How Good Are Your Blue Blockers? An Easy Test To Tell + One Mistake To Avoid

As people spend more and more time staring at screens throughout the day (thank you, Zoom calls), many turn to blue-light-blocking glasses as a way to mitigate exposure to, well, blue light. Short disclaimer: Blue light isn't inherently bad (in fact, the sun's blue light helps regulate our natural sleep and wake cycles1 and boosts alertness!). It's the constant exposure from screens that can cause eyestrain and mess with melatonin production2.

That's where the glasses come in to filter the blue light from your surroundings—and if you're like us, you may be wondering whether all blue light blockers are created equal. Can any old pair protect our orbs?

Stillman, generally, is a fan of blue blockers: He deems them a solid solution to screens whose color temperature we can't necessarily control (like the blue light from televisions or laptops, as opposed to the bulbs in your home). With an overwhelming number of options on the market, he offers a simple guideline for choosing a good pair: "The easy test for [finding out] how good a pair of blue blockers is: Do they make blue lights disappear?”

This test leads into the most common issue Stillman notices with certain pairs of glasses: "The biggest mistake I see people making with blue blockers is that they buy the ones that have a slight blue tint," he shares. "They reflect [only] a little bit of the blue light—like 10 to 15%. That 10 to 15% is not adequate to protect your circadian rhythms. You really need a dark red pair of blue blockers."