Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

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drae
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Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by drae »

My sleep cycle has always been iconicly (new word) bad.

Part of my beginner plan was to get the Consumer Reports tested Uvex Skyper Blue Light Blocking Computer Glasses with SCT-Orange Lens (may have been a different model, but they were $10.16. I put them on after dinner and took them off at bedtime, with my eyes closed. In between, I watched a movie on TV and did normal chores including on the computer.

I slept hard for about 6 hours. I had slept not at all the night before, with only an hour and a half nap midday, and wanted a couple hours more so went back to bed in the early light. Then, felt like I could not sleep with the morning light on my eyelids! Funny. I am famous for sleeping in the light.

So, not having a sleep mask, I put the glasses back on and fell asleep for about another three hours (never looking at a clock). I woke after a total of about 9 hours sleep, waking only the once, and felt profoundly rested. I mean, wow. I cannot ever remember feeling rested like that. Now I am looking forward to getting a sleep mask.

I assume the reason I feel so much more rested is not the just the extra sleep but giving my body (finally!) a chance to produce melatonin. I am now very excited about how much getting good sleep will be able to do for my body.

Drae
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SusanJ
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by SusanJ »

Great news, Drae! Hope you continue to have great benefits with the glasses!
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

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It is also surprising how much of a difference housing mice in blue tinted boxes delayed cancer growth.
PMID: 26678364
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drae
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by drae »

Thanks, SusanJ. Me too.
J11 wrote:It is also surprising how much of a difference housing mice in blue tinted boxes delayed cancer growth.
PMID: 26678364
How about that! Does blue tint block blue light?
Drae -- floundering forward, everlasting beginner.
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by J11 »

Yes, I think that you are quite right!
Isn't the reason that grass is green because green things absorb everything but green?

It works the opposite to the way you might think.
Prehaps one could simply add the blue tint to all of the windows in the house and you'd be all set.
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by progranulindefect »

i just posted about my lifestyle hacks which also involve uvex glasses. this is just such a lucky coincidence! i had tried uvex before, but just putting them on at night was not enough for me. i had to do more hacks. the key is melatonin. it helps you fall asleep and it is protective against cancer. blue light keeps you from producing? secreting? melatonin. my house is filled with led lighting which is even stronger blue light. i have to try to protect more of my skin surfaces at night to get a good sleep since my family is committed to beautiful led's and thinks i'm alittle nuts. if uvex doesn't work for you in getting a better sleep, you just might need to be stricter with your blue light exposure. when the sunsets, get your house dim. if you family doesn't support you, do what i do. when the sun goes down, i have a visor on, and a hoodie, and a light scarf around my neck and the uvex. i try not to open the fridge because that light is so bright. i brush my teeth in the dark or using the hall light only. i don't care if i seem like a weirdo. i am making fewer memory mistakes. that's the really scary thing i am avoiding.
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by Jan »

I love the proactive measures to increase sleep! So simple, yet so profound.
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by circular »

I have a blue light filter on my computer and phone screens 24/7, and I rarely watch TV at night (or at all). Even the regular smart phone screens without a filter are ridiculously bright and unnatural to me. I didn't like having to wear glasses at night so bought three Philips Hue bulbs for strategic locations in the house. They are now on a setting that blocks blue light in the evening and very early morning when my husband is up. Luckily he's 'cooperative' (not sure he perceives a choice :| ), because I really like just having the light throughout the space being in that orange/red range.

Apparently there's a specific spectrum in the blue light range that is what blocks the melatonin, so a real stickler might want to find out which wavelengths need blocking and be sure a 'blue light blocking' commercial product blocks those wavelengths. Or, if it works just go with it ;)
Last edited by circular on Thu Jan 11, 2018 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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drae
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

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circular wrote:I have a blue light filter on my computer and phone screens 24/7, and I rarely watch TV at night (or at all). Even the regular smart phone screens without a filter are ridiculously bright and unnatural to me. I didn't like having to wear glasses at night so bought three Philips Hue bulbs for strategic locations in the house. They are now on a setting that blocks blue light in the evening and very early morning when my husband is up. Luckily he's 'cooperative' (not sure he perceives a choice :| ), because I really like just having the light throughout the space being in that orange/blue range.
Circ, thanks. And LOL re: the husband. Understand. I really like the blue light blocked both in the evening and in the early morning, and this before I knew others felt the same way! =)

Also, I had found reference to the hue bulbs but am grateful to find out they make a difference to you. I would like to put a few around the house so I do not have to wear the uvex glasses all the time. Although, I am so grateful for the glasses I find I reach for them automatically and just really like the blue light blocked. I also have the twilight app on my phone. Love it.

And I have ordered an adjustable sleep mask as the Walmart version did not fit comfortably. It may be a while before window treatments block light so this is my solution to that for now.

Thanks so much for your -- as usual -- very helpful comments. These things increase my arsenal of information. Although, I have found that while information is extremely important, it is the doing is that makes the difference.

Working on it. Thanks for the help!
Drae
Drae -- floundering forward, everlasting beginner.
Poco a poco. it don't work if you don't do it.
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G.K. Chesterton: Practice makes progress.
A thing worth doing well is worth doing badly at first.
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Re: Wow! What a difference blue light filter glasses make on sleep!

Post by progranulindefect »

i tried two different sleep masks and they both squished my eyeballs (i have very deep set eyes). the best thing i found to use to cover my eyes was a plain old terri cloth sweat band. i used that successfully recently when i had to sleep in the room adjoining my daughter's bedroom when she had knee surgery. the room i was in didn't have black out curtains. but the most comfortable thing is to not wear anything on your eyes. so in my bedroom i have black out curtains plus layers of other fabric because the back out curtains were not good enough. i also sleep in a bunk bed with the top bed removed. i have a thick blanket which i have attached to the top plank of the bunk bed, which encircles the bed. i have to do this because i am extremely sensitive to any light coming in to my room at night. now i sleep much better (although not perfectly) by sleeping in a room so dark i can't see my hand in front of my face when i am in there at night.
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