I remember in the early 1990’s the lead singer of the band U2, named Bono would wear his signature orange wraparound sunglasses. We all thought he was so cool when he had those orange shades on.
Then I remember Elton John wearing his orange and red light glasses while playing the piano and I thought that was just his funky style.
But now things have changed. Rock stars and movie stars aren’t wearing orange glasses for style they’re wearing them for health.
Now you see guys like Rick Rubin who really understand how light impacts our circadian rhythm, wearing red light glasses.
Rick is not wearing these tinted lenses for style, he’s wearing them as a way to help his sleep and improve mitochondrial health.
I first got wind of the dangers of blue light around 2011. Then in 2012 I bought my first pair of Uvex orange light glasses from Amazon for about $12. In fact I still have 4 pairs of them laying around the house in different places.
They come in really handy when my wife wants to show me something really quick on her phone at night. I can just reach into my drawer and whip out my Uvex red light glasses and put them on for a quick second to watch something on a blue lit phone.
The cheap red light glasses are great because I don’t care if they get scratched.
When you put on a pair of red light glasses, it’ll look and feel like you’re in a photographer’s “dark room” with a red “safelight” on developing film. Everything turns red. It takes some getting used to but the benefits are powerful.
Let’s get into some of the benefits of red light glasses…
Benefits & Why You Should Wear Them
The main benefit of red light glasses is you’ll notice that the more you wear them, the earlier in the night you’ll get tired. I used to be a night owl. I’d go to bed at 3am and sometimes I was so wired I never fell asleep until 4am.
Fast forward a few years and now I’m exhausted by 9:30pm. I live a much more nature based circadian lifestyle now but the difference in my sleep is palpable.
The other benefit is you’ll sleep longer which will allow your body to reach more cycles of the different sleep phases.
Each sleep phase is roughly 90 minutes long and different levels of healing and cleansing happen during each phase of sleep. The longer and more uninterrupted sleep you get, the more cleansing and rebuilding your body will be able to accomplish.
Another major benefit of wearing red light glasses is the preservation and activation of the most powerful healing and anti cancer hormone your body makes….melatonin. We know that the blue wavelength and high intensity frequency of light has a powerful melatonin suppressing effect.
You don’t want melatonin to be suppressed in your body. Without melatonin, not only would your insomnia be worse, but you’d probably die of cancer relatively quickly.
Red light glasses not only help me fall asleep earlier in the night but also much faster. I used to lay in bed for at least an hour, tossing and turning all night long. Now I’m conked out less then 10 minutes after my head hits my pillow.
No more wondering and stressing about falling asleep. No more wondering how long I should give it to fall asleep before I get out of bed and do something else until I get tired.
No more laying there calculating how many hours of sleep I would get if I were to be a sleep in a certain amount of time. So stressful.
By wearing my red light glasses correctly (yes there’s a right way to wear them and a wrong way to wear them), I can bank on the fact that I’ll be asleep within minutes of slipping under the covers.
For Work
If you get the right pair of red light glasses you can wear them at work when you’re in the office because they look cool. Assuming you’re in an office environment under LED or fluorescent lights, you’re definitely going to want to wear some kind of blue blockers. If it’s daytime when you’re in the office, I recommend wearing yellow lenses up until the sunsets. If you’re still at work when the sun has set, then I’d recommend wearing orange blue blocking glasses.
The reason for this is blue light during the day is going to increase cortisol levels and suppress melatonin release, this is good. You don’t want to be falling asleep during that important meeting. The yellow lens allows a certain spectrum of light to come in while still blocking 460 to 480 nanometers (nm). This is in alignment with nature.
When the sunsets and you’re in the office, take off the yellow lens glasses and put on your orange blue blocking glasses. When I do this, I keep my eyes closed during the “transfer” process.
I do this because only a 10 log photons of light can suppress melatonin in the body. We definitely don’t want that.
