3 Ways to Give the Gift of Blue Light Defense This Holiday Season

It’s a new era! Gone are the days of bicycles, dollhouses, and bb guns under the Christmas tree ready to be discovered by squealing, pajama-clad children. Enter the digital revolution, where virtual reality (VR) games, high resolution tablets, and giant screen smartphones reign supreme! Now, the most requested gifts are electronic, with kids and grown-ups alike settling in with their digital toys, logging dozens of hours of screen time.

The Potential Price of Digital Fun

However, digital screen time doesn’t come without potential consequences when it comes to our eyes. The impact of blue light produced by these devices—specifically the blue-violet segment—emits high-energy light that makes our eyes work overtime trying to bring it into focus.¹  This may contribute to a condition called digital eye strain (DES)—characterized by blurry vision, irritated eyes, and headaches—occurring after as little as two consecutive hours of screen time, according to The Vision Council. Learn more about the impacts of excessive blue light exposure on our eyes and ways to combat its effects in our four-part “Adaptive Defense” blog.

“Encourage your patients to give loved ones a pair of blue-light reducing eyewear with their digital gift. This sends the message that they care about their eyes as well as fulfilling their desire for the latest digital toys and tools.”

How Much Is Too Much?

Digital devices for work and play aren’t going away any time soon. And with the holidays ushering in a cornucopia of digital devices, screen time will likely increase. Like any other indulgence, digital screen time needs to be managed, including minimizing excessive exposure to blue light.

Coach Patients on Safer Digital Playtime

As a trusted eye care professional, you should educate patients about blue light exposure and suggest solutions designed to help reduce its impact: lens enhancements designed to help reduce glare, reflections, and subsequent digital eye strain.

Talk to your patients about their screen usage and plans for acquiring or gifting digital devices this season. Here are a few leading questions to use:

• How much time do you currently spend on digital devices?
• Are you currently suffering from any digital eye strain symptoms, such as blurry vision, dry and irritated eyes, or headaches?
• What kinds of toys, entertainment gadgets, and digital educational tools are you planning to purchase?
• Are you planning to limit screen time for the children’s new digital gifts?
• Would you consider a blue light reducing lens or enhancement to help reduce the negative effects of blue light?

• Depending upon needs, lifestyle, and preferences, patients can benefit from several types of blue light defense solutions, based on technologies that absorb, reflect, or both absorb and reflect varying wavelengths of blue light.²

Blue Light Defense Options

Ultra-fast light-reactive lenses like SunSync Elite^® quickly change from clear indoors to dark outdoors and back again, providing exceptional blue light defense in any environment. These two groundbreaking lenses also feature “adaptive defense,” which intelligently adjusts the amount of blue light filtration based on the needs of the environment.

Dual defense anti-reflective (AR) coatings like TechShield^® Blue include all the benefits of a premium AR coating plus targeted blue light defense against blue light wavelengths linked to digital eye strain. TechShield Blue (and all TechShield AR Coatings) are now more advanced,³ providing patients with greater clarity, scratch resistance, smudge resistance, and cleanability. They also feature a near-clear appearance that may be more appealing to patients.

For a complete overview and guidelines on recommending the best option, check out our “Adaptive Defense” blog, and learn more about the blue light defending properties of SunSync Light-Reactive Lenses and TechShield Blue AR Coating.

Give the Gift of Blue Light Defense

One great way to reinforce the need for and benefits of eyewear with built-in blue light defense is to recommend that your patients give loved ones a pair with their digital gift. This sends the message that they care about their eyes as well as fulfilling their desire for the latest digital toys and tools.

Urging your patients to gift a pair of blue light lenses when giving digital gifts to their children or grandchildren is easy. Start with these tried-and-true promotional activities to jump-start a campaign that puts blue light defense in the hands of more patients this season and builds your business:

1. Gift Cards
   Encourage your patients to purchase a gift card or bring their children or grandchildren in for a pair of blue light-reducing glasses to accompany that video game console, new smartphone, tablet, or other gifts equipped with a digital screen. Make sure to emphasize that blue light defense eyewear goes hand-in-hand with digital screen time to provide relief from digital eye strain.
2. Perks and Gifts with Purchase
   Offer a small token, such as a coffee, retail gift card or free eyewear accessory, using an email campaign, in-store signage, flyers, social media posts, on-hold voice messaging, and other activities to get the word out.
3. Social Media Campaign
   Develop an educational social media campaign that explains the impacts of blue light from digital screens and how to defend against it with blue light reducing eyewear. A series of posts could highlight the facts about blue light, how blue light defense solutions can help combat digital eye strain, and provide an overview of the various blue light defense options. Perhaps develop a quiz that would reward high scorers with a coupon code for their next visit.

Wrapping it Up

Your advice and recommendations will go a long way toward reassuring patients that they can mitigate the effects of blue light generated by digital screens this season. The possibilities are endless but the message to your patients is simple: “It’s wise to include blue light defense eyewear with the purchase of any digital screen product during the holidays, and we make it easy and affordable!”

1. “Adaptive Defense Part 1: Surveying the Blue Light Landscape”; https://www.sunsync.com/blog/education/adaptive-defense-part-1-surveying-the-current-blue-light-landscape

2. “Adaptive Defense Part 2: Blue Light Defense Mechanisms and How They Work”; https://www.sunsync.com/blog/education/adaptive-defense-part-2-blue-light-defense-mechanisms-and-how-they-work

3. Compared to previous versions of TechShield AR Coatings in laboratory testing.