Balancing Health and Fashion with Blue Light Blocking Glasses

What you are wearing could be directly affecting your health. That’s kind of a crazy idea, isn’t it? When it comes to our health, we often focus on factors such as nutrition, fitness, stress and sleep. But when do we ever think about how our fashion may be affecting our well-being?

Today, technology has allowed us to blend fashion with health. You can find bras specifically designed to help support poor back posture or jumpers that can reduce the severity of asthma attacks. Designers, doctors and entrepreneurs all over the world are finding innovative ways to use fashion to increase our health. Now with the advent of blue light blocking glasses, you can get better sleep, increase your health and boost your style.

How do blue light blocking glasses work?

Researchers have found that prolonged exposure to blue light, especially the type created by our device screens, can suppress the production of melatonin; the hormone that regulates our wakefulness and our sleep. Blue light blocking glasses are designed to filter out up to 90% of the strongest blue light wavelengths while also offering UV protection. This can lead to a huge increase in sleep quality.

A 2009 study showed that volunteer who wore blue light blocking glasses before bed felt considerably more tired than those who don’t, and a recent study in the Journal of Adolescent Health showed positive effects on children’s sleep after blocking out blue light before bed.

Won’t I look silly wearing blue light blocking glasses?

A few years back, the answer sadly was yes! Blue light blocking glasses were previously known for their bulky shapes and odd yellow lenses. Customers often complained that blue light blocking glasses looked too retro, like they were out of a bad 90’s hacker movie. For a vast majority of customers, that’s most likely not the look they are going for. If a freelancer wants to work late nights at a cool, hip coffee shop- they may not want to go looking like they came out of the movie The Matrix.

But now, blue light blocking technology has increased, allowing for higher quality construction and an influx of different styles. Most blue light blocking glasses from reputable brands look as trendy and chic as standard frames.

Styles of Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Blue light blocking glasses are now made with premium materials like strong, light carbon fiber. This allows for more comfortable and more stylish frames. It also allows for more style flexibility.

Lenses have also undergone a vast improvement since the old days. Now blue light blocking glasses can incorporate crystalline lenses, which eliminates the yellow hues and in effect makes blue light glasses closer to regular lenses in terms of visibility and style.

Dependent on the brand, this increase in blue light blocking technology has allowed for a wide variety of shapes, styles and looks. Premium brands like Umizato offer 28 distinct styles, appropriate for a variety of ages, professions, facial types and fashion tastes.

Styles of current blue light blocking glasses include:

• The Space-age aviator “Nebula”- these frames utilize modern lines and finishes to create a futuristic, high-tech look. They are great for tech workers, gamers or engineers.
• The bookish and trendy “Eclipse”- these glasses use a striking and iconic pattern of carbon fiber, giving the frames a classic, timeless shape.
• The classic “Hudson"- with a bold acetate front and premium titanium temples, these charming frames create a luxurious look. The adjustable nose pads and longer temples particularly suit higher cheekbones and lower nose bridges.

This is only the start to the long list of styles and materials that can now be utilized to create fashionable frames that incorporate positive health benefits.

What style points should I consider when selecting my pair of blue light blocking glasses?

The key to style is being intentional. You need to make critical decisions about what story you want to tell with your frames and you need clarity on what makes you feel the best. It doesn’t matter if you have the highest quality lenses with beautiful, hand crafted frames- if they don’t feel good to you, they won’t look good!

When selecting styles for your blue light blocking glasses, here are some considerations to keep in mind.

• Face shape - is your face oval, round, square, diamond, heart-shaped? Specific frame shapes will complement each of these different shapes. For instance, round faces can benefit from square or rectangular frame shapes whereas square faces are best suited to frames that sit high on the nose bridge.
• Skin tone - many think that complementing your frame color with your eye or hair color is best, but actually you want to match your glasses with your skin tone. Warm skin tones should stay away from contrasting colors like pastels and cool skin tones need to be way of colors that can wash them out.
• Your personality - your frames tell a story about you, be specific about what message you want to send! Are you more the bookish type, the rugged adventurous one or the goofy gal? There’s a frame out there for every personality type. Feel like you are a bunch of different personality types? Don’t settle for just one pair of frames; who says you can’t have one set of blue light blocking glasses for the week and one for the weekend.

Conclusion

For a long time, clothes designed with any health benefits in mind were seen as unflattering and “dorky”. Now, technology has allowed us the ability to house health benefits inside of stylish construction. We can walk around all day looking our best and feeling our best.

The old adage always rings true “you are what you eat”. How about a new one -you are what you wear.