How to Test Blue Light Glasses (4 Easy Ways)

Last Updated on Mar 08 2024

If you spend a great deal of time in front of the computer screen or television screen, you are getting hit with a large amount of blue light. Blue light is not harmful, but many people find that it contributes to their eye fatigue or keeps them awake at night. Blue light glasses can help with this, but it’s hard to determine how much blue light they filter out. If you’d like to test your glasses, keep reading as we provide you with a step-by-step guide.

What Are Blue Light Glasses?

Blue light glasses look like ordinary reading glasses but have special lenses that help filter out the blue light emanating from your computer screen and television. They are designed to only filter out specific wavelengths of light so you can still see objects clearly while wearing them.

What’s Wrong With Blue Light?

Staring at a screen for too long can lead to eye strain and frequent headaches, as well as dry eyes and blurry vision. These symptoms seem more pronounced in people who don’t try to filter out blue light, though research on this is still ongoing. Other theories suggest that the blue light mimics what we get from the Sun, and seeing too much of it at night can confuse our body and disrupt our internal rhythm.

The 4 Ways To Test Blue Light Glasses to See If They Work Are:

1. Use a Blue Object

The easiest way to test your blue light glasses for free is to find an object in your home that’s blue. Look at the object with and without the glasses; the bigger the difference, the better they work. If the object appears to be the same color with or without the glasses, they are not filtering blue light.

2. Use a Test Image

You can download a test image from the internet to help test your blue light glasses. The most basic test will have a blue square on the left and a black square on the right. When you put your glasses on, the darker the blue square is, the better they work. Seeing two black squares means the blue light glasses filter 100% of the blue light.

3. Use a Computer Program

Almost all electronic devices, from your smartphone to your desktop, have a night light or blue light filter feature in the display settings that you can use to filter blue light. Many of these programs enable you to filter the blue light by a specific percentage. To test your glasses, you can set the software to filter out the blue light and look closely at the screen. Then, shut off the blue light filter, and put the glasses on. While wearing the glasses, the screen should look the same as it did when using the software filter. If it looks different, you can try changing the percentages of the software filter to learn how much light the glasses are filtering out.

4. Look at the Spectrum Report

Many blue light glasses, especially high-quality ones, will include a spectrum report that tells you exactly how much light the lens filters out. You want to find a pair that filters out at least 30%, but more is better.

Do I Need Blue Light Glasses?

Do I Need a Prescription for Blue Light Glasses?

No. If you don’t normally wear glasses, you can purchase a pair that only filter the blue light and does not magnify or improve vision. In many cases, these glasses are inexpensive.

What Else Can I Do to Help Eliminate Problems Caused by Blue Light?

Final Thoughts

Testing your blue light glasses to see if they’re working is not difficult and only requires looking at a blue object that you have around your home. If you don’t see a difference in the object’s color when you put on and remove the glasses, they are not working. Other tests can give you a better idea of how well they work, as many only remove a certain percentage of the blue light. Using your computer software can help you determine the exact amount, as can reading the spectrum report if one came with the glasses.

Featured Image Credit: Prostock studio, Shutterstock