Blue Light glasses are a great way to prepare your body for sleep. Modern life comes with all kinds of distractions and stimulation for your brain that can make it difficult to sleep. But how long before bed should you wear blue light glasses? Here’s what you need to know.
If you’ve recently purchased a pair of blue light glasses, you might be wondering when the best time to wear them is, and for how long should you wear them before you’ll be ready to close your eyes and get some rest.
It’s commonly recommended that you start wearing blue light glasses 3 hours before bedtime
In this guide, we’re going to be giving you a total breakdown of the best way to use blue light glasses. We’re going to combine this with several other things that can help prepare you for a good night’s sleep.
So let’s remove distractions, put on our blue light glasses, and get ready to sleep.
Before we can explain some rituals and timeframes to prepare you for sleep, it’s important to understand how blue light glasses function. Blue light glasses were created to solve a common modern-day problem.
They are glasses that come with special lenses that have been designed to significantly reduce the quantity of blue light that reaches the eye.
Blue light is something that you’ll find in many modern electrical appliances including phones, TVs, handheld gaming consoles, laptops, and PCs. Blue light is one of the many different colors in the visible spectrum of light (see also ‘What Color LED Light Helps You Sleep?‘).
Others are red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet. So why is blue light such a problem when it comes to sleep?
Well, blue light is good for a few things, with recent research suggesting that it can increase alertness, mood, attention span, and reaction times. Whilst all of this is great in the middle of the day, when you need to sleep it’s all the wrong kind of side effects.
This is where blue light glasses come in. They are made to reduce the amount of blue light you’re eyes absorb, allowing you to relax and unwind, and making sure your mind isn’t overstimulated.
There are a few suggestions for how long to wear blue light glasses, and depending on the kind you’ve bought, there is a high chance that they will come with a set of rules and instructions to help you get the best out of them.
Blue light glasses typically block up to 100% of blue and some of green light, which will help you to settle down for sleep. They’re particularly important if you use phones and or other electrical appliances before bed.
Blue light glasses are supposed to be worn 4-2 hours before bed. If you’re able to do this for the time period, then you’ll be able to allow your body to properly decompress.
It’s important to keep them on for this entire time, especially if you’re going to be using any appliances that feature blue light/
Another thing to note here is that you probably shouldn’t use them during the day, and definitely at night whilst driving or doing anything that requires a lot of attention to detail.
We would recommend you wear them for 3 hours before bed, this would be a good sweet spot, especially if you regularly struggle with sleep.
It’s important not to see blue light glasses as a total cure for insomnia or general troubles sleeping. Instead, see them as one tool you have available to help you get into a good sleeping routine.
We’re going to outline some extra ways that you can prepare yourself to sleep, alongside your new blue light glasses.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is set a bedtime. This doesn’t have to be the exact time that you will sleep (see also ‘Why Does Time Go By So Fast When You Sleep?‘), but it will be the time when you get into bed, turn the lights off, and completely switch your brain off.
From here, count back three hours. So let’s say your bedtime is going to be 10:00 PM. At 7:00 PM you will begin your routine. First of all, you’re going to want to put on your blue light glasses and start to turn the lights down around your home. Second, if you can, try to only use
From here, you’re going to want to avoid doing anything too stimulating. This is the time for you to wind down. Make sure you don’t remove your glasses unless necessary, and never remove them if you’re going to come in contact with blue light from any screens like your cell phone or television.
If you can avoid screens, it’s a good idea to do so. We suggest completely avoiding your phone for a whole hour before you sleep if you can. You can always put it in another room if you have a habit of checking it all the time.
Once it’s your bedtime, remove your blue light glasses and settle down into bed. Most people sleep best in the dark and in silence, but you should do what works for you. I highly recommend black out curtains and I personally sleep better with a pink noise sound machine. These are my best sleep tips to improve your sleep routine but either way, give yourself at least an hour or so of relaxing time to allow yourself to sleep.
In this section, we’re going to outline some other benefits that Blue Light Glasses might help you with.
We’ve already gone through this, but blue light glasses are generally linked to better sleep.
Blue light glasses can be a great help with headaches, and can even help people who suffer from serious migraine attacks.
Blue light usually penetrates your retina and is thought to lead to degeneration of your cells. This will increase your chances of developing a whole range of eye issues. Minimizing the blue light you’re absorbing can be a good way to solve this problem.
If you are the kind of person who wants to scroll your phone before you sleep, blue light glasses are a way for you to do this without suffering any negative effects.
So there you have it! We hope that this article has given you some ideas for how long you should be wearing your blue light glasses before bed. The routine we suggested is not meant to be set in stone or exhaustive, but it’s hopefully a guideline you can fit around your own life.
Everyone’s bedtime routine and sleep rituals are different and it’s best if you pick something that works for you.
Blue light glasses can be a great addition to your sleep routine, and people all over the world are starting to use them to combat some of the negative aspects of modern technology.
If you struggle with sleep, then there’s a high chance that it has to do with how much blue light you are exposed to. We wish you the best of luck with your sleep routine, and hope that soon enough you’ll be back to sleeping full nights, waking up refreshed and ready for whatever it is you do in life!