The best blue light blocking glasses in 2021

The best blue light blocking glasses can help when hours of staring at a computer or scrolling through your phone irritates your eyes or affects the quality of your sleep. These lenses claim to ease the eye strain caused by looking at screens for too long. 

To be clear, there’s no scientific evidence that blue light actually causes eye strain, nor that the best blue light blocking glasses can totally alleviate eye strain. You should speak to an eye doctor if you suffer from persistent eye irritation, or if you’re looking to replace your existing prescription lenses with a pair of blue light blocking ones. 

If you’d like to try a pair out, we’ve gathered some options, whether you’re a serious gamer, have a job that demands several hours in front of screens or are adjusting to home school.

See all of the best blue light blocking glasses below. 

What are the best blue light blocking glasses?

The best blue light blocking glasses overall are the Prospek Arctic from Spektrum ($37), which offer a classic look and near-clear lens tint at reasonable price. If you’re looking for a low-cost pair, the TJIN Square Nerd Blue Light Blocking Glasses ($17) and Amazon darlings and work great, too. 

But for the most extensive prescription possibilities, Felix Gray has attractive styles, like Roebling, for everyday wear.

Gunnar makes the best blue light blocking glasses for gamers, like its Intercept pair. This company has a long history of making glasses for blocking blue light, and offer a variety of lenses tints and frame shapes, too. 

The best blue light blocking glasses you can buy today

Spektrum’s Prospek Arctic, the best blue light blocking glasses, are affordable, unassuming and available in a wide range of reader powers. The lenses’ slight yellow tint filters blue light without entirely discoloring a digital screen, making them perfect for computer work. For an additional, you can add your prescription to the Prospek Arctics easily on Spektrum’s website. Although the Arctic style reflects a unisex, modern aesthetic, there are a number of more conventional frame styles under $50 available from the brand.

If you’re not sure whether blue light blocking glasses are for you, this $17 pair from TIJN is a good place to start. The cute, nerd-shaped frames are an Amazon best-seller and a budget version of the brand’s high-end styles. They come in multiple colors and are perfect to keep as a travel or backup pair of blue-light blockers. Although you can’t get these with prescription lenses, TIJN’s glasses do a fine job if you wear contacts or have decent eyesight.

With Felix Gray glasses, you don’t have to choose between your prescription lenses and protection from blue light. Although limited in number, all of Felix Gray’s styles can be customized to your prescription, and the brand offers reading glasses with powers up to +2.5, too. They’re expensive for non-prescription styles, but the $145 cost for a vision-correcting pair is quite affordable for everyday glasses. 

Felix Gray also names its glasses after famous scientists, mathematicians and inventors. The Roebling style is named for Emily Roebling, the first female field engineer who oversaw construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

If you’re content with the prescription lenses you own but want the best blue light blocking glasses on occasion, the $20 ElementsActive Over Glasses Anti Blue Blocker glasses do the trick. We found they’re the best for wearing with prescriptions because they’re large enough to fit over most glasses comfortably. ElementsActive also offers clip-on blue-light blockers that attach to frames. The lenses are tinted an unattractive orange, but you can rest assured that blue light isn’t reaching your eyes while wearing them.

Gunnar is the only patented gaming eyewear, making its Intercept pair perfect for those who spend hours at a time playing on a PC or other console connected to a TV. Though they are advertised as “gaming” glasses, they work just as well for any computer activity where you have to look at a screen for extended periods. The yellow-tinted lens might deter some, but the coloring softens the light emitted from screens. Gunnar has a vast selection of frame styles, some of which are quite stylish.

HyperX Gaming Eyewear are some of the best blue light blocking glasses for gamers. These are comfortable, protective and don’t have an obvious lens tint, so they won’t draw attention if you wear them during Zoom meetings, too. Although there aren’t many HyperX Gaming Eyewear frame shapes, the neutral color selection gives some room for personalization. 

How we test the best blue light blocking glasses

To find the best blue light blocking glasses, we reviewed products from top-rated brands on Amazon and Best Buy. We also asked our colleagues and friends in the tech world which styles they like for long hours spent with screens. 

After noting impressions of the design and doing research into prescription options, we wore different pairs for several days and gauged how our eyes felt each evening.