Why I Wear Orange Glasses at Night

For the past several weeks, I’ve been donning a pair of funky, orange-tinted glasses while using my computer in the evening. This is far from a fashion statement, even if they do make me look like a hipster-wannabe.

Rather, I am wearing the glasses to prevent eyestrain and to help me sleep better at night.

Here’s how sleep works: during the day, the pineal gland in the brain is inactive. However, as the day grows darker and night falls, the pineal gland is activated.

It begins secreting the sleep-hormone melatonin into the blood. That’s what makes us begin to feel tired and want to head to bed. Computers, smartphones, and similar electronics, however, emit a blue light that disrupts this entire process.

When these electronics are used at night, they trick the brain into thinking it is daytime. Subsequently, melatonin production is slowed which makes it difficult to fall asleep.

Enter orange glasses.

Their orange tint helps protect the eyes by effectively blocking this blue light.

I’ve been trying to change my sleep habits and turn off electronics an hour before bedtime, but this can be hard as I am a night owl and often find myself working late into the night on projects that require a computer.

When I forget to wear the orange glasses, I usually can’t fall asleep for hours. However, when I start using the orange glasses at least three hours before bedtime, I’ve noticed that my eyes don’t end up aching from the computer glare, and I fall asleep much faster and sleep through the night.

Of course, having a good night’s sleep ensures that I am well rested and refreshed the next day. That means that these orange glasses are helping my creativity and productivity and also benefitting my health.

If you’re working on your computer at night, I definitely recommend buying a pair of these glasses. I sometimes also wear them during the day when I am working on my computer for long stretches as they help to reduce eyestrain.

You can find an affordable pair for under $20 on Amazon. This is the pair that I bought. You can customize the magnification strength or just buy a standard pair (I wear them over my prescription glasses).

To read up on the research that has been done on how effectively orange glasses block blue light, here is an excellent recent article from The New York Times about the orange glasses craze.

Do you wear orange glasses? Would you buy a pair? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.