I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 12 years old, so I’d say that I’m kind of a subject matter expert as a 19-year vet in this game. Now there was a bit of time where I favored my contacts, especially while I was marching, but for the most part, I reach for a pair of glasses every day. My collection has grown exponentially over the past decade, but I didn’t start adding blue light blocking pairs to the mix until recently.
I’m sure my routine isn’t too different from y’all’s. I wake up, watch the morning news, check emails, scroll through my social media feed for a bit all before I even make it to the office where I’m in front of my computer for another 6 or so hours (I’m also on the move a bit at work going back and forth over to my building), and couple that with being on my phone when I’m not in front of my computer, it’s no wonder I was dealing with headaches and eye-fatigue on an almost daily basis. Then I’d go home, unwind and watch TV or maybe do a bit of blog work on my personal computer, subjecting my eyes to even more blue lights. Now I thought I was doing something good by using f.lux and dimming my computer screen light, and while it did help a bit I would still have eye-fatigue.
I got so used to the minor headaches and fatigue that I didn’t even realize how much I was suffering until I got my first pair of blue light blocking glasses. What started off as me just replacing a pair of Firmoo frames similar to a pair that I must have accidentally thrown away while moving to my new apartment last fall has started a trend for me. I’d seen them all over, folks who wore glasses like me were getting the feature added to their frames, and folks who didn’t even wear glasses were picking up pairs from Amazon and local stores. It didn’t cost too much more for me to add them to my glasses and the tint was basically non-existent to those looking at me so I figured I’d give it a go.
BEST DECISION EVER!
I had them shipped to my office and ended up changing glasses in the middle of the day. I immediately felt the difference! Yes, there’s a slight yellow tint but I can only see it when I’m looking at something that’s white. If someone’s looking at me they can’t even tell that the lenses are blue light blocking unless the light hits them in a certain way, and that’s when you can see the faint blue-ish purple tint. I didn’t even realize that eye fatigue was a real thing until I no longer had to deal with it, and from that day on I made sure that I wore a blue light blocking pair to work every day.
Now for those of you who know me you know that my glasses are an extension of my personal style, so that one pair wasn’t going to do. I like mixing up my frames, and I LOVE a good funky pair so it didn’t take me long to order another two pairs from Firmoo. Once those came in I knew that I was in business! I was getting compliments left and right and I made sure to tell them that they were blue light blocking and preach about how amazing that is for our eyes.
Not only have these frames made my daily life better since I no longer have to deal with those annoying headaches, but they along with the five tips I’ve shared on here before have helped me limit my screen time. I try to make sure that I follow the 20-20-20 rule recommended by the American Optometric Association: after 20 minutes looking at a screen, look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. And even if I can’t follow that to the tee, I at least set timers so that I’m looking or walking away from my computer at least once an hour. It might seem hard to do during crunch time (ie: budget season), but it really helps!
Now I know that there have been a ton of bloggers talking about the cute non-prescription pairs that are available on Amazon, but I want to encourage those of you who wear glasses like me to consider adding this feature to your next pair of glasses. With so many online retailers out there like Firmoo, Eye Buy Direct, Zenni Optical and more there’s no excuse to keep you from purchasing a new pair with this great healthy feature!