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I don't think that blue blockers are necessary, and in fact, you may be doing yourself a disservice by wearing them in the morning and in the daytime. There certainly is a place for blue blockers in the evening and nighttime, if you're having issues with falling and staying asleep. But if you think about it, blue blockers, what they're really doing is blocking those short wavelength, UVB wavelengths of light that you so desperately need to arrive at your retina and of course, also onto your skin in order to get these powerful biological effects on hormones and on pain reduction.
This should not be considered medical advice. Follow Dr. Huberman's instructions and consult your physician before changing your protocols.
I don't have anything against blueblockers. In fact, many people find that blueblockers provide them some relief from headache and some eye strain if they wear blueblockers throughout the day and certainly at night, but you don't need them. And even if you do wear them, you will find that if lights are very bright, doesn't matter if it's a blue light, a yellow light, or a red light, those bright lights will wake up your brain and body.
And in fact, you're probably doing yourself a disservice by wearing them in the morning and in the daytime. There certainly is a place for blueblockers in the evening and nighttime, if you're having issues with falling and staying asleep. But if you think about it, blueblockers, what they're really doing is blocking those short wavelength, UVB wavelengths of light that you so desperately need to arrive at your retina and of course, also onto your skin in order to get these powerful biological effects on hormones and on pain reduction.
My colleague, Samer Hatar, who is head of the chronobiology unit at the National Institutes of Mental Health, has spoken about this before on my Instagram. We held an Instagram live and I said, Samer, what do you think about blueblockers? And he said, I don't think that's a good idea at all, unless it's really late at night and you're in a bright environment and you're trying to limit the amount of bright light that impacts the eyes.
These cells in the eye will respond to other wavelengths of light. So I have no vendetta against the blueblockers. And I fully expect the blue blockinistas to come after me with, I guess, blueblockers. But as you do that, please understand that the biology points in the direction of get a lot of bright light throughout the day, including blue light, and at night, just limit the total amount of overall light that you're exposed to, including from screens.
Because again, if you think of a holistic approach, yes, the blue blocker is gonna prevent you from affecting your circadian clock very much. But then your vision is gonna be distorted because we always see in full spectrum. The sun has this beautiful spectrum, right? And then when you start seeing without the blue, things look yellow and it can get really weird, right? I mean, so I personally, I've tried the blue blocker and I couldn't even wear them.