Apparently you can study 13 people and get it blogged about on the ny times. Talk about ridiculous sample size, 13 person studies can say just about anything if the researcher gets lucky because variance is the biggest factor. Interesting random thought -> the number of PhD's who become professors in some fields is well below the margin of error on a study, it would be interesting to see how many people are getting Professorships from having interesting results that eventually fail to replicate. If this number is overwhelming it could be the PhD system in those fields is almost a lottery where having variance trump data is the most likely way to get a professorship.
If you don't want orange glasses, try f.lux (Windows, Mac) or redshift (Linux).<p>Either one accomplishes much the same effect by adjusting the (apparent) color temperature of your screen depending on time of day. It distorts colors, if you fancy yourself a photographer, but your eyes will thank you.
Eh, isn't there a huge different between just orange glasses and safety glasses that are designed to block blue frequencies?<p>I have the Uvex S1933X glasses, and they're amazing. I have pretty cool LED lighting in my apartment and can make my whole living room any color I want at night. If I set in to pure blue and put on the glasses, it's like being in pitch blackness (except a couple of items glow brightly).<p>It's not like looking at things with an orange tint at all, even though the glasses are obviously orange.<p>That being said - the benefits I get by using them is amazing. It's weird how much of a difference it can make, I get tired quickly after putting them on in the evening. If I forget to put them on I usually end up staying up too late, getting too little sleep and often ruining the next day. Personally I find it way more effective than flux.<p>By the way - blue light isn't just a negative thing, but also a huge positive. In the morning I use a Philips goLITE BLU HF3332, and it really improves both my energy and mood quickly after just a few minutes of usage.<p>Those two simple items, a blue light and a pair of blue-blocking glasses, have improved my life significantly. Try it out (especially the glasses, it's just $9).
This is mostly useless antidotal evidence, however:<p>I started wearing orange tinted glasses about a week or two ago, and I have noticed that they help me feel more tired when I'm trying to fall asleep. However it could just be a placebo. The downside is that I can't do any design work while wearing them, and programming is more difficult because code coloring is really off in Sublime. If I continue to wear them, I'll probably have to change my Sublime theme to something that's easier to distinguish.
I've been using yellow tinted Gunnar glasses for about 5 years (wearing them now as I'm typing this)- they do help a lot with eye strain reduction.<p>Prior to wearing Gunnars, I'd often have headaches by 4 pm and my eyes felt dry and quite tired. I was sceptical in the beginning, but these things do help.<p>Easily the best $140 that I spent on ergonomics.<p><a href="http://www.gunnars.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gunnars.com/</a>
In Japan, you can order "PC Lenses" for your glasses at outlets such as Jins. These supposedly filter out that blue light (PC is from Personal Computer: staring at the screen).<p>Link:<p><a href="http://www.jins-jp.com/jins-pc/" rel="nofollow">http://www.jins-jp.com/jins-pc/</a><p>If I search in English, most of the search results are spammy companies selling what look like sunglasses for computer use (e.g. google "compuer glasses"). These are obviously tinted. But these Jins "PC Megane" do not look tinted, or only faintly so. Jins will put these lenses in any frame.<p>I wanted these the last time, but for my astigmatism it would have required a 1 week order, and I was flying out of Japan sooner than that.
I don't know about sleep, but I used to love my orange-ish Oakleys for bike riding in spring/winter/fall in Oregon when the sky is often overcast and dreary. They make things look a bit brighter and cheerier.
Interestingly enough, f.lux[1] has been around for a while (a cool app that adjusts the colour temperature of your screen(s) as the day progresses, based on your lat & long.<p>I also noticed a similar functionality in one of the latest CyanogenMod (CM12) - under "Settings -> Display & Light -> LiveDisplay" - you can adjust colour temps too for day and night times. Not sure if it takes lat & long into account.<p>[1]: <a href="https://justgetflux.com/" rel="nofollow">https://justgetflux.com/</a>
Anecdote time: My home gym is outside (Bay Area) and I had to stop wearing my blue blocker sunglasses during workouts because I feel significantly weaker when wearing them. I can't say why.