Blue Light-Blocking Lenses to Treat Insomnia

Insomnia is an issue that is pervasive in our culture. True insomnia is really difficult to treat and can be debilitating.

While true Insomnia isn’t all that common, sleep disorders are! And sleep disorders range from “I only get 4-6 hours of sleep per night” to “I occasionally have a bad night’s sleep…”. Many of us fall somewhere in between that spectrum.

I recently had a conversation with an MD friend of mine and we were discussing the question; when did it become a badge of honor to say “I only need 6 hours of sleep per night”?. As most of us know, we need MINIMUM 8 hours. I won’t bore you with all the studies, but you can find them easily if you want.

For sure there are outliers who need little sleep. Those of you who saw the documentary RBG (Ruth Bader-Ginsberg) she appears to be one of those.

While I’m not familiar with many famous folks who needed more sleep (though I’m told Mariah Carey likes 11 hours) I have read that some of the more famous business people (i.e. Jeff Bezos, Arianna Huffington to name 2) are very carefully to get at least 8 hours a night.

What do you need? It’s always trial and error. Try getting 8-9 hours a night for 3 nights in a row and see how you feel vs 6-7. 

I know, I know, I know… it’s easy to say! Balancing our busy lives with all we have to do, and then finding that small amount of “Me” time which is usually at night after everything is done. And that “Me” time more and more often is screen time (which I’m not demonizing, please know).

So thus I come to Blue Light-Blocking Lenses. 

A study was done and reported in the J. Psychiatric Res 2018. In essence it showed that wearing glasses with Blue Light-Blocking lenses helped people with insomnia to sleep better.

Exposure in the evening/at night to normal room lighting or to LED computer screens reduces melatonin secretion and increases arousal independently of melatonin secretion. Each of these effects can interfere with normal sleep patterns. The blue light wavelength portion of the visible spectrum (450-480 nm) appear to be the most efficient wavelength range for suppressing melatonin secretion and increasing arousal.

Most computers, televisions, and smart phones, and many light bulbs are lit by LEDs, which have a peak wavelength of around 460 nm. 

As many as 90% of Americans use some type of LED device within and hour of bedtime. The results of the study show that wearing blue light-blocking lenses for two hours before bedtime can improve sleep.

There are a million different Blue Light-Blocking glasses for sale on Amazon. I’m ordering a pair today for myself as well as my family!