Medical research has suggested for quite some time that Blue Light has a negative effect on your sleep cycle. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into a 2009 Study from Kimberly Burkhart and James R. Phelps called “AMBER LENSES TO BLOCK BLUE LIGHT AND IMPROVE SLEEP: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL”.
P.S., if you don’t want to pay for medical journal articles you can use https://sci-hub.se/ (you didn’t hear that from us…)
The Study
In the study, 20 participants were randomized to wear blue-blocking glasses (amber tinted) and ultraviolet-blocking glasses (yellow-tinted - this is the control group) for three hours before bed. The timeline of the research is below:
- One week of baseline assessments with no glasses, measured through self-completed sleep diaries
- Two weeks of wearing the glasses three hours prior to bed
The 20 participants were aged 18 to 68 (mean of 34) and were relatively even-gendered (9 males / 11 females). Participants did not consume any meaningful amounts of caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol during the baseline period and during the study.
The Results
The results were clear, the Blue Light blocking group had a significant improvement in sleep quality and positive effect from the change. Even though the Blue Light blocking group had a lower starting quality of sleep, they outpaced the control group in terms of sleep quality by the end of the three week period (with the graph looking eerily similar to the below).
After the three week period, the Blue Light blocking group had significant (p < 0.001) improvement in quality of sleep relative to the control group, had a positive effect (p < 0.005) compared to the control group, and had a significantly improved mood compared to the control group. As a reminder of the lessons from High School statistics, the lower the p value, the lower the probability that the observed results were related to chance.
That’s great, but what does this mean for me?
The results show that there is significant benefit for your sleep when wearing Blue Light blocking glasses at least three hours before bed. The feasibility of wearing glasses every night before bed may not be reasonable - I know I’d often forget to put them on or may not enjoy how they feel on my head. So, how can you still get some of these Blue Light blocking benefits?
Well, that’s where we come in! We believe that the biggest emitter of Blue Light at night is from your phone, especially if you’re a late night scroller. Our solution is BlueBuffer - a Blue Light blocking iPhone screen case (here’s real time proof it works). With BlueBuffer, you can take your Blue Light risk from your phone off the table with no change in lifestyle. If this is something you’re interested in, check us out!
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