Can You Spot the 5 Signs Your Kids May Need Computer Glasses?

Photo by Gavin Whitner (www.musicoomph.com)

Remember when your parents used to say you were going to ruin your eyes staring at the television or computer screen for too long?

Turns out, there may be some truth in all their warnings.

What may have been a smaller issue 10 or 20 years ago has now grown into a serious threat to the health of your children’s eyes: blue light.

While you’re trying really hard to give their eyes the right nutrition to stay healthy and following the best steps to protect their vision, your kids can’t escape blue light because digital devices play such a huge role in their lives now.

To protect your children’s eyes — and to control the progression of your child’s myopia, you may want to consider getting them a pair of computer lenses or glasses to block digital glare and blue light.

Why is Blue Light So Harmful to Your Child’s Eyes?

Blue light is part of the visible light spectrum and is emitted by the sun and artificial light sources like LEDs, computer screens, and smartphones.

Here’s the bad news: children absorb more blue light than adults.

Blue light can penetrate your child’s developing eyes much easier and deeper than it does for adults because they haven’t developed strong enough protection yet.

Blue light can also reduce your clarity of vision the longer you’re exposed to it.

Prolonged exposure to blue light has been associated with speeding up the development of age-related eye conditions like cataracts and macular degeneration, causing permanent vision loss when your kids get older.

Plus, blue light has also been linked with insomnia.

See, blue light can actually mess with your child’s production of melatonin, or a hormone responsible for telling them to get to bed, and throw off their circadian rhythm (aka their sleep cycle).

Maybe that’s why it’s been so hard to get your little ones to bed.

Now that you know you don’t want your kids messing with blue light, let’s talk about how adding a pair of computer glasses changes the game completely.

What are Computer Glasses and How Do they Help?

Computer glasses are glasses that use lenses with special coatings to prevent damage from long-term exposure to blue light and the glare from digital screens.

Known by different names, the anti-blue light coating, digital block coating, or blue block coating used for computer lenses eliminates the blue light emitted from all your child’s digital screens so their vision stays comfortable (and safe).

So using lenses with an anti-blue light coating shields your child from the telltale signs of digital fatigue, often called Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), such as:

• Blurred vision
• Eye strain
• Headaches

Computer glasses are also usually coated with an anti-reflective, or AR coating, to prevent glare.

Glare from computer or device screens causes vision strain and unfocused viewing. Adding an anti-reflective coating will help your child see and work more comfortably and focus easily.

So do you think your child needs computer glasses? Look for these 5 signs and find out:

5 Signs Your Child May Need Computer Glasses

Your child may have more blue light in their daily lives than you realize. Count up all the hours your child spends doing these activities and you’ll soon see why computer lenses are the real deal:

1. They Spend More than 2 Hours on their Laptop or Desktop

Spend more than two hours daily in front of a computer or laptop screen and you have a “90% chance” of developing CVS.

Digital block coating combats the glare and blue light given off by laptop and computer screens to avoid computer vision syndrome so your kids aren’t hurting their eyes in the short or long term.

2. Their Fingers Text Faster than Hummingbird Wings Flap

Most kids and teens have texting down to a competitive sport.

Besides typing like a beast, they’re also usually tabbing between apps, looking up at their TVs, or filtering their new selfies all at the same time.

This simultaneous screen time requires constant attention from your kid’s vision — which definitely tires and wears out as the day goes on.

Add glasses with anti-reflective and anti-blue light coating and your kids can stare at a thousand screens and give their thumbs a workout without damaging their eyes.

3. Their Social Media Game is Stronger than Most Big Companies

According to a new study, teens spend nine hours every day on social media compared to just seven hours sleeping!

All this time spent staring at their phones is likely to lead to fatigue and blurred vision without the right eyewear protecting their sight.

4. They Prefer Video Gaming to Running Around Outside

A decrease in time spent in the outdoors has been linked with the increase in myopia cases worldwide — especially in children in large cities.

But most kids these days want to run around in their video games instead of in the backyard or park.

And serious gaming requires intense focus and concentration.

If you have a gamer in the house, your child will be straining their eyes more than other kids.

Smaller computer and TV screens means they’ll be focusing on hard-to-see details with difficulty. On the other hand, larger screens means they’ll be battling a wider area of blue light.

So don’t be surprised if your gamer reports more headaches and eye fatigue.

Computer glasses will allow your child to play longer without being uncomfortable or compromising their vision.

They’ll also help your child’s eyes easily adjust to the changing lighting conditions in-game and when they forget they’ve been playing from sunup to sundown.

5. They Watch More than Two Hours of TV Daily

Televisions, whether LCD or LED, give off blue light too.

Consider computer glasses for all sorts of screen time, like during family movie night or your nightly Jeopardy! episodes so you don’t have to worry about their downtime interfering with their vision.

Your Child Doesn’t Need a Prescription to Wear Computer Glasses to Protect their Vision

If your child already wears prescription glasses to manage their astigmatism, hyperopia, or to control the progression of myopia, all you need to do is add anti-reflective or anti-blue light coating to their next prescription lenses.

You can also purchase a pair of kids glasses with anti-blue light and AR coating without a prescription to wear during designating computer use or video game time.

When you know what to look for when shopping for childrens lenses and all the reasons to start buying your glasses online, you’ll have fun helping your child pick out their glasses online at Glasses Gallery.