The dark side of blue light: how long hours in front of the screen is causing dry eyes, migraines and insomnia for city workers

By Nimesh Shah, Marketing Director at Feel Good Contacts

Exhausted female worker sit at office desk take off glasses feel unwell having dizziness or blurry vision, tired woman employee suffer from migraine or headache unable to work. Health problem conceptSince city offices shut down and issued stay-at-home orders, we’ve seen these traditional brick and mortar firms move seamlessly to being almost virtual organisations.

Companies have been able to continue their international operations at lower operational costs and employees have adapted to new ways of team working and customer liaison. Face to face client meetings, informal chats at the water machine and Friday team lunches have been replaced with zoom, facetime and social media catch ups. This therefore means that staring at screens for long periods for work and then entertainment is becoming the norm for city workers.

With this increase in digital consumption comes the associated fatigue, eye strain, headaches, neck/back/shoulder strains and sleep cycle disruption associated with the blue light emitted from the digital devices.

What is blue light?

Blue light is emitted from the sun. This natural source of blue light makes you feel alert and awake and helps to regulate your circadian rhythm – your internal clock that tells you when to sleep or wake up.  Blue light is also emitted from artificial sources such as digital screens and modern lighting. It’s the blue light from digital devices that can impact our eyes and sabotage our sleep cycle. So, if you spend a lot of time in front of your phone, tablet or computer screen, blue light glasses might be the answer to reduce eye strain.

What are blue light glasses?

Blue light blocking glasses have been specially designed with lenses to filter out and block the unwanted blue light given off by digital screens. Blue light has the shortest wavelengths and highest frequencies. Therefore, the light gets scattered into other directions causing haze and blur on screens, making it difficult to focus. This can lead to dry eyes, eye strain, headaches and insomnia.

Can you get prescription glasses with blue light filter?

Yes, you can get blue light blocking lenses for your prescription glasses. During the manufacturing process of your lenses, a special coating can be applied to block the blue light.

Can you wear blue light glasses all day?

Yes, it is safe to wear blue light glasses all day.

What else should I do?

Working from home is a huge shift for city employees and for many, this arrangement will be long term. We are well aware of how bad too much screen time can be for our health, so try and take regular screen breaks during the working day. If your eyes are feeling particularly strained, try and find 5-10 minutes for some eye yoga. Keeping a bottle of lubricating eye drops handy can also be useful for dry eyes.

Finally, try to stick to your structured work hours as much as possible. It’s important to be able to relax after your workday. This is easier to do if you shut the laptop and ignore your emails from the moment your workday ends. Try to organise relaxing things to do after work like going for a walk, reading a book or having a long, warm bath (switch on some music, throw in a bath bomb and put on an eye mask) to help you slip more easily into relax mode.

About the author

Nimesh ShahNimesh Shah is Marketing Director at Feel Good Contacts.  He studied Economics at university before making the decision to drop out. Armed with an entrepreneurial spirit, he went on to form his own boutique digital marketing agency, before eventually joining Feel Good Contacts in 2018. Nimesh oversees all marketing operations for the company which involves working closely with the customer services team, IT department, warehouse operations as well as the marketing team.

About Feel Good Contacts

Feel Good Contacts  is one of the UK’s leading online suppliers of discounted contact lenses and eye care products. It is also the only UK company to offer this discounted service via a mobile app. The matrix below shows the price per contact lens box charged by Feel Good Contacts compared to high street opticians.


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