Blue Light-Blocking Lenses: More Hype Than Help?

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Blue Light-Blocking Lenses: More Hype Than Help?

According to a recent article published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, there is a lack of evidence to support the popular claims that blue light-blocking lenses reduce short-term eye strain associated with computer work. The effects of blue-light-blocking lenses on sleep-related measures are also unclear.

The article aimed to assess the effects of blue light-filtering lenses compared with non-blue light–filtering lenses for improving visual performance, providing macular protection, and improving sleep quality in adults. It reviewed 17 studies that recruited 619 people in six counties. Sixty-five percent of the studies were found to have a high risk of bias due to outcome assessors not being masked (resulting in a detection bias), and 59% were at a high risk of performance bias because both participants and personnel were not masked.

The review compared blue light-filtering spectacle lenses with spectacles that did not have blue light-filtering lenses and found no reduction of symptoms of eye strain associated with computer use. Furthermore, the researchers found no clinically meaningful difference in changes to critical fusion frequency with blue light-filtering lenses and non-blue light–filtering lenses.

The study authors concluded that, “There was no evidence from RCT publications relating to the outcomes of contrast sensitivity, color discrimination, discomfort glare, macular health, serum melatonin levels, or overall patient visual satisfaction. Future high-quality randomized trials are required to define more clearly the effects of blue light-filtering lenses on visual performance, macular health, and sleep in adult populations.”

OUTSIDE THE LANE

What Information Do Your Eye Movements Give Away?

Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have discovereda unique connection between human eye movements and decision-making, even when the eyes are not directly involved in the decision process. This contradicts the commonly held belief that decision-making activities don’t affect motor movements, such as eye or hand movements.

While performing the study, researchers instructed participants to move their eyes and right hand toward targets irrelevant to an ongoing perceptual decision-making task. It was discovered that perceptual decision-making does, in fact, interfere with unrelated eye movements, but not with hand movements. This discovery can be used in monitoring the attentiveness of individuals in crucial decision-making tasks and aids in areas such as mental health care support and crime prevention. (Read more here.)

My Two Cents

I often tell my patients that the eyes are the window to their systemic health, and that we can learn so much about their entire body by looking at and within the eyeball itself. Now it looks like we’ll also be able to learn about their decision-making processes by also focusing on the eyes!

CAN YOU RELATE

As I wrote this newsletter, I was preparing to head to MOD Live in Nashville this past weekend. To say that I was excited about this meeting is an understatement. At the inaugural meeting last year, I was absolutely blown away by the event’s intimacy and structure. In fact, I would say that I prefer the format of MOD Live over that of the more traditional meetings that we’re used to.

MOD Live is unlike anything I’ve experienced in my career, and it made me question why other meetings don’t follow a similar format. Rather than have one or two individuals give a 1- or 2-hour lecture on a single topic, you get to hear from four to six panelists in a session, who each give a 7- to 10-minute talk on a specific topic pertaining to the session subject. Essentially, the presenters are tasked with giving only the good stuff—no fluff. These short discussions are fast-paced and almost solely full of clinical pearls. It’s not one of those continuing education courses that allows you to nod off. At the end of these “micro-presentations,” the panelists have an excellent discussion about what was just presented, and there are microphones placed at nearly all the audience tables to allow dialogue between presenters and the audience.

If you haven’t experienced a meeting like this, I encourage you to seriously consider attending MOD Live next year. But be ready to focus and learn!