Migraine Glasses; A Look Beyond Blue Light and FL-41 Glasses

What are Migraine Glasses?

When migraines intrude on daily life, the search for effective relief becomes a priority. Sometimes that relief may come from something you wouldn’t expect. One such emerging solution is migraine glasses, which have evolved beyond simple blue light glasses or standard FL-41 lenses. The newest and most advanced models of migraine glasses have proven effective in recent studies for both abortive and preventive migraine treatments by blocking out an even greater amount of blue light, in addition to amber and red light wavelengths, while allowing more soothing green light through. 

Blue light-blocking lenses and FL-41 lenses can help minimize primarily blue light exposure from sources such as digital screens and fluorescent lighting. However, they also block most of the good soothing green light which can normally help migraines. The newest and most effective migraine glasses are crafted to block a wider array of migraine and photophobia triggering light wavelengths beyond blue light, including amber and red light. These specialized lenses aim to alleviate migraines by filtering out a greater extent of all these specific irritating wavelengths, while simultaneously allowing more of the soothing green light through.

After reading this blog, you’ll “see” clear night and day differences between the many types of “migraine glasses” available including popular brands like Avulux and TheraSpecs, and will learn about what specific features to look for to ensure you are buying the highest quality product.

Photophobia, Light Wavelengths, and Migraine Glasses

Migraine glasses are relevant for individuals who experience heightened light sensitivity. This condition, also known as photophobia, can exacerbate the discomfort associated with migraines. Photophobia is also a common early migraine prodrome symptom. 

For some patients, extreme photophobia associated with migraine can be debilitating. In fact, I’ve seen patients that have it so severe that they wear welding glasses to escape from the eyeball daggers of LED and fluorescent lighting.

Standard blue blocking glasses only target shorter wavelengths of blue light, but migraines can be triggered by a broader spectrum of light, including longer red and amber wavelengths. This is where migraine glasses stand out—they are designed to filter out these additional wavelengths, providing more extensive protection.

Research indicates that certain light wavelengths can activate neural pathways that contribute to migraine symptoms. For example, blue and amber light have been found to intensify light sensitivity and potentially trigger migraine attacks. By filtering these specific wavelengths, migraine glasses can help reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks.

In addition to targeting harmful wavelengths, quality migraine glasses don’t block all light exposure. Soothing green light wavelengths that can actually reduce headache severity and photophobia. This underscores the importance of selective light filtering rather than indiscriminate blocking of all light. The highest quality migraine glasses are designed to allow beneficial green light to pass through while blocking the more harmful wavelengths of blue, amber, and red.

The practical applications of migraine glasses extend beyond just their ability to filter light. They are versatile tools that can be used both preventively as well as abortively during an acute migraine attack. For preventive use, wearing these glasses during activities that involve exposure to bright light or digital screens can help reduce the likelihood of a migraine occurring. This proactive approach can be particularly beneficial for individuals who spend a significant amount of time in environments with harsh lighting.

During a migraine attack, migraine glasses can provide immediate relief by minimizing the impact of light on the eyes. This can be particularly helpful in reducing the severity of symptoms. The ability to use migraine glasses both preventively and abortively during an attack makes them a valuable addition to the toolkit of anyone dealing with migraine photophobia, or light sensitivity in general.

Science Behind Migraine Glasses

Visible light wavelengths are found between 380-780 nm (nanometers). This is a small part of the full electromagnetic spectrum range, but the only part that the human eye can see. A few of these specific wavelengths can also wreak havoc for migraine sufferers. The science behind migraine glasses explores the intricate ways light impacts individuals prone to migraine headaches. Research shows that specific wavelengths of blue, amber, and red light, can activate and intensify light sensitivity, photophobia, and trigger migraine attacks. These visible spectrum wavelengths are often linked with symptoms like discomfort and nausea as well.

Photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (a nerve fiber layer) in the back of the eyeball are felt to play a key role in causing photophobia. A study found evidence that light can activate specific neural pathways unrelated to vision, even in individuals who are blind, which underscores the powerful impact light can have on headache triggers. This further supports the relationship between light exposure and migraine triggers, emphasizing that even individuals who cannot see light can still experience its effects. The specialized retinal cells that sense these light wavelengths also contribute to our circadian rhythm’s regulation of the sleep-wake cycle. 

These pathways are responsible for transmitting pain and discomfort, contributing to the onset of migraine attacks. Blue light is the predominant culprit and this is emitted from a wide variety of every day exposures such as digital phone and computer screens, fluorescent lighting, and TVs to name a few. By filtering out these wavelengths, migraine glasses help to reduce the activation of these pathways, thus mitigating symptoms. Therefore, I personally consider migraine glasses a form of a neuromodulation device since they can actually influence the electrical circuitry involved in a migraine attack. 

Not all light wavelengths are harmful though. Green light, in particular, has been found to reduce headache severity and photophobia when it falls within a narrow and specific band of green light (not just any green light). This finding highlights the importance of selective light filtering. Instead of blocking all light, a good pair of migraine glasses will focus on filtering out only the wavelengths known to be aggravating, while allowing beneficial green light to pass through.

Research into green light has provided valuable insights into its potential benefits. A study in patients with chronic or episodic migraine who used an LED green light strip (525 nm wavelength) in a dark room for 1-2 hours a day for 10 weeks reduced the number of headache days per month by 60%. Green light exposure has been shown to not only reduce the frequency of migraine attacks but also alleviate photophobia, making it a unique wavelength that can offer relief rather than aggravation. This underlines the importance of using migraine glasses that can differentiate between harmful and beneficial wavelengths.

Are There Differences Between Migraine Glasses? What are the most important features to look for? What are the best migraine glasses?

When comparing different migraine glasses, there are many different brands from cheap Amazon options to those backed by solid research and published evidence confirming effectiveness. So migraine glasses are not all the same and there are clear contrasts between them. 

Let’s take a brief historical journey through the scientific evolution of migraine glasses from simple blue light blocking glasses to FL-41 lenses, to the current state of the art Avulux Migraine and Light Sensitivity Lenses.

Sunglasses

It is very common to see patients come into the office wearing dark sunglasses. Many times they live in these dark sunglasses. These are great for bright light outside such as from the sun (for which they are made), and they block out a lot of light, including helpful green light. However, over time they will make the photophobia much worse, especially if they are worn excessively outdoors and indoors. This is called dark-adapting of your eyes and it will increase the photophobia and sensitivity of your eyes even worse over time. Sitting in a dark room and house constantly will also cause this same problem. So break out of these habits as soon as you can. Sunglasses are not considered a type of migraine glasses, and can actually worsen your photophobia when worn excessively.

Classic Blue Light Blocking Tint

Blue light blocking lenses are cheap and widely available online, or as a tint on your prescription eyeglasses from your eye doctor. They help block blue ray light wavelengths only. They do not block the migraine and photophobia triggering amber or red light. Many people erroneously think these are a type of “migraine glasses”, but they are not. They are inadequate for migraine and photophobia benefit that migraine patients need. 

There is wide variability between companies in how much the lenses actually block of blue ray light as well. So if you are looking for standard blue light blocking glasses for the purpose of migraine associated photophobia, you should “eye” a more effective option and look beyond to the options discussed below.

FL-41 Blue Light Blocking Tint

Dr. Arnold Wilkins published an article about an eyeglass tint he developed and called or FL-41 (Fluorescent-41). He created this tint after observing patients complaining of fluorescent lighting triggering their headaches and eye strain. So this lense was really created to lessen the light irritability of blue light, particularly around 480 nm, coming from fluorescent lighting. These lenses were the next step of progression in the evolution of migraine glasses. So FL-41 lenses can be considered the early prototype of migraine glasses. To be considered a type of migraine glasses, they need to block both blue and some amber rays at a minimum.

