Blue Light Glasses for Kids in Norway This Winter

It's twenty to seven in the evening and it has been dark since mid-afternoon. The spotlights in the kitchen ceiling are on full, a tablet is propped against the fruit bowl, and you're about to try getting a seven-year-old to wind down for bed. You already know how this goes. Bath, teeth, three glasses of water, and a child who is somehow more awake at half past eight than they were at five.

Blue light glasses for kids can help protect evening melatonin in Norway during winter, because children's eyes let more light reach the retina and their melatonin drops almost twice as far as an adult's under the same evening light. The effect is strongest when a child spends the two or three hours before bed under bright, cool white LED lighting or in front of a screen, which is a fair description of a lot of Norwegian winter evenings. Glasses with orange lenses that cut the blue end of the spectrum have the best case behind them, and they work best alongside dimmer, warmer lighting at home. They are a tool rather than a cure, and the research in younger children is still catching up.

When a child's melatonin rises on time, you see it. The yawning starts, the eyes go heavy, and bedtime is a conversation rather than a negotiation. When the light holds it back, you get the opposite: bright eyes, big ideas, and a child still asking questions at ten. Ask yourself now: which of those two is in your house on a school night in November?

Why your child's eyes catch more evening light than yours

Watch a child in a dim room and you'll see their pupils are huge. Their lenses are also clearer than yours. An adult's lens yellows slowly with age and filters some of the blue end of the spectrum before it reaches the retina, and a child's hasn't started doing that yet. Bigger pupils and clearer lenses mean more light, and more of the blue light your child's body clock (døgnrytme) listens to, reaches the back of the eye. That's the working explanation researchers give for why children react so strongly to evening light, and it fits what they have measured.

A 2014 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that moderately bright light suppressed melatonin by 88.2 percent in children and 46.3 percent in adults, so almost twice as much in the children. The groups in that first experiment were small, five children and six adults, so I wouldn't lean on the exact numbers. The second experiment in the same paper is the one that stays with me. It looked at ordinary room light at home, around 140 lux, and found it suppressed melatonin significantly in the children (15 of them) but not in the adults. You can read the full paper here: Influence of light at night on melatonin suppression in children.

The youngest children seem just as sensitive. In a 2018 study in Physiological Reports, ten children aged three to five spent an hour in bright light before bedtime, and their melatonin fell by about 88 percent. Fifty minutes after the light went off, seven of the ten still hadn't climbed back to half of their normal level. The full paper is here: evening bright light and melatonin suppression in preschool-age children. Picture that against a bright kitchen at seven and a tablet at eight, and a child who can't wind down starts to look a lot less mysterious.

Your living room is brighter, and bluer, than you think

Think of those modern Norwegian homes (perhaps you are in one now) with the spotlights in the ceiling. Bright, clean light, everything looking modern and finished. Wonderful, but it isn't wonderful for a child's eyes at seven in the evening. And before anyone feels told off, this isn't me wagging a finger at parents. Most renovated flats came with those spotlights, the tablet is how plenty of us buy a quiet half hour to make dinner, and the particular quality of the dark in November makes bright light feel like the only sensible response.

The colour of the light matters as much as how bright it is. In a 2018 study in Physiological Reports, 22 children aged around nine and 20 adults were exposed to LED lighting at night, either warm white (3000 K) or cool white (6200 K). Melatonin dropped more in the children than in the adults under both, and in the children the cool white light suppressed more melatonin than the warm and left them less sleepy. In the adults the two lights didn't differ significantly. The authors recommended low colour temperature light at night, particularly for children. You can read it here: melatonin suppression and sleepiness in children exposed to blue-enriched white LED lighting at night.

Spotlights come in warm and cool versions, so it's worth checking yours. The colour temperature is usually printed on the bulb or the box: 2700 to 3000 K is warm, and from about 4000 K upwards it gets increasingly blue-heavy. Screens sit well into the cool end. I've written about the bulb side of this in my post on amber, red and incandescent bulbs, and about the bedroom side in my post on kids' night lamps.

Do blue light glasses actually work for kids?

