Identifying Monitor Glass Protection: What To Look For

Blue light from digital screens can cause eye strain and disrupt sleep patterns. Blue light blocking glasses are designed to filter out blue light, reducing its impact on the eyes. There are several ways to test if your glasses offer this protection. One simple method is to hold your glasses up to a light source and check the colours reflecting off the lenses; if you see blue light reflecting, your glasses are blocking at least some blue light. Another test is to look at a white background through your glasses; if the lenses are blocking blue light, the white background will appear yellowish.

Check light reflection off clear lenses

Checking the light reflection off clear lenses is a simple test to determine whether your glasses are blocking blue light.

Hold your lenses up to a light source and check the colours reflecting off them. If you see blue light reflecting off the lenses, you know your glasses are blocking at least some blue light. This test works for clear daytime lenses and computer glasses.

However, it is important to note that this test does not indicate the amount of blue light being blocked. Ideally, blue light-blocking glasses should block at least 30% of blue light.

Another way to check light reflection is to hold your clear lenses up to the sky on a clear, bright day. The blue of the sky should look yellowish through your lenses, indicating that they have a slight yellow tint and are blocking at least some blue light.

You can also try looking at a white background through your clear lenses. If the lenses are blocking blue light, the white background should look yellowish. This is because there are special pigments in the lenses designed to absorb blue light. If the lens is clear and the colour of the background does not change, it means there is only a basic anti-reflective coating that filters about 5 to 20% of blue light maximum.

Hold lenses up to the sky

To check if your glasses have monitor protection, there are a few tests you can perform. Firstly, it is important to understand the basics of the melatonin disturbance zone and perform a blue light test. The best glasses for blocking blue light have orange-tinted lenses, which block 99.5–99.9% of blue light and a large amount of the green light spectrum.

You can perform the blue sky test by holding your glasses up to the sky on a clear day. During normal wear, the lenses will appear clear, but they will have a slight yellow tint if they are filtering the recommended 30% of blue light. When looking through the lenses towards a clear blue sky, you will be able to see this light being filtered away by the lenses, as a slight yellow tint.

There are also the RGB colour wheel test and the black and blue circle test, which involve looking at specific charts while wearing the glasses to determine how effective they are at blocking blue light.

Look through lenses at a white background

To check if your glasses have a blue light filter, you can try looking through your lenses at a white background. All you need for this test is a pair of glasses and a white background (a computer screen or sheet of paper will work just fine). Hold your glasses up to the white background and look through the lenses to check for a yellow tint. The white background should look yellowish if the lenses are blocking blue light. This happens because there are special pigments in the lenses designed to absorb blue light passing through. If the lens is clear and the colour of the background doesn't appear warmer, it means there is only a basic anti-reflective coating that filters about 5 to 20% of blue light maximum.

This test is a simple one you can do at home, but it doesn't indicate how much blue light is being blocked. Ideally, blue light filtering glasses should block about 30% of blue light.

You can also try this test with the blue sky as a background. The blue of the sky should look yellowish through your clear lenses. Clear lenses have a slight yellow tint that isn't super noticeable when you're wearing your glasses. To check if they're tinted, go outside and hold your glasses up toward the blue sky on a clear, bright day. If the sky looks warmer or yellow through the lenses, then they're blocking at least some blue light.

Compare orange lenses to a screen's night mode

When it comes to reducing eye strain and promoting better sleep, orange lenses and night mode settings on screens serve a similar purpose – but they achieve it in different ways.

Orange Lenses

Orange-tinted lenses, like the kind found on some blue-light-blocking glasses, work by filtering out blue light. Blue light is the highest-energy light in the visible light spectrum and is known to cause eye strain and negatively impact sleep. By reducing the amount of blue light that enters the eye, orange lenses can help alleviate eye strain and make it easier to fall asleep. This is especially useful for people who spend a lot of time looking at screens, as digital devices tend to emit a significant amount of blue light.

Night Mode

Night mode settings on screens, also known as "blue light filters," work by reducing the amount of blue light emitted by the screen. Instead of filtering the light before it enters the eye (like orange lenses do), night mode settings adjust the screen's colour temperature to reduce the amount of blue light emitted. This can be done in different ways, depending on the device and its operating system. For example, Apple's Night Shift feature cancels out blue light frequencies, resulting in an orange hue on the screen. Similarly, Amazon's tablet night mode also adds an orange overlay to the screen, although this implementation has been criticised for reducing contrast and potentially increasing eye strain.

Comparison

Both orange lenses and night mode settings aim to reduce blue light exposure, which can help reduce eye strain and improve sleep. Orange lenses physically block blue light from entering the eye, while night mode settings reduce the emission of blue light from screens. One advantage of night mode settings is that they can be easily turned on and off, allowing users to adjust their screen's colour temperature according to their needs or the ambient lighting conditions. Orange lenses, on the other hand, may be more suitable for people who need blue light reduction throughout the day or who spend a lot of time looking at screens. Additionally, while night mode settings can help reduce eye strain associated with screen time, they do not reduce the overall amount of blue light exposure from other sources, such as overhead lighting.

Do the Black and Blue Square Test

To test whether your monitor protection glass effectively blocks blue light, you can try the Black and Blue Square Test. This test will help you determine how much blue light your glasses can filter out.

Here's how you can do the Black and Blue Square Test:

• Put on your blue light-blocking glasses.
• Look at the picture and focus on the blue portion.
• If your glasses are effective, the blue square in the middle should appear as a dark or greyish blue, indicating that your lenses are filtering out most of the blue light.

It is important to note that the effectiveness of blue light filtering depends on the colour of your lenses. Red lenses block 100% of visible blue light, while yellow and clear lenses filter out a smaller portion. Therefore, if you are using glasses with yellow or clear lenses, you may still see some blue colour in the test, which is normal.

In addition to the Black and Blue Square Test, there are other tests you can perform to check the effectiveness of your monitor protection glass, such as the RGB Colour Chart Test and the Flashing Colour Test. These tests can help you determine how well your glasses or screen filters are working to protect your eyes from harmful blue light.

Frequently asked questions