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The science

Evening light and your sleep

What research says about blue light, melatonin and tinted lenses — explained simply, with sources.

Your eyes don’t just see. They also tell your body clock what time it is.

  1. Sensors tuned to blue

    Your retina has melanopsin cells that respond most to blue light at around 480 nm. When they pick it up, your brain reads “daytime” and holds back melatonin, the hormone of the night.

    Bailes & Lucas, 2013

  2. Evening screens shift the clock

    In a Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital study (PNAS, 2014), reading on a light-emitting tablet at night pushed back sleep by almost 10 minutes, cut REM sleep and left people less alert the next morning compared with a printed book.

    PNAS, 2014

  3. Amber lenses, half an hour more

    Adults with insomnia who wore amber lenses for 2 hours before bed for a week slept about 30 minutes longer than when they wore clear lenses (Columbia University, 2018).

    Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2018

  4. Better-rated sleep

    Adults who had trouble sleeping and wore amber lenses for 3 hours before bed reported better sleep quality and a better mood.

    Burkhart & Phelps, 2009

What we don’t promise

Leading eye-care bodies (the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the UK College of Optometrists and the Cochrane review) have found no good evidence that blue-light glasses reduce eye strain or protect eye health — so we don’t claim they do. The sleep benefits are strongest with orange or red lenses worn 2–3 hours before bed.

Make it count

  • Get daylight in the morning, as early as you can.
  • Keep the lights dim and warm at home in the evening.
  • Put screens away before bed.

Which lens, when?

Resources

The research, at the source

We cite our sources. Read them for yourself.