Fear my yellow goggles OF DOOM!

[baratron]

I am sitting in front of the computer wearing yellow ski goggles that nitoda lent me. I look like the biggest dork on the planet, and I have to say that the colour is hurting my eyes slightly.

The idea behind this is to do with how my brain reacts to different frequencies of light, and using this to improve my sleep patterns. Apparently people with delayed sleep phase syndrome are often unusually sensitive to blue light (and UV). Computer monitors and TVs give out enough blue light that we can sit in front of them all night without getting sleepy (a thing I am only too familiar with). The solution to this is either a) don't use a computer or TV near bedtime (argh!), or b) use yellow lenses to block out the UV that prevents your brain from making adequate quantities of melatonin.

I've no idea whether it will work, but anything is worth a try.

Comments

[dannilion.livejournal.com]

Good luck :)

As it is, my lenses in my glasses are blue, because that's the colour that helps most with headaches under fluorescent light (what I use them for, apart from hiding from peoples). I just have weird sleep though, rather than a specific problem.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Huh. Ludy's glasses for helping with fluorescent light (especially flicker) have pink lenses. I think we can chalk this up to People Are Different :)

[aegidian]

Err... adjust the gamma for your monitor to something more eye-friendly?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

There's a couple of reasons why the goggles are a better option than fiddling with the monitor display. Principally that I need to block out the blue to UV end of the spectrum in all lighting, not just the monitor.

Or did you mean because my eyes were hurting? That was basically the muscles in my iris telling me they exist. You know, like when you exercise a muscle that you never have before? I don't wear sunglasses (because I haven't yet found any that block out harmful UV without removing colour), so moderately dark UV-blocking lenses were a bit of a strain. They didn't hurt so much last night, so I think I'll get used to it.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I do find that blue light helps me wake up in the mornings, and I've used that as part of my self-treatment for DSPS for a long time, but it doesn't seem to keep me awake at night - in fact, nothing is more guaranteed to send me to sleep than sitting in front of the TV. The only problem is that the resulting sleep is usually less restful than sleeping in my bed with the lights off would be - but it's definitely better than nothing, and I deliberately use it to help me nap during the day sometimes.