The 8 Best Blue-Light Glasses to Protect Your Eyes From All Those Screens
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Screens, screens, and—are you surprised?—more screens: It’s no secret that our lives are dominated by the digital world. It’s also no secret that our pesky devices give off blue light waves, which, if you spend oodles of time in front of a screen, can affect your eyes and your sleep cycle. The best way to help yourself reduce any strain—besides chucking your iPhone into a ditch—is to invest in a pair of the best blue-light glasses.
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These specs can prevent all the signs of blue-light strain—dry eyes, headaches, and the dreaded eye fatigue. And, since screens are so integrated into our lives, it helps to have something to counter the side effects, something that allows you to leave your desk at the end of the day without the baggage of eye pain. Think of blue-light glasses as a way to sidestep all that trouble, allowing you work and live much more comfortably. Plus, they’re a fun way to add some color, some style, to your working wardrobe, a new accessory that can be worn day in and day out.
And better still: We did all the hard work for you and tested out a slew of specs to discover which ones made a difference. Here, the eight best blue light glasses that are easy on the eyes.
What to Know Before Buying the Best Blue-Light Glasses:
Lens Tint: Across stores (and the good ol’ World Wide Web), you’ll find not all blue-light glasses are the same. Some, for instance, have a clear lens, while others tout a more orangey or yellow hue. Some can even offer up a more purple look to them. The different hues can help block out blue light more effectively, such as that orange or purple vibe, but often manufacturers will use a different kind of coating on their clear lenses to make them just as effective as the tinted picks. Some people may find that a colorful lens can distract from their daily activities; others, however, are not bothered by a little extra tint on their specs. So, the choice is really up to you on which kind of tint is right for you.
Shape: The shape of your blue-light glasses is, again, up to personal preference. Luckily, since there a ton of face shapes out there—square, oval, heart; you get the idea—it’s fairly easy to find a pair of glasses that will actually flatter your face. Take round, for instance: You’ll want a style that adds bold, angular details to your face, like rectangular or cat eye. As for square, you should lean toward a more rounded frame, which will help add some softness to your strong features. After all, if you’re going to be rocking your new specs each day, you might as well look fantastic while you’re at it.
Material: As far as material goes, we want a pair of blue-light glasses that can withstand all that daily wear that we’ve been talking about, something that can be with you for years (and years) of screen time. Acetate, which makes strong frames, and nylon, which creates very lightweight pieces, are popular options for a reason; and for ultimate durability and some added beauty to boot, you can opt for a horn pair of blue-light glasses.
BEST BLUE-LIGHT GLASSES
Warby Parker Crane
Warby Parker is a name you’ll surely recognize, since it’s been in the eyewear game since 2010, providing easier access to prescription frames. (Never fear, you 20/20 folks, they offer non-prescription options as well.) The brand offers a lot (read: a lot) of different frames that you can sample at home before you decide your fate, and from there you can customize your lens based on what you’re looking for. Here, we opted for the Crane style, a clear offering with a warm English Oak brown at the temples. We found the lenses, coated with a special treatment that blocks blue light both digitally and naturally, to be quite effective, finding less dry eyes at the end of every day—and less screen-induced headaches, too. Plus, the glasses were comfortable enough to wear all day long, with none of that pesky behind-the-ear pain. And, blue light aside, we got quite a few compliments when testing out the Crane. Style matters, people.
Lens tint: Clear.
Shape: Rectangular.
Material: Hand-polished cellulose acetate.
BEST LIGHTWEIGHT BLUE-LIGHT GLASSES
Roka Rory 2.0 Eyeglasses
If you’re looking for lightweight, classic frames that’ll actually block blue light, Roka has the pair for you. The brand creates glasses for the sporty set—meaning you could be an Olympian and these glasses will stay locked in place. But Roka has pieces for those who are more sedentary, too—people who go the distance not on the field, but at the office, someone who would be perched in front of a computer, perhaps. Its Rory frames are a great pick; they feel like nothing on your face, but still manage to feel sturdy enough to survive your 9-to-5 each day. This pair also blocked blue light quite successfully, acting as a proper barrier between the screen and our eyes while testing them out. Our eye fatigue definitely decreased when rocking these bad boys, and the fact they have fantastic features—like GEKO grips, which help keep the glasses in place—made us even more willing to rock them.
Lens tint: Clear.
Shape: Rectangular.
Material: Nylon.
