My eyes are killing me!

September 9, 2015 3:57 PM

I'd like to hear about experience with blue light filtering eyeglass lenses:

I work at the computer most of the day. For years I've been dealing with work related stress insomnia & more recently am starting to realize I'm suffering from digital eye fatigue. At times I can't even watch TV at night my eyes are so tired. Undoubtedly, the eye fatigue is also worsening the sleep issues.

I've been thinking about getting new eyeglasses with blue light filtering. I have insurance through Vision Service Plan (VSP) and have been thinking of getting these Unity Blutech lenses, which are infused with melanin. VSP has also recently started carrying lenses with the Sharper Image TechShield coating. I'd be using these glasses full-time, not just at the computer.

I'm aware that there are several other lenses that filter blue-light in the 400-450 nm range & that the melanin lenses have a yellowish hue. My inclination is to get the melanin lenses rather than the one's with the coating. While I'm primarily interested in hearing about any experience with the Blutech or TechShield lenses, I'd appreciate any input on you might have that would inform my decision.

Thanks!

posted by Pressed Rat to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

I talked about this in greater detail in a recent comment (although that was focused more specifically on the sleep issues as opposed to eye strain), but you might want to consider buying the blue light blocking glasses I linked to there because they are quite cheap and might give you at least some sense of whether or not this kind of thing would be helpful to you.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:56 PM on September 9, 2015

Off topic a bit, but I've tried many, many things to solve the identical eye strain problem. What finally made a difference for me was Genteal Nighttime Ointment. It isn't complicated, just sterile mineral oil and petroleum jelly.

I put a pea-sized amount in just before I go to bed, and my eyes feel tremendously better the following day. The Genteal was kind of expensive, so I switched to a comparable generic.
posted by builderofscience at 11:01 PM on September 9, 2015

I wear glasses all day, and spend at least 12 hours a day staring at a screen of some sort. I've been using the Prevencia lenses by Essilor for about a year - initially interchangeably with another pair of glasses and exclusively for the past month. I've noticed less eye fatigue, but it really isn't that huge an improvement. My least favourite aspect is that the lenses tend to give off a blue tint under some lights (which makes sense, if they're blocking put blue light) which looks awfully dorky.
posted by hellopanda at 12:08 PM on September 10, 2015

Seconding getting a cheap pair of orange/yellow-tinted glasses to see whether it helps. These work decently for me, and look normal enough to wear at work.
posted by gold-in-green at 10:07 PM on September 11, 2015