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If you are one of those persons who uses glasses and really care about your health, especially in terms of maintaining a high-quality lifestyle in the long term, then you probably use blue light glasses. Besides helping to correct or improve a wide variety of vision issues just like regular eyeglasses, this blue light version of frames adds the ability to filter out blue light, blocking a significant portion of it and thus, protecting your eyes. Now you might be curious about testing the effectiveness level of your glasses to corroborate whether your pair is actually genuine, as stated by your provider, well then you are in the right place. It is definitely true that each brand of blue light glasses filter out differing degrees of exposure, and in this article we will guide you through some of the tests that you can do at home, which will be helpful to see how good your blue light glasses are, so grab them and get ready to find it out.
Is it always a good idea to test your blue light glasses?
The damage caused by the lengthened exposure to blue light spread by smartphones and other devices is well known, to the point that this fact has been recognized and researched by scientists around the world, so the least we all should do is protect our eyes when being subject to this type of light. From a realistic point of view, it is impossible to isolate ourselves from all forms of blue light emissions, actually, it is currently part of our daily lives as we are constantly surrounded by electronic gadgets. Fortunately, with the advancement of scientific tools and technologic applications, we now have suitable solutions at our fingertips: blue light glasses. This pair of lenses are mainly designed to filter out the blue light rays to a certain degree, aiming to keep your eyes safe, especially when you are looking at screens or artificial light.
Here is the truth: many people tend to develop disbelief when purchasing a product which might apparently not be easy to test for yourself. Some of the common concerns among users about this type of frames, is whether they actually work as they claim to do it. This is a genuine interest, and it is justified by the evidence that there are several protection levels when it comes to blue light glasses. Another aspect to consider when we face the reality of the market, is that very few providers will let you know the amount of rays that their glasses filter out, as they simply market their product as able to block blue light without further details. That is why it might be convenient to make your own test at home, and verify that you are getting a legit item.
What a professional blue light glasses test looks like
The use of a spectrometer is the most accurate and thus, the best method when it comes to finding out if your blue light glasses have good quality filter technology. This test consists of a laboratory tool that works by spliting visible light rays into wavelengths of different colors. First of all, it is necessary to place the lens of the frames in a gadget, so that a sensor can detect which part of a specific wavelength is getting through, and which is being filtered out by the lens’ barrier. There is no need to say that this test applied by experts at specially designed facilities is very exact, therefore this is the most ideal analysis that you could get for your blue light glasses. However, in terms of feasibility, it is not very likely that the general population can have access to this resource, for example, this laboratory equipment is not available at a regular optical store.
Test 1: Is there any reflection?
There is a way to test your frames without any complications and you can do it at home. This assessment will provide you with a general approximation of the quality level in your blue light glasses, so that you can set realistic expectations of the protection you will have when you are using them. Perhaps you have heard of this simple test analysis, called reflection test, that allows you to find how good your glasses filter out blue light, which affects your vision in a different way than what can be caused by either violet or green light. Although this is not the most precise method to measure the capacity of the barrier in your lenses, it will definitely let you know if your blue light glasses actually work to some degree.
Chances are that you have already noticed the distinctive reflection found on the lens of your glasses, every time there is some light directed at them, or it can even be noticeable when you take a selfie while wearing them. Now, which color is this reflection? If the answer is blue, that is a good indicator that the lenses are doing their job right, by reflecting away a certain level of the blue light. On the other hand, if the color is different or there is no color at all, it is very likely that they are not working as they should.
Nowadays, there are so many brands in the market offering blue light glasses, which you can use at your computer or different devices with a screen, and it is not uncommon to find our that several of these lenses actually reflect green, violet or a combination of both light colors, and this means that they won’t be as effective as those for blue light, when it comes to protecting your vision. One coating that you can find often is green and even when it is highly effective as an anti-glare technique, it does not protect you from the consequences of blue light exposure.
It is our recommendation that you stay alert against the common marketing statements, some brands will promise you to keep you safe from UV light solely because they have a violet reflection, while UV protection is an important feature and nice to have on your glasses, it is not present in your LED screen’s devices and it is rather associated with sun exposure.
Test 2: Check out the pigments
Let’s move to the next test to assess the quality of your blue light glasses. This one is known as pigment test, and you can perform it if you have clear lenses to use during the daytime. The first thing you want to do is holding your frames at the level of your eyes, while you are standing in this position focus on looking at something that has a luminous while colour, it can be any bright wall or a simple piece of paper. What you want to find here is a slight difference between the tone you see with and without your glasses, if the white colour became warm (orange-like) a little bit, it means that there is a special filter integrated in your clear glasses aiming to act like a barrier, which actually is able to absorb the blue light rays as you look at the image in front of you.
When you are using regular lenses, they are completely clear and the white color will stay just the same when you are wearing them. So, it is important to consider that if the whie color does not warm-up at any degree, it is a red flag that your glasses lack protection or it might be a basic protection layer, which is only able to filter out up to 20% of the total amount of blue light directed at your eyes. To give you a better idea of what this means, when you wear special blue light protection lenses in combination with an effective reflective coating, you can rest assured to have 50% of blue light filtered.
What you should not do
If you want to avoid wasting your time when looking for simple ways to test the quality offered by your glasses, then you definitely want to stay away from scams such as the blue light pen test, which even when recommended by some sources on the internet, does not provide accurate information. It will not tell you if your blue light glasses work and neither the degree of the protective coating. Surprisingly, there are some manufacturers of glasses which have started to include blue light pens in their kits, encouraging their customers to do their own tests at home. This set comes with instructions to turn on the pen and reflect the light on a small white card (also included), here you will notice a blue spot shining on the card .
The next thing you are supposed to do is to literally use your glasses as a filter, placing them in between the little white card and the blue light pen, as a result you will not be able to notice that the blue light is not being reflected on the card anymore. meaning that the filter on the glasses works. The reason why this is a fake conclusion is that the light emitted by screens is different from the one found on the pen, besides this light in the pen is violet instead of blue.