BEST TINTED BLUE-LIGHT GLASSES
Gunnar Attaché Blue Light Glasses
Be warned: These Gunnar glasses are highly tinted, the most on this list. But don’t let the amber hue dissuade you: The lenses’ tint helps block 65 percent of blue light at 450 nm. Of course, it does take a second to adjust to the different color. Once you get past that, though, it really is a smooth ride. After all, reducing eye fatigue is embedded in Gunnar’s DNA; the brand began when its founder, Matt Michelson, was diagnosed with digital eye strain in 2003. In particular, we found that dry eye was severely reduced and noticed a lack of digital headaches after a long haul in front of a screen.
Lens tint: Amber.
Shape: Round.
Material: Nylon.
BEST HORN BLUE LIGHT GLASSES
Morgenthal Frederics Jane Glasses
If you’re looking for a pair of blue-light glasses that exude luxury and superb quality, this is the pair for you. For one, Morgenthal Frederics has been whipping up its fine eyewear since 1913; the brand is known for its divine sustainable horn material, which it’s had time to perfect in its glasses. Each pair is one-of-a-kind due to the nature of horn, and is handcrafted by expert artisans in Germany to boot. All this really means is that your frames are lightweight—plus they can be customized specifically to your face shape, thanks to Morgenthal Frederics’s opticians. And you will definitely want to test out that very service, because we found the blue-light lens to be very effective against digital eye strain and dry eyes. It’s a pair we wanted to don again and again.
Lens tint: Clear.
Shape: Cat eye.
Material: Horn.
BEST ROUND BLUE LIGHT GLASSES
Eyebuydirect St Michel Blue Light Glasses
Eyebuydirect gives you an easy way to get glasses delivered right to your door, offering up a slew of frames for every need. And the St Michel certainly fits the blue-light bill. The lenses have the brand’s EBDBlue 360, which means you’re getting eye protection all day and all night. This pair in particular eased headaches and did reduce eye strain after testing, and sat comfortably on the face. Note: The frames themselves on these are not the sturdiest, but they make up for it with their sleek circular style.
Lens tint: Clear.
Shape: Round.
Material: Metal.
BEST STYLISH BLUE-LIGHT GLASSES
DIFF Eyewear Winston Square Blue Light Glasses
Let’s face it: Not every pair of glasses you see looks, well, good. Of course, the classics are great, but sometimes you want a little more out of your eyewear. If you want a pair that will help you stand out, a pair outside of the regular silhouettes, turn toward DIFF’s Winston. Besides rocking a fun frame, you’ll also be getting blue-light protection, which, for us, meant less eye fatigue at the day’s end. We did have a bit of behind-the-ear pain upon first wear, but it went away after donning the glasses more than once. With this pair, you can expect the ideal blend of blue-light blockage and style, a package that’s worth investing in.
Lens tint: Clear.
Shape: Cat eye.
Material: Acetate.
BEST LUXURY BLUE-LIGHT GLASSES
Tom Ford Men's Blue Blocking Square Acetate Glasses
Tom Ford built his fashion empire on swaggering sex appeal, a potent aesthetic he deftly translated to eyewear when he launched his signature bold, chunky frames in 2005—the Jacques Marie Mage of the mid-Aughts. Which is to say the Blue Block Square Opticals are not for the faint of heart: Unfolding the thick, glossy acetate arms has the officious feel of snapping open a briefcase, and the very act of anchoring them to your face might as well come with pinstripes and roped shoulders. But they’re far lighter than they look, so supremely comfortable you’ll often forget you’re wearing them. The science may still be out on blue-light lenses (though we swore we feel less eye fatigue, and even if it’s a placebo effect, our editor’s 45-year-old eyes will take what they can get) but we’ll keep wearing these just for what we think of as the Tom Ford Effect, which is fashion—even accessories, even blue-light glasses—that hums with the force of a loaded gun.
Lens tint: Clear.
Shape: Square.
Material: Acetate.
BEST BLUE-LIGHT GLASSES FOR BIOHACKERS
Whoop Spindle Blue Light Glasses
Wearers of the Whoop strap, the ultra-detailed tracking device that measures just about everything going on with your body (other than your step count), will know that wearing blue-light glasses has a direct impact on all sorts of health metrics. The company’s testing has shown they can increase the amount of sleep you get, improve your heart-rate variability, and even decrease your resting heart rate. Naturally, Whoop’s recent push into clothing and accessories includes three styles of blue-light glasses. In our testing, we found that we had less trouble falling asleep at night, which, to us, is the most important benefit you can get from wearing these frames. Our favorite is the Spindle style, a take on the Wayfarer frame. Best of all, they’re available in a gray tint designed for all-day wear, as well as a rosy tint to don in the evenings. And they’re priced reasonably enough that you could buy both.
Lens tint: Gray.
Shape: Wayfarer.
Material: Titanium and acetate.
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