FL-41 lenses block primarily just blue light and variably some slight amount of amber light, as opposed to only the blue light of blue light blockers. The lenses tend to have a noticeably rosy coloration. Similar to blue light blocking glasses, studies have show a wide variability in quality, lens color and the degree of blue and amber light blockage.

FL-41 lenses also block 80% of soothing green light. This is bad because green light has been shown to be helpful in migraine and photophobia at a specific narrow band of green light.

Avulux Migraine and Light Sensitivity Lenses

In the late 2000s a neuro-ophthalmologist named Dr. Bradley Katz wanted to improve standard FL-41 lenses to block not only blue but also amber and red light, and to block them to a much higher degree, while allowing more of the beneficial green light to come through. This led to the creation of the Avulux Migraine and Light Sensitivity lens. 

When compared to FL-41 lenses, Avulux Migraine and Light Sensitivity lenses block even more migraine triggering light wavelengths, up to 90% of the upper blue spectrum in a very narrow range around 480 nm (+/- 2 nm) and up to 97% at the red/amber junction of 590 nm (+/- 2 nm). FL-41 blocks large swaths of light at blue and some red/amber but not as much as Avulux. FL-41 lenses also block most of the green light, whereas Avulux allows 70% of the beneficial soothing green light through.

The Avulux precision optical filter follows the scientific roadmap that corresponds to the biological basis of migraine. The narrow band not only allows green light through but also affords it the ability to not distort color perception.

Avulux lenses have been the most scientifically studied lenses to date. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial published in 2016 evaluated these refined Avulux lenses in chronic migraine patients. Patients using Avulux lenses resulted in clinically and statistically significant HIT-6 reductions. HIT-6 is a commonly used scale in headache centers which assesses the impact of migraines on a patient’s life and function. So in other words, the Avulux lenses significantly improved the patients’ function, pain, and migraine associated impairment when used as a preventative strategy.

A first for any optical lens, the Avulux precision optical filter next proved its efficacy as an acute treatment strategy when compared to placebo in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in 2023. This study was conducted by an independent clinical research organization to compare the benefits of wearing Avulux lenses versus clear placebo lenses on subjects with episodic migraine, applied during an acute attack. The results showed that if applied within the first hour after the onset of a migraine attack, and if no abortive medications were taken, that Avulux was both statistically and clinically superior to the placebo lens in migraine pain relief at 2 and 4 hours, in addition to reduction in light sensitivity. 

These rigorous clinical trials make Avulux the only clinically proven lenses for people living with migraine and light sensitivity, showing effectiveness for migraine both abortively (acutely), as well as preventively.

Avulux vs. TheraSpecs Migraine Glasses

There are quite a few brands of “migraine glasses”, but we’ll highlight some differences between 2 of the most well known popular brands, TheraSpecs and Avulux Migraine and Light Sensitivity Lenses. First of all, these are both high quality migraine glasses which have been in the game for awhile. So let’s discuss Avulux vs. TheraSpecs.

TheraSpecs lenses are a well known brand of migraine glasses, but they use the older FL-41 tint discussed above. So they predominantly block blue light with little amber.

Avulux lenses focus on blocking both blue and amber light, but to a much greater extent than standard FL-41 migraine glasses do. In fact, they filter up to 90% of the upper blue spectrum in a very narrow range around 480 nm (+/- 2 nm) and up to 97% at the red/amber junction of 590 nm (+/- 2 nm). Compared to any other migraine glasses, they filter the most irritating photophobia and light sensitivity wavelengths out, while allowing the most soothing green light in. 

TheraSpecs lenses block some amber light, but at a much lower ratio than blue light. TheraSpecs lenses filter nearly 80% of blue light which is still great, but the downside is that they also block 80% of the beneficial green light wavelengths. In contrast, Avulux lenses allow 70% (2.5x more) of the soothing green light to penetrate through the lenses.

Avulux lenses have a much lighter color appearance as opposed to other migraine glasses such as TheraSpecs which are a deeper rose colored hue. This lighter hue of Avulux leads to less color distortion, and also has less of a risk of dark-adapting of the eyes as discussed above. The darker red color of TheraSpecs lenses allows only 45% of light wavelengths to pass through the lenses (including less green light rays), whereas Avulux allows 65% of light to pass through (including more green rays). 

