if
you're finding value in this video it's
mesh that like button for me and leave a
comment in the section below if you have
already tried blue light glasses and
have you noticed any benefits at all
whether it be from something like eye
fatigue or maybe affecting your sleep
patterns now there's a lot of confusion
about blue light and how it could be
potentially affecting the back of the
eye leading to different eye diseases
such as age-related macular degeneration
and potentially vision loss from those
diseases now there are several studies
showing that blue light can affect the
retina cells in the back of the eye but
those studies were done on mice and rats
and that was with a very high-energy
blue light just inches away from their
faces in addition the only study I've
read about human retinal cells being
tested under these conditions these
retinal cells were on a petri dish
in a laboratory and they're human
retinal cell
that are attached to the back of your
eye under normal conditions has a lot of
protective mechanisms to prevent
photochemical damage from this blue
light effect and the best argument
against blue light causing damage to the
retinal cells comes from the fact that
epidemiological studies don't even show
that people exposed to harsh amounts of
sunlight and again most of the blue
light you'll ever see in your lifetime
comes from the Sun these studies show
that people exposed to sunlight for long
periods of time do not experience this
type of cell death from things like
macular degeneration or other retinal
diseases and that's again because the
normal eye has mechanisms in place to
protect the eye from this harsh energy
light with that being said we still
ultimately don't know we're still
waiting for studies to be completed and
give us a final answer there is still
concerned because we know that
high-energy light can cause damage to
the back of the eye such as in solar
retinopathy when somebody stares the Sun
too long
as well as from other high intense light
beams such as laser pointers can also
cause damage to the retina so in theory
the concern is real however in the
scientific studies the evidence just
isn't there right now that blue light
really causes retinal damage so to blue
light glasses work for sleep yes for
fatigue maybe for retinal health we're
not sure yet but again there are other
ways to protect your eyes from blue
light other than blue light glasses if
you want to hear a little bit more about
those strategies I do have them in a
full video series about blue light
protection and if you want to check out
that series go ahead and click or tap
the screen just over here to the side or
if you'd like to see another cool video
from dr. eye health go ahead and click
or tap the screen down over here hey
thanks for watching keep an eye on it
and we'll talk to you soon
