Blue light is a form of high-energy light that sits just after ultraviolet light on the visible electromagnetic spectrum. It’s technically everywhere, but it’s a bit more concentrated when it’s emitted by digital screens, like your computer monitor and your smartphone screen. Some worry blue light damages the eye, resulting in gradual vision loss and discomfort.
While plenty of glasses manufacturers offer “blue light-blocking” coatings for prescription lenses, this doesn’t prevent contact lens wearers from being inundated by blue light. Johnson & Johnson claims a new version of its Acuvue Oasys contact lenses turns this concern on its head. With a built-in filter called OptiBlue, these lenses are able to block 60 percent of blue light—more than any other filter in the industry—from reaching the retina, all while reducing light scatter for comfort and clarity.
The multinational pharmaceutical and consumer goods company developed the lens for people with “digitally intense lifestyles.” Work, play, and education are increasingly found online, and devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops (which are all used in close proximity to the eye) are used more now than ever before. Software like f.lux and Apple’s “night mode” make the user experience a little more comfortable by yellowing the screen and reducing blue subpixels’ intensity. Likewise, plenty of eyeglasses aimed at frequent screen users claim to filter out at least some blue light. But some people worry this isn’t enough to prevent long-term eye damage.
Looking at your phone late at night might make your eyes a bit uncomfortable, but not for reasons you might think. (Photo: Akshar Dave/Unsplash)
Many optometrists and ophthalmologists doubt this concern’s validity. Though early research once suggested that small animals experience retinal cell damage when exposed to blue light, no clinical studies have confirmed that this is the case for humans. (In fact, the human eye is already decent at filtering out blue light on its own.) Extended screen exposure at first appears to be connected to general discomfort and dry eye, but this gets muddled a bit by the fact that people blink less when they’re looking at screens. In general, it’s harder than conventionally thought to link blue light exposure with eye pathology.
This doesn’t mean Johnson & Johnson’s new contacts are a total bust, though. Along with the OptiBlue filter, the new lenses contain TearStable technology, which is said to keep the eye moister than it would otherwise be. For those who truly spend all day looking at screens, that alone—combined with the potential placebo effect of knowing at least some blue light isn’t hitting the retina—might make the lenses worth it.
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