Have black out blinds become more popular since the introduction of LEDs?

Have you had to buy black out blinds for your windows to stop the light from an LED street light shining into your bedroom at night?  Do your driving glasses contain a blue block to minimise the spiky light from car headlights at night, or even in the day? Do you use blue-blocking glasses to work at the computer?

Nowadays it seems that products offering to block, minimise or remove blue light are everywhere – blinds promising 100% blackout for the perfect sleep environment, blackout blinds with edges to stop the light bleeding in; blue light blocking glasses to avoid eye strain and fatigue from digital screens, to reduce the amount of blue  light reaching your eyes from digital devices, lenses to help reduce blue light exposure.  The blue light from computers and phones can be turned down at night because, as the advertisements tell us, blue light can keep you up at night, stop you sleeping, and because the warmer orange colour at night is easier on your eyes.

To my mind the obvious popularity of these products tells a story which should be looked into, researched, studied, and be a force for change.  How many people are buying and using blue light blocking products because the blue rich light from LED and fluorescent lighting is causing them discomfort,  confusion, eyestrain, disturbed and sleepless nights, pain, headache, skin rash, and more?  This is the lighting which has been mandated as normal everyday lighting in our streets, public buildings, homes and in our screens. It needs to be safe and comfortable for everyone, but that is clearly not the case, or we would not be buying and using these products.

I have so many questions.  Were sales of blackout blinds and blue blocking glasses etc the same ten years ago? Twenty years ago? Thirty?  What do they tell us about our changing lighting environment?  If a graph of sales over the decades was made, what would it show? Did sales increase with the ban on incandescent lighting, and the imposition of fluorescent lighting?  How were sales affected when LED became the dominant form of lighting? How are our neighbours in the natural world,  birds, mammals, insects, plants and the rest faring without access to blinds and glasses to block or minimise harmful blue light at night?

LightAware are often asked to provide figures for how many people suffer pain and ill health  because of exposure to LED and fluorescent lighting. Research into the use of blue light minimising products could be a really useful indicator.

By Eleanor Levin
Blogs are written by LightAware supporters in a personal capacity

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