Many blue blocking or migraine glasses do not come with any anti-reflective coatings and this can cause painful light to be reflected back into your eyes. Some blue-blocker glasses reflect up to 8% of blue light back into your eyes. Avulux lenses only reflect 0.2% of blocked light back toward the user while TheraSpecs reflects 3.4% back. For some patients with migraine who are very sensitive to glare, this can be a noticeable difference.

Both Avulux and TheraSpecs make a variety of frame and lens shapes in both prescription glasses and non-prescription sunglasses, as well as reader options. Avulux also lets you send in your prescription or sunglasses frame, and they will create a lens to fit the frame.

Using Migraine Glasses Effectively

Migraine glasses can be a vital part of managing light-induced headaches when used correctly. These glasses are versatile tools, effective both as a preventive measure and during an acute migraine attack.

To use migraine glasses preventively, wear them during activities that involve exposure to bright light or digital screens. This can include time spent under fluorescent lighting, working on a computer screen or any computer use, or using other electronic devices. By filtering out specific wavelengths of blue, amber, and red light known to trigger migraines, these glasses can help reduce the likelihood of an attack occurring. It’s a proactive step for those who frequently find themselves in environments with harsh lighting, such as offices or public spaces.

However, it’s essential to avoid over-reliance on blocking all light. Blocking all light by using sunglasses or sitting in a dark room can dark-adapt your eyes, making them even more sensitive over time. Therefore, migraine glasses should be part of a balanced approach to light exposure. Selective filtering, as provided by specialized lenses, helps maintain a balance by allowing beneficial wavelengths, like green light, while blocking the harmful ones.

During a migraine attack, migraine glasses can provide immediate relief as an abortive treatment option, although Avulux is the only brand which has actually been studied and confirmed to be effective in this strategy. This is particularly crucial for those who experience severe photophobia, where even minimal light can exacerbate the pain and discomfort associated with migraines. Dr. Rami Burstein, a neuroscience professor at Harvard Medical School, emphasizes the importance of dimming lights during a migraine attack to alleviate discomfort. This approach aligns with the need for targeted light filtration rather than complete darkness.

When using migraine glasses as an abortive treatment during an attack, it’s beneficial to combine them with other coping strategies. These might include resting in a quiet, darkened room, practicing relaxation techniques, and staying hydrated. Using them in combination with an abortive (acute) migraine medication is another key strategy. 

It’s also worth noting that consistency is key. For preventive use, wearing the glasses regularly during high-risk activities will yield the best results. This means not just reaching for them during an oncoming headache but integrating them into daily routines, especially if your daily activities involve prolonged exposure to screens or bright lighting.

Migraine glasses are also useful when transitioning between different lighting environments. For example, moving from a dimly lit office to the bright outdoors can be a trigger for some individuals. Keeping a pair of migraine glasses handy can help manage these transitions smoothly, reducing the risk of triggering a migraine.

In essence, the strategic use of migraine glasses can be a game-changer for those affected by light-induced migraines.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The newest migraine glasses technology represents a significant advancement for those dealing with light-induced migraines, photophobia, and light sensitivity. By selectively filtering out harmful blue, amber, and red light wavelengths while allowing more green light through, these glasses provide a tailored approach to managing migraines. They offer more than just the capabilities of blue blocking and standard FL-41 glasses. They can provide significant improvement in quality of life.

Understanding the specific wavelengths that trigger migraines, particularly blue and amber light, is crucial. Migraine glasses, especially those with advanced filtering technology like Avulux, offer targeted relief by addressing these specific triggers. Green light remains the only band that does not aggravate migraine symptoms, and can be helpful for migraine, making it crucial not to block out this wavelength indiscriminately. This selective filtering ensures that beneficial wavelengths are allowed through, which can help reduce headache severity and photophