ensete In my case at least it was a complete red herring for screens.

I agree with you - I know for me blue light is a red herring. I’ve run genetics teaching labs for a decade and we routinely use very bright, constant current (flicker-free) LED blue light transilluminators with thick orange filters for imaging DNA. There is no red or green light produced and the blue light peaks at around 470nm. The blue light (without the filter) has never bothered me in the least- it’s extremely bright, but has never triggered or exacerbated my LED symptoms. Also, the thick orange glasses made to be used with the transilluminator that block blue light much more completely than others don’t help me at all with my screen sensitivity or sensitivity to flickering LED lights. No other blue-blocking lenses help either. My neurologist has told me that she’s noticed that blue-blocking lenses seem to help some people with headache issues but don’t seem to help others at all. I’m guessing the majority of us here are in the latter category, unfortunately.

    5 months later

    TLDR; Success with 99.9% blue light filter glasses.

    Yes. I have eye strain from LED screens like Xiaomi smartphones, Samsung screens and televisions. E-ink is okay. I think it's from dry eyes. I am able to manage my dry eyes with eye drops but regardless of how good I take care of my eyes the eye strain from screens won't go away. Hence, I searched on reddit for a solution. One of the most upvoted answers was blue light filter glasses. So, I bought some cheap ones for like 20 bucks with something like 50-70% filter. My eyes felt a little bit better, but this wasn't the solution. I decided to buy 90-95% (orange tint) blue light filter glasses. Now, these made some real difference. Without them I could maybe look for a few minutes at screens before it starts to hurt, but with them I can go for 2 hours. Now, I went to Amazon again and bought the real deal, 99.9+% (very very orange tint) glasses and voilà these are the game changer in my case. I'm able to look at screens for 8+ hours with only very slight eye strain, which is absolute acceptable. Of course there's no silver bullet and things that work for me doesn't have to work for you, but I just wanted to share this story in case there is someone who either never considered blue light filter glasses as a possible solution or who tried lower strength glasses but wasn't statisfied and might want to consider very high strength glasses.

      blue light glasses made a huge difference here also. which brand?

        Quad43

        Spectra479, "Blocks 99.82% of light in the critical 450 - 510nm range"

        Another thing that I might want to try is to add a ~99.9% blue light blocking glasses clip to a ~99.9% blue light blocking glass. Call me crazy but two glasses would be like ~99.9999% filter? I'm not an optometrist but I would guess that these filters adds up. Maybe we have to shave of these extra tiny percentages for our sensitive eyes. But maybe this is not the way how it works, just something that came to my mind. Anyways, I'm currently doing okay with my Spectra479, other brands with similar filter percentage should work too.

        • bkdo replied to this.

            BlueLight

            Hi BlueLight, and welcome to LEDStrain!

            It would be nice if you write more about your eye strain problems. The more info we get, the more we all can help.

            BlueLight I think it's from dry eyes. I am able to manage my dry eyes with eye drops but regardless of how good I take care of my eyes the eye strain from screens won't go away.

            For me it’s the ledstrain problem that gives me dry eyes. I would say that it’s a consequence of my eye muscles working wrong/to much. So have an open mind what’s the cause.

                  mike

                  Sure, I'm a programmer in his thirties who spent pretty much all day long in front of screens since late 90s, if you include things like sitting in front of a television and play video games, then since mid 90s. So, heavy screen time exposure for 25 years. Of course the old devices weren't LED based, but I guess it's still not good to stare at any kind of light for decades. My first problems with computer usage has been a mild form of repetitive strain syndrome (RSI) in my right arm starting in 2015. I couldn't move the computer mouse with this arm anymore, so I had to switch to my left arm. I did some special excersises and it took about a year solve the issue, but my arm is pain free now. However, I still continue to use my left arm for the mouse.

                  In 2018 I had my first eye problems with computer screens, television and smartphones. It was very slightly at first, just a little eye fatigue in the evening, but it has gotten progressively worse over the years. So of to the eye doctor I went and he (plus three other eye doctors that I visited in the last years) told me, that my eyes were dry and that this is quite a common problem for people who spent their time in front of screens all day long. He (and all the other eye doctors) told me to use (preservative free) eye drops on a regular basis. I started to use eye drops 5-10 times per day and a gel for the night and it mostly solved my problem with the dryness, no more irritated, itchy or red eyes. However, the drops didn't solve my eye strain from LED screens. That's a pain I feel in the back of my eyes after looking at screens for some minutes (started in the hour range). I know some of you have a set of specific devices which works and which doesn't, but I wasn't able to find any device that doesn't give me eye strain, except for my ebook reader (E-Ink display). During COVID-19 pandemic my eye strain got so intense, that I seriously had to do something about it, otherwise I couldn't continue with programming. Therefore, I started online research and came to blue light filter glasses.

                    BlueLight

                    On your recommendation, I went and got a 99.9% pair of clip-on blue light blocker lenses, I'll be trying them out for the next couple days and will see if there's any improvement. Glad you were able to find a solution 😃

                        bkdo

                        Does the 99.9% blue filter clip make any difference so far?

                        • bkdo replied to this.

                            I went through Irlen testing and had custom tinted lenses made, They completely cured my symptoms for approximately 1 month, then completely failed. The Irlen practitioner said this was common and put me through severl additional rounds of testing, but I was never again able to achieve any symptom relief

                            • bkdo replied to this.

                              BlueLight

                              It's tough to say, but I think I do notice a slight reduction in symptoms while using these clip-ons. I have a few more weeks on the return period, so I'll be testing them more for sure.

                              ensete

                              Sorry to hear that. I've heard mixed things about Irlen, how was your experience overall with them?

                                    bkdo

                                    Slight reduction of symptoms sounds good. Yes, please report back after a few weeks of usage.

                                      Seagull

                                      You mean blue light filter glasses? They were a no-go for me. Gave me horrible eyestrain, even if I was using them to read simple paper. I thought it was just the adaptation period, but after many weeks I gave up. I only managed to get eyestrain despite not using LCDs at all.

                                      Maybe try some FL41 glasses (brands: Theraspecs, Axon, etc). They didn´t work for me, but seem to help some people with photophobia related to migraine.

                                      Besides, you can try prescription colored filter glasses. Also used by people with migraine, except they don´t come in a standard color. You need to go to an optical shop (or something like that) where they make filter tests (they will try different colored filters on you, and put you in front of screen, leds, etc, to see how you react). They don´t just do this in most optics, you have to find one (or your doctor should tell you where to go).

                                      I had better results (but far from optimal) with software blue color filters. But blue filter glasses… more eyestrain and nothing else.

                                          4 months later

                                          Nick83 Absolutely the same results here. (with clip-ons branded "Spectra479 - Blocks 99.82% of light in the critical 450 - 510nm range" - the ones @BlueLight used).

                                          In fact, while wearing them, I got strong eyestrain in seconds instead of after 1 hour of use. They made my left eye unable to properly focus while wearing them - it saw everything on the screen blurred.

                                          Oh well, was worth a try 🙂

                                            dev