Blocking the blues — Eagle Eyes blue light blocking computer glasses

People are spending more and more time staring at their screens, and gamers, who tend to use screens to work, play, and communicate, spend even more time than most. I’ve been dealing with insomnia most of my life, so when information about the blue-spectrum light which emanates from televisions, screens, and monitors surfaced, I wasted little time in heading to the optometrist to try and find a way to battle it. I’ve spent several years wearing computer glasses from the optometrist designed to block blue light and prevent eye strain, and jumped at the chance to check out the blue light blocking glasses by Eagle Eyes.

I got my hands on two pairs, the rimless Ultralite Digitec for use at home, and the thicker framed Optiflex Digitec to wear around the office, replacing both pairs of computer glasses I’d received from the optometrist. Each pair came with a zip-closed clam shell carrying case, a soft cloth carrying case, a microfiber cleaning cloth, cleaning spray, and a multi purpose tool with screwdriver heads to allow for adjustments to your new glasses. All in all, it’s a nice little presentation, and the clam shell carrying case is both large enough to keep your cleaning spray and cloth inside, while also being sturdy enough that you can travel secure in the knowledge that your glasses won’t be bent inside your backpack or suitcase.

Eagle Eyes glasses come with a scratch proof coating, and after more than a week of wearing, packing, cleaning, and dropping both pairs, they’ve held up quite well. Smudges are common (some Eagle Eyes glasses come with a special TriLenium 7 smudge-proof coating, but these did not), but thus far the glasses have remained scratch-free. Both pairs are quite light and are flexible, both in the springs and in the arms, and each has their own unique quirks and features.

I was surprised by how small the frames of the Ultralite glasses turned out to be. Each lens is more than two inches long, and curve around the face. I’ve got quite the small head, and they were the perfect size for my face. The arms easily flex outward, so they will accommodate larger heads, but the arms do narrow significantly, something that may be visually concerning to someone with a larger head. The curve also means that these glasses are quite warm; they sit quite close to the eyes, and cover them almost entirely, trapping natural body heat and reducing airflow. I definitely notice the difference whenever I take them off or switch to a different pair.

The Optiflex glasses were, as the name suggests, quite flexible. While the arms may look like rigid plastic, they are actually quite supple, and despite their thickness,you can bend parts of the arm quite dramatically and still have them spring back into their normal shape without any issues. I did find that the nose piece on this pair sat lower and farther back than my normal glasses, which took a bit of adjusting to.

The main purpose of these glasses are to filter out blue light, though the Eagle Eyes literature claims to do even more than that. In addition to blocking out blue and ultraviolet rays, Eagle Eyes glasses allows “vision-enhancing light rays (green, yellow, orange and red) within the safe nanometer range in the wavelengths light spectrum. This technology allows you to see images more vividly with better contrast and definition.” While I can’t say for certain I see things more vividly while wearing these glasses, I certainly see things in a more yellow light. Eagle Eyes tints the world a shade of yellow, and the intensity varies depending on the kind of light around you.

While wearing these glasses in natural light, I hardly notice the yellow until I take them off or peek over the rims; then everything is more blue. Office lighting has a huge impact on how yellow the world looks, the more yellow the light, the more noticeable the change is. One of our office rooms has rather bright fluorescent lights on the more blue side of the spectrum, and I’m happy to wear my glasses there without an issue. However, another room has rather poor lighting which is yellow to start with, and I find myself unwilling to wear my glasses during meetings in that particular office. Everything becomes an over saturated shade of yellow, and things start to feel unnatural. Thankfully, that’s the only time I’ve found myself needing to take them off, though it’s worth taking a look at the color of lighting in your home and office before ordering.

This color shift is also important if you’re doing graphic design or, as the literature which comes with the glasses specifically points out, you are driving or piloting a vehicle with a blue instrument panel. My personal tests show that I can still read the blue numbers on my alarm clock and the speedometer in my friend’s car with these glasses on, but the color shift is worth considering, especially for working artists and graphic designers, where every drop of color counts.

Of course, all of this talk about yellow tints only applies to the person looking through the glasses, and is not at all the case for anyone looking at you while you wear them. I can tell that Eagle Eyes glasses do a great job of blocking blue light, because you can literally see the blue reflecting off the lenses. I received several comments the first day I wore these about how blue my glasses were. These lenses do create a noticeable blue sheen, which is something you may want to consider if you plan to wear them to something where eye contact is important, as the blue reflection is quite noticeable.

Eagle Eyes blue light blocking glasses are flexible, lightweight, comfortable computer glasses. They do a good job in blocking blue light and effectively prevented the eyestrain I feel when using a computer without glasses. They do color the world an interesting shade of pale mustard yellow as a trade off for better sleep, but that is the cost of helping prevent eye strain and exposure to insomnia-causing blue light. They’re durable and a good substitution for the often pricey computer glasses from the optometrist.

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