What exactly is blue light?
Blue light is referred to the high energy visible (HEV) wavelength from 400-500nm.
Why is blue light harmful?
Blue light is the next wavelength after UV. UV ends at 400nm. We need to protect our eyes from the peak emission of blue light (450nm) that gets emitted from all digital devices. Many independent studies have shown oxidative damage to the retinal cells from blue light. Our concern is the long-term effect that may lead to macular degeneration from this overexposure. Macular degeneration is currently the number one cause of central blindness in the United States in the population over 55 years of age.
How does blue light affect my sleep?
Blue light is important for humans to regulate our circadian rhythm-sleep/wake cycle. The sun provides the natural blue light that controls this cycle. The circadian cycle is determined by a hormone, melatonin. During blue light exposure, melatonin is suppressed. When the sun goes down, our body starts the production of melatonin and within a few hours, at peak melatonin, we start to fall asleep. However, now we are bringing this blue light into our bedrooms by reading and working on our digital devices before going to bed. This blue light suppresses melatonin thus causing difficulty falling asleep and often insomnia.
This is playing a big role amongst teenagers who are on digital devices until late at night. Insomnia is on the rise amongst teenagers for the first time in our history. They wake up without having a restful sleep causing concentration issues during school.
How does BLEP Eyewear help me?
Our coating is a *patented formula, providing multiple layers on the front and back of the lens to reflect the blue light that gets emitted from digital devices. Blue light from digital devices peaks at 450nm. We are the only coating in the market that has a peak reflection at 450nm. We are also a broad spectrum coating, reflecting across the entire 400-500nm. Our competitors use dyes and tints to absorb blue light. This has an aesthetic challenge and color distortion.
Are there short-term benefits to BLEP Eyewear?
Yes. We have found our eyewear to reduce headaches, digital eyestrain, and even reduce migraines in many individuals. Our eyes are not designed to stare into a high intensity light for multiple hours. Blue light is the most scattering of the wavelengths, thus the blue sky. By attenuating some of this light, you can increase the contrast. Also, unlike reading on paper, digital device illumination causes our pupils to constantly constrict and relax, often causing pupillary accommodative spasm. This can lead to mild headaches. Our coating has reflection at 470nm (pupil constriction) and 440nm (pupillary relaxation), thus decreasing this phenomenon.
Why don’t you block 100% of blue light?
Unlike UV, which is part of the invisible spectrum, blue light is in the visible spectrum. Blocking all of blue light would cause visual distortion and have a negative effect on our melatonin. We have studied the maximum percentage of blue light that we can block while keeping all the benefits of blue light intact-aesthetics, color vision, and keeping our circadian rhythm intact.
Why is blocking at 450nm important?
450nm is where blue light peaks from digital devices. There is also high a amount of blue light emitted at 460nm. This nm is the peak absorbency of the Macular Pigment Density (MPD) in the back of our eyes. The MPD is our defense system to protect the cells from oxidative damage and prevent Macular Degeneration. We need to make sure this intense blue light is not affecting our MPD. Our eyewear is designed to reflect blue light at 460nm to offer this protection.
Who should be wearing BLEP Eyewear?
Everyone that is in front of digital devices for multiple hours on a daily basis. Kids are even more susceptible due to their lack of pigment density in their eyes and the fact that they will have many more years of this exposure.
Macular Degeneration patients and their families should also provide themselves with as much protection as available.
*The blue light coating products are covered by one or more of the following patents:
US Patent No. 11,022,821
US Patent No. 10,114,233
US Patent No. 9,057,887