Fair question, and one where I'd rather be straight with you than sell you something. The evidence splits in two. The case that children are more sensitive to evening light than adults is fairly strong, and several separate research groups have found it. The case that glasses fix the problem is thinner, and most of it comes from teenagers rather than younger children. I've written a shorter version of the argument in why Norwegian kids need blue light glasses, and this post is the closer look at the research.

In a crossover trial published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2015, thirteen boys aged 15 to 17 wore orange blue light glasses or clear glasses in the evenings, then sat in front of an LED screen for three hours in the lab. The orange lenses reduced the screen's melatonin suppression, and the boys felt sleepier late in the evening. One sleep researcher who wasn't involved pointed out that the lenses also dimmed everything overall, so it's hard to say how much of the effect was the blue specifically. Here is the paper.

A more recent study took 39 Japanese schoolboys aged 10 to 12, who already wore glasses for short-sightedness, and gave them lenses that cut about 40 percent of blue light for the three hours before bed. Their melatonin didn't change. They did go to bed earlier, and they showed less daytime irritability and better morning mood. You can read it here: partial blue light blocking glasses at night in Japanese male schoolchildren. Sleep timing and mood moved even though melatonin didn't, which tells me either the story is bigger than one hormone measurement, or the mechanism isn't quite what we assume. I'm still learning here, and I'm not going to pretend I know which.

One more piece, with a caveat. A five-week randomised crossover trial in teenagers who used screens a lot found that wearing blue light glasses in the evening, or skipping screens altogether, moved the middle of their sleep earlier compared with their usual habits. It was presented as a conference abstract, so it doesn't carry the weight of a full published paper yet.

Why the lens matters more than the colour

This is where the spectrometer earns its keep. I measure every pair of lenses before I'll stock them, and I've sent things back when the readings didn't match the claims. Not fun conversations, but necessary ones. Colour tells you very little. A lens can look properly orange and still let through more blue than you'd want, and a 40 percent cut is a very different thing from a 90 percent one. I've put the measuring side in my post on blue light lenses measured with a spectrometer.

Where I land, and I'm still working this out like everyone else, is that the sensitivity data is strong enough to make cutting evening blue light sensible for children, and glasses are the easiest piece of that to add. They are not the whole answer.

How to use blue light glasses with kids in a Norwegian winter

The studies above used about three hours of evening wear, so that's a sensible target for blue light glasses (blålysbriller). For a child who goes to bed at half past eight, that means putting them on after dinner and leaving them on through the screen time, the homework at the kitchen table, and the wind-down. Keep them for the evening only.

I have a daughter, so I know that whether a child will actually keep glasses on matters more than any lens specification. What tends to work is letting them choose the frames, tying the glasses to something that already happens every evening (the cartoon, the tablet, the pyjamas), and getting a fit that doesn't pinch behind the ears. A pair that lives in a drawer does nothing. If the evening screen habit is the bigger battle in your house, my post on why your phone is stealing your sleep goes into that side of it.

Then fix the room, because glasses can only do so much if the kitchen is lit like a petrol station. Use lamps instead of ceiling spotlights after dinner, choose warmer bulbs, and dim what you can. A child with better sleep quality (søvnkvalitet) usually has a calmer evening behind it, not just a clever pair of lenses.

Daytime is the opposite job. Children need plenty of bright natural light outdoors, and even a grey Drammen morning gives them far more than any living room does. I go out on my terrace in all weathers for the same reason. Bright days and dim evenings is the pattern a young body clock wants, and a Norwegian winter makes that hard to get without a bit of effort.

If your child already wears prescription glasses, ask your optician about a blue light filtering coating, or look for styles that fit over regular frames. For very young children I'd start with the room lighting rather than glasses, because comfort and fit are harder to get right, and a red or amber night lamp is an easier win.

When blue light glasses are not the answer

If your child has struggled to fall asleep for weeks, wakes through the night, snores loudly, or seems worn out in the daytime however much they sleep, light is only one of several things to look at. Start with your GP (fastlege) or the public health nurse (helsesykepleier) at the health station. Glasses are a tool for one part of the picture, which is evening light, and I'd rather you got the whole picture checked than leaned on a pair of lenses.

