Clear vs. Yellow Gaming Glasses: Everything You Should Know

There’s a lot that goes into making a pair of our gaming glasses, and we try to give you as many options as we can provide. One of the options you’ll notice you have is choosing a lens color for your glasses. If you’ve never bought a pair of glasses like the ones we provide, you may be a little confused as to why there are different tints of color. While all of our glasses help to protect your eyes against the harsh blue light that computer screens give off, you have the option of choosing between clear and yellow lenses.

We’re going to do a deep dive into our various different kinds of blue light blocking eyewear so you can see why they can really help out avid gamers. We’ll also go over everything you should know about clear versus yellow gaming glasses so you can make a more informed choice about which one you want for yourself.

Why Do I Need Gaming Glasses?

If you’ve found your way here, it’s likely that you’re someone who enjoys playing video games. Here at Glassy Eyewear, video games are a passion of ours as well—they’re why we make the glasses we do. Why might you need a pair of these specialty glasses? There’s one major reason. The computer and television screens that we use to play our games emit a lot of light in the blue spectrum. Over time, this blue light can start to affect your eyes, and by proxy, your head as well.

How Does Blue Light Affect Me?

Think about the last time you looked at the same screen for an extended period of time. Perhaps it was the last long gaming session you had, or maybe you were engrossed in your phone for longer than you meant to be. All that time you spend looking at those screens, excessive amounts of blue light were beamed into your eyes. This blue light has detrimental effects that can be a serious pain to deal with.

Eye Strain

The most common result of exposure to too much blue light is eye strain. Looking at computer screens for long hours at a time can cause some people to develop dry or itchy eyes, pain when blinking, or even outright headaches. These are just the beginning stages of what blue light does to your eyes. Over a long enough period of time, blue light exposure can cause damage to your retinas, which could contribute to age-related macular degeneration.

Reduction in Sleep Quality

When it’s time for you to go to bed, your brain produces delta waves that help to induce sleep. If you’ve ever noticed that it’s hard to go to bed after a long night of gaming, it’s because blue light actually suppresses these delta waves. This is why experts agree that it’s best to turn off devices before you go to bed. The blue light can make it harder to fall asleep and reduce the quality of sleep that you do manage to get.

Do I Need Tinted Glasses?

Now, we come back to the question, “What do I need to know about clear versus yellow gaming glasses?” The first thing you should know is that Glassy Eyewear offers clear glasses for gaming, as well as yellow-tinted ones. Even our clear lenses have been specially designed to filter out blue light from screens. However, the yellow tint on the glasses is an extra buffer against that blue light.

The answer to the question of whether or not you need tinted glasses is ultimately going to come down to your needs, both practically and aesthetically. If you notice that you are particularly sensitive to blue light, perhaps you regularly feel that eye strain or get those headaches after a small amount of time in front of a screen, the extra yellow tint will be beneficial to you as it will filter out more blue light than the clear lenses.

Should I Choose Clear or Yellow Gaming Glasses?

To finalize whether or not you should get clear or yellow-tinted gaming glasses, you’ll need to decide what is more important to you. Do you want glasses that are more discrete and understated? Or would you prefer there be more protection from the blue light you look at all day?

Glassy Eyewear’s clear lenses still offer excellent protection from the blue light we deal with on a day-to-day basis, but they also appear no different than lenses you would get from somewhere else. If you plan on wearing your glasses all day, you may not want everyone you interact with to see your eyes through a yellow filter.

If the blue light protection is the main reason that you want to upgrade your glasses, then the yellow-tinted lenses may be the right choice for you. If you don’t normally wear glasses but want to protect your eyes during a long gaming session, consider the yellow-tinted lenses for that extra boost of protection. Perhaps you’re someone whose work involves looking at a computer all day; in that case, you may want to try out the yellow-tinted lenses, as the reduced eye strain will help you stay focused and pain-free.

Why Do Professionals Use Yellow Gaming Glasses?

When we say professionals, we mean professionals in all fields. Whether you’re an esports aspirant or a programmer, your day is going to consist of a lot of computer screens—and therefore a lot of blue light. This is why professionals, such as professional streamers, use the yellow-tinted lenses. Some conditions where you would want the extra protection they provide include:

• Regularly using computer screens while outdoors
• Regularly looking at screens in the dark or in dimly lit areas
• Longer gaming sessions (over three hours straight)

The choice between yellow or clear lenses for your own gaming glasses is up to you. Balancing out aesthetics and functionality is going to be the deciding factor based on your needs. We here at Glassy Eyewear want to make sure you get the glasses that will both protect you from blue light effectively and look good on your while doing so. We’re always glad to help our customers out, so don’t hesitate to ask us a question if you’re having trouble deciding.