Why Choose Red Light Glasses Over Blue Light Filters?

Do you enjoy watching your favourite show in bed after a long day at work? Or perhaps you like scrolling on your phone before switching off the light? 

Most of us do. 

In fact, according to a recent study, a whopping 87% of Australians use at least one device while lying in bed right before sleep!

Now, you might have heard that these devices emit blue light and that blue light can affect your sleep. You might even have purchased blue-light-blocking glasses or installed blue-light-blocking apps on your devices.

But here's the reality: blue-light-blocking glasses and filters aren't necessarily enough to manage your evening light exposure.

In this blog, we'll explain what other types of light can affect your sleep and circadian rhythm, and why a broader red-light approach, including Red Light Hero's HeroFilter glasses, could be a better way to protect your sleep.

Green light also affects your sleep

Blue light gets a bad rap when it comes to sleep. And for good reason. 

That’s because blue light is made up of short wavelengths (around 415-480 nanometres). And during the day, exposure to this type of light signals to your body that it is daytime and that you should, therefore, be awake.

The issue is that when this light reaches your eyes at night, it sends the wrong signal to your brain. Instead of recognising that it’s time to wind down, your brain can interpret the light as a sign that daytime is still here. And this, in turn, can lead to your body suppressing the production of melatonin, the hormone that helps prepare your body for sleep.

But blue isn't the only wavelength worth considering.

Research has also shown that green light can decrease melatonin production too. This means a pair of glasses that only filters a certain percentage of blue light can still allow other wavelengths to reach your eyes.

The Red Light Hero difference

At Red Light Hero, we take a much more holistic approach to sleep.

Rather than simply following the anti-blue light trend, our team looks at the bigger picture: what kind of light should you be surrounded by as evening turns into night?

As mentioned above, during the day, bright, blue and green lights reinforce daytime signals. In the hours before bed, however, your environment should gradually become darker and warmer.

This is where red light comes in.

Red light has a much longer wavelength than blue light and appears to be a lot less disruptive to melatonin. In fact, research comparing red and blue light exposure has found that low-to-moderate red light wavelengths (above 600 nm) have minimal impact on melatonin production compared to blue light and other colours.

This is the thinking behind Red Light Hero's red-light approach: reduce the wavelengths associated with daytime and create an evening environment that better supports your body's natural transition toward sleep. 

And while we have a range of red light therapy products to help with this, HeroFilter™ 100% Blue Light Blocking Glasses are designed specifically with this principle in mind: they block 100% of blue light and 99.99% of green light across 200-540 nm. What’s more, their OD5+ optical density and wraparound design are also engineered to minimise light entering around the sides.

Standard blue-light glasses, on the other hand, typically only filter a percentage of blue wavelengths, allow green light through, and can still let light from screens and other sources enter around the sides of the glasses.

In fact, there's an easy way to tell and understand the difference.

Put HeroFilter on, and you’ll notice how the world appears red (that's why we think, as the title says, red light glasses are better than blue light filters!).

The world becomes red because the blue and green wavelengths have been comprehensively filtered rather than simply reduced.

So should you ditch your blue-light-blocking glasses?

The answer is: if you're going to invest in glasses specifically to manage your nighttime light exposure, why settle for a product that only addresses part of the problem?

Our HeroFilter™ 100% Blue Light Blocking Glasses combine comprehensive blue and green light blocking with the broader philosophy of Red Light Hero: reducing the light your body doesn't need at night while embracing warmer, and therefore less disruptive, red-spectrum light as part of your evening environment. So shop today or get in touch if you have any questions.

Note: Unlike most of our products, HeroFilter does not emit red light; we consider them red light glasses as well as blue light blockers because by removing blue and green wavelengths of light, they only let in red light.