If you want to browse, the blue light glasses collection is here, and the circadian and sleep-healthy lighting collection covers bulbs and lamps. And if you're not sure what suits your child's age and bedtime, message me with the details and I'll tell you what I'd do, including when the answer is that you don't need to buy anything yet.

This article is for general education and is not medical advice. Light affects people differently, and sleep problems in children can have many causes. If your child has ongoing trouble sleeping, talk to your GP (fastlege) or public health nurse (helsesykepleier).

Frequently asked questions

Do blue light glasses help kids sleep better?

They might help, but the evidence is still developing. Children's melatonin is suppressed by evening light almost twice as much as adults' according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, so cutting blue light in the evening makes biological sense. Trials of blue light glasses so far are small and mostly in teenagers, and they show earlier sleep timing and more evening sleepiness rather than a guaranteed fix. Glasses work best together with dimmer, warmer lighting and fewer screens in the last hours before bed.

What time should my child put on blue light glasses in the evening?

A good starting point is about two to three hours before your child's usual bedtime. The studies on blue light glasses in children and teenagers mostly used around three hours in the evening. For a child who goes to bed at half past eight, that usually means putting them on after dinner. Keep them off during the day, because bright daytime light, ideally outdoors, is what helps set a healthy body clock.

Can my child wear blue light glasses over their normal glasses?

Many children do, as long as the fit is comfortable and they can see properly. Some styles are made to fit over regular frames, and an optician can also add a blue light filtering coating to prescription lenses. One study of 39 Japanese schoolboys aged 10 to 12 used prescription lenses that cut about 40 percent of blue light, and it found earlier bedtimes even though melatonin didn't change. A filter that strong is usually a milder option than orange lenses, so ask what percentage of blue light the lens actually blocks before you buy.

Do we still need blue light glasses if we switch off screens early?

Possibly less. Screens are only one source of evening blue light, and ceiling spotlights and cool white bulbs also matter. In a 2014 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, ordinary room light at home of about 140 lux suppressed melatonin in children but not significantly in adults. If you turn screens off and switch to warm, low lamps in the evening, glasses add less. If the kitchen and living room stay bright until bedtime, they can still be a useful extra layer.

Trenger barn blålysbriller om vinteren i Norge?

Ikke alle barn trenger det, men vinteren gjør saken mer relevant. Barn har større pupiller og klarere linser enn voksne, og en studie fra 2014 i Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism fant at melatonin ble hemmet nesten dobbelt så mye hos barn som hos voksne av moderat sterkt lys. Når det er mørkt tidlig på ettermiddagen, tilbringer mange barn mye av kvelden under skjermer og sterkt lys, og det kan gjøre det vanskeligere å komme i søvn. Blålysbriller med oransje glass kan være et enkelt tillegg om kvelden, men de fungerer best sammen med dempet, varmt lys hjemme. Snakk med fastlegen eller helsesykepleieren hvis barnet har vedvarende søvnproblemer.

References

Higuchi S, Nagafuchi Y, Lee SI, Harada T. Influence of light at night on melatonin suppression in children. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2014. PubMed

Akacem LD and colleagues. Evening bright light and melatonin suppression in preschool-age children. Physiological Reports, 2018. PMC

Lee SI, Matsumori K, Nishimura K, Nishimura Y, Ikeda Y, Eto T, Higuchi S. Melatonin suppression and sleepiness in children exposed to blue-enriched white LED lighting at night. Physiological Reports, 2018. PMC

Partial blue light blocking glasses at night advanced sleep phase and reduced daytime irritability, disruptive behavior and improved morning mood, but did not alter salivary melatonin secretion in Japanese male schoolchildren. PMC

van der Lely S, Frey S, Garbazza C, et al. Blue blocker glasses as a countermeasure for alerting effects of evening light-emitting diode screen exposure in male teenagers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2015. DOI

Restoring the sleep disruption by blue light emitting screen use in adolescents: a randomized controlled trial (conference abstract, Endocrine Abstracts). Abstract

About the author: Dominic Lamb runs Home Light Therapy in Drammen, Norway, the country's oldest independent red light therapy store, open since 2018. He tests every device with a spectrometer before it goes on sale, and writes about light, sleep and health from the research and from living through Norwegian winters himself. About Dominic and the mission