For Computer
Why would you want to wear red light glasses if you work on a computer or cell phone? Well we know that this color temperature of blue light (6,500 kelvin) will reduce melatonin in your body which sets the stage for cancer growth and every other oxidative stress related disease. This blue light also has a flicker rate that damages your nervous system.
It also disrupts your circadian rhythms and alters your sleep cycles leading to insomnia.
When you wear red light glasses, it doesn’t allow the blue photons of light to get through the lens where it’s able to hit your pupil and ultimately cause circadian mismatches by sending the wrong signals to your suprachiasmatic nucleus (the master clock in your body that regulates all timing mechanisms).
It also causes blindness, macular degeneration, cataracts and hypoxia in your eye tissues leading to vision issues.
If you’re on a computer, wear red light glasses while also installing this special software. If you do this, you’ll increase your chances of avoiding vision issues as you get older but you’ll also sleep deeper and possibly prevent cancer.
For Sleep
Wearing red light glasses for sleep is my secret weapon to having a great quality of sleep almost every night. I notice when I track my sleep my sleep scores are always stellar. The reason red light glasses help sleep is because when you block the blue frequency of light, you’re allowing your pineal gland and all of your cells to release melatonin.
Melatonin release happens in the presence of darkness. You can supplement melatonin like I do but you also should be making it through exposure to light specifically in the morning and afternoon.
This helps your body to tightly sync your circadian timing accurately.
I challenge you to wear red light glasses for 30 days (correctly) and see how they can help with your sleep.
Here’s how I wear them….
- During the day (when inside either on a device or not) I wear yellow glasses.
- At sunset I put on my orange glasses (while keeping my eyes closed during the transfer)
- 2 hours before bed I wear red light glasses
When I get into bed, I still have them on and I close my eyes (after my red bedroom lights are off) and put them on my nightstand and then I put on my sleep mask.
For Energy
How do red light glasses have anything to do with energy, that makes no sense. Actually if you understand light physiology it makes perfect sense. Every cell in your body has hundreds (sometimes thousands) of mitochondria in it.
You make energy in complex 4 (cytochrome c oxidase) of your mitochondria. Food gets turned into electrons which pass over the outer mitochondrial membrane. There are a series of “complexes” that electrons must pass over in order to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP or energy).
Complex 4 requires red light and copper. If you have blue light toxicity your mitochondria will not be able to pass electrons from complex 1 to complex 4.
Common Questions About Red Light Glasses
What Do Red Light Glasses Do?
Red light glasses prevent blue light from entering into the pupil of your eye which alters your circadian rhythm by suppressing melatonin release. It also sends the correct light signals to your suprachiasmatic nucleus which is the master clock in the human body.
What Are Red Lens Glasses Good For?
Wearing red light glasses after sunset until you go to sleep at night, can help your body release melatonin and reset your circadian rhythm. The result of this is profound when you think about what happens during sleep. Wearing red light glasses can help you sleep better and as a result improve your mood and energy levels the next day. Wearing them also allows your tissues to detoxify, rebuild and regenerate while you sleep.
Do Red Lenses Block Blue Light?
If they’re made correctly they should block 460 to 480 nanometers (nm) wavelengths of blue light that are known to suppress melatonin levels.
Do Red Lenses Help You Sleep?
Red light glasses help you improve your sleep by allowing your body to release melatonin which is part of having a healthy circadian rhythm. This means you’ll fall asleep quicker and earlier in the night. Red light glasses have improved my quality of sleep in a massive way.
Conclusion
You can look on Amazon or scroll through Reddit threads about red light glasses and the dangers of blue light but you want to make sure you’re getting lenses that actually block the spectrum of light that suppresses melatonin. This is why I wear the blue light blocking glasses from BonCharge.
Questions:
- Do you wear any eyewear like red light glasses before bed?
- What does your daily light mitigation protocol look like?
- Are you blocking blue light on your computer?
- Do you watch the morning sunrise in order to set your circadian rhythm for the day?
Comment below!
