Blue-Light Protection Lenses — Shielding Your Eyes from LED Screens

1. What blue light does to your eyes

Many people today suffer from red, irritated eyes, visual fatigue, headaches, blurred vision and even insomnia during or after using digital devices. A lot of this is caused by so-called high-energy visible light — better known as blue light, which digital screens emit. Blue light itself is a natural phenomenon — it exists in daylight and helps keep us awake — but over-exposure can have negative effects.

2. What the special lens filters do

Special lenses with a TBC coating neutralise the blue light emitted by digital screens, protecting the eyes from fatigue and irritation. With Tokai TBC lenses you get more restful, comfortable vision because they reduce the light intensity that causes glare while boosting contrast, making on-screen colours more natural and vivid. On top of that, TBC lenses carry an excellent scratch-resistant coating that repels water, grease and dust, keeping the lenses clean far longer and making them easy to wipe.

3. The digital age

Our lives are dominated by LED devices — televisions, tablets, smartphones, GPS units. These bright sources emit a large amount of "blue light" to make their displays look brighter, and we use many of them for hours, often from morning to night. We also hold them close, so our eyes are forced to refocus constantly as we look back and forth between images and text.

4. Blurring caused by blue light

Blue light scatters easily. That is why it is more likely to hit the dust and moisture particles in the air, creating a dazzling glare and a flickering appearance in the image, so outlines look unclear.

5. Blue light and blurred vision

The focusing distance differs with the wavelength of light, and therefore with colour. When red is focused on the retina, blue is focused just in front of it — which is why the image can look blurred. By cutting out these blue wavelengths, the difference in focusing distance shrinks and vision becomes sharper.

6. Who they are for & how to get them

Blue-light filter lenses are available from Tokai under the name TBC and from HOYA under the name Blue Control, and can be fitted into any frame you choose. They are used both by people who already wear a prescription (myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism) and by anyone with no prescription who simply wants to protect their eyes from the fatigue and long-term problems that heavy LED-screen use can cause — including macular degeneration.

If your eyes tire heavily at the computer, our companion article on computer glasses and blue light explains what actually helps.

See & choose

Blue-light protection can be added to almost any lens. Start from our prescription frames and we will build in the filter you need.