Amber glasses

I have been reading about wearing amber glasses for and hour or two before going to bed to stimulate melanin production.

The glasses cost around £70 for what appears to be a normal pair of wrap around amber sunglasses.

Dose anyone know more about this subject. Could a person simply buy a pair of the amber or yellow glasses that are used in shooting (military, hunters, competition)and skiing?

From what I understand the glasses just block out the blue light in the spectrum as artificial light has too much of it and it can stop us getting tired at night.

ANy comments greatfully accepted.

Colin

No from what I understand they have to be amber or yellow lenses to block out the blue light.

It makes sense because the blue SAD lights are said to be good for aliviating SAD by promoting Seratonin and stopping melatonin. So I guess blocking out blue light at night would have the opposite effect.

But as to whether it has to be £70 amber glasses or a cheaper alternative is what I am hoping to find out with this post.

Here's an early update. I put my amber sunglasses on around two hours ago (8pm) and have never yawned so often this early in the evening.

So it seems there's a good chance that blocking blue light with amber/brown lenses has a significant effect on melatonin. I will post again tomorrow.

The sleepiness continued and I went to bed 2 hours earlier than normal - I got tired of yawning so much. I could easily have gone even earlier.

I really wasn't expecting such an obvious effect and although it was only one night, there was nothing else different in my day that could account for such a dramatic change.

I wouldn't say that my quality of sleep improved though, but maybe that would change over a longer period. Perhaps predictably I woke up 2 hours earlier.

As I was brushing my teeth, looking decidedly silly in my shades, it occurred to me that as more people change to low energy lamps, which tend to produce a bluer light, perhaps there will be an increase in those developing sleep problems. For those that aren't aware, it IS possible to get low energy lamps that are close to the old style light - look for "warm white" or "2700 kelvin".

In conclusion, it seems worth trying a pair of dark glasses in the evening, perhaps an hour before you want to sleep - especially if you spend time near fluorescent lights, watching television or using the computer.

For the record, the glasses I have are Ray-bans with brown/amber glass lenses. I'm inclined think that any brown/amber lensed sunglasses would work though - the wraparound variety is probably better. If you already have normal sunglasses it might be worth trying them to see if the general reduction in light produced an effect.

Well, i've been using the sunglasses for a couple of days now and I have felt no effect what so ever. I think I need to get some with lenses that block blue light, like amber or orange. Yellow is also said to be an option.

Lets see.....

Its funny you say that because from what I have been reading the yellow lenses only block "a large amount" of blue light but the amber/brown/orAnge ones are supposed to block "almost all" of it.

Reasonably priced is the holy grail :-) The "proper" ones seem to be a fortune. I can get cheaper ones for about £20 though, will give a try. We've got a deep sea fishing shop round the corner, will have a look there during week.