Anti-Reflective Coating vs. Blue-Light-Blocking Glasses: Which is Best for You?

✓ Medically Reviewed by Jack Cincotta

blue light lens coating

Do you ever find yourself rubbing your tired eyes after a long day sitting in front of the computer screen?

Anti-glare and blue-light-blocking glasses can help alleviate symptoms of digital eye strain. Blurred vision, fatigue, stinging eyes, and headaches are signs of digital eye strain. 

Wearing glasses may be a simple option to help ease these symptoms or prevent them from forming in certain circumstances. Even though people with eye issues often use glasses, many increasingly opt for prescription-free spectacles to protect their eyes from digital eye strain. 

So, what type of eyewear should you put on? 

There are various options for protecting your eyes from the harmful blue light emitted by computers, tablets, and electronics. Some are designed to reduce the glare coming from a device, while others are designed to block out the light completely. The best option depends mainly on the devices you use and your personal preferences. This article will provide a general overview of the differences between anti-reflective coating vs. blue-light-blocking glasses and help you decide which option is best for you.

What is Anti-Reflective Coating?

Enhances vision and minimizes eye strain using anti-reflective (AR) coating (also known as "anti-glare" or "AR coating"). The AR coating's ability to effectively remove reflections from your eyeglass lenses' front and rear surfaces makes these advantages possible.

In addition to eliminating reflections, the lenses are invisible, drawing attention to your eyes and allowing you to create better eye contact with people. This aspect enables you to see better and avoid distractions, which is especially important at night.

High-index lenses, which reflect more light than conventional plastic lenses, benefit significantly from AR coating. Typically, lenses with higher refractive indexes have more reflective surfaces than those with lower refractive indexes.

If you use high-index lenses without an AR coating, scenarios such as driving in low-light settings can become particularly troublesome, as the lenses allow less light to pass through them.

However, it is now possible to significantly reduce the light reflection from your eyewear, permitting 99.5% of available light to flow through them, optimizing your visual acuity.

What are Blue Light Glasses?

Blue light is constantly around us.

Day and night, you're virtually being bombarded by it. The sun also emits blue light, which tells our brains that we should be awake and aware throughout the day. However, we are exposed to hazardous blue light released through digital devices like computers, mobile phones, televisions, and laptops, even after the sun has set.

This additional blue light can have some unwelcome side effects, especially if we're exposed to it for an extended period while winding down after a long day of work. 

Disruption to your sleep routine is one of them. The quantity of melatonin produced by your body is reduced when blue light enters your cornea. Your eyes and brain are tricked into thinking it's still daylight because of the glare from your smartphone or computer screen. As you can imagine, if your brain thinks it's still daytime, you will struggle to get to sleep.

However, wearing special blue coating glasses can mitigate the adverse effects of overexposure to blue light. 

These glasses, also known as blue-light-blocking glasses or blue cut coating glasses, have lenses designed to minimize the quantity of blue light that enters the eye.

Using a blue light glasses coating on your lens will keep blue light out of your eyes. Despite its inconspicuous appearance, the blue-light-blocking layer has a significant influence on reducing eye fatigue. You will still protect your eyes from blue light, but it will be powerful enough for you to see other forms of light with clarity.

Typically, a blue light coating is created by combining a UV blocker, a blue-light-blocking agent, and pigments in a monomer and then reacting the polymer with a polymerization initiator. When applied to a lens, these glasses filter out blue light rays, reducing the risk of injury to your eyes.

Anti-Reflective Coating vs. Blue-Light-Blocking: What's the Difference?

It can be challenging to decide between anti-glare vs. blue light lenses since both can help alleviate the most prevalent causes of eye fatigue. 

However, by deducing where your daily habits are, you can decide between blue light lenses or an anti-reflective coating that minimizes the amount of reflected light that enters your eyes. In the end, it's essential to know the difference between anti-glare and blue light glasses to get the most out of your glasses.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to decide between blue light vs. anti-glare:

Are you looking for a solution to improve visual clarity?

If so, you may be interested in anti-reflective glasses.

Coating the rear of glasses lenses with anti-reflective material helps to reduce back-glare, which happens when light strikes and is reflected into your eyes. Anti-glare lenses use destructive interference to equalize the light intensity reflected from the film's inner and exterior surfaces. 

However, the complete spectrum of visible light, including blue light, can flow through lens coatings meant to prevent glare or reflection. To reduce eye strain and enhance vision, lenses with this coating are intended to increase the clarity of vision that would otherwise be reduced by glare. Screen time and night driving may benefit from anti-reflective lens coatings on eyewear.

Are you looking for a way to reduce eye strain while using digital screens?

If so, you may want to invest in a quality pair of blue light glasses.

The amount of blue light absorbed by blue-light lenses can range from 10% to 50%. From 380 to 495 nanometers, blue light is visible light with significant energy. This lens allows some blue light to pass through to avoid color distortion. Color distortion may increase if your lenses are designed to filter more than 50% or 60% of blue light from reaching your eyes.

You can alleviate digital eye strain using anti-blue light glasses while working at night. Wearing blue-light-blocking glasses when using digital devices may assist in regulating your circadian rhythm and reduce your chances of developing macular degeneration.

Choosing between anti-reflective vs. blue light lenses may come down to whether you value optical clarity or color accuracy more. Reduce eye strain and improve clarity by using anti-reflective lenses. For those who want to reduce the amount of blue light coming from backlit digital gadgets, anti-blue light glasses are the ideal option.

Are you looking for blue anti-reflective coating glasses?

Using BON CHARGE computer glasses with blue light filtering technology also comes with an anti-glare coating on the lenses that helps minimize monitor glare while alleviating digital eye strain. Blue light and anti-reflective coating computer glasses from BON CHARGE reduce blue light from all wavelengths. They filter blue light throughout the spectrum rather than just a particular frequency, you know you're fully covered!

If you’re searching for blue anti-reflective coating frames, we are ready to help. Contact BON CHARGE today to find the perfect pair of light sensitivity glasses and protect your eyes from harmful light! 

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