After university I easily spent 8+ hours staring at a screen everyday at work.  My optometrist year after year would tell me how my eyes were being strained and asked that I take more breaks at work to take off the stress.  The strain on my eyes caused them to be red, watery, and dry.  So to take some stress off my eyes, I had my prescription glasses made with anti-glare/anti-reflective coating and also own a non-prescriptive pair that are especially for looking at screens.

How do they work? Anti-reflective coating is something you can have your optometrist to add to your prescription glasses or you can buy separate specialized computer glasses that generally have a yellow tint.  These glasses are meant to reduce the glare that comes from digital screens and light sources and increase contrast, allowing you to look at screens for a longer period of time with less strain.  Tints on computer glasses are meant to help contrast and filter out some of the harsh light that strain your eye muscles.

The big question is: do they work? I think they do work for me.  After a long day at work, I don’t feel my eyes are tired and strained as they used to be.  My eyes also tear up less during the day and ruins my makeup less.  Besides the glasses, there are other factors that can affect the strain to you eyes including computer usage and the environment you are in.  These AR coating and even specialised computer glasses are not cheap, so it can be a consideration for those who are struggling with eye strain.

My non-prescriptive PC glasses are from J!NS, an optical wear brand from Japan.  A friend purchased mine directly from Japan a couple of years ago, so the styles and offerings have changed.  They also offer prescriptive PC glasses and have started opening stores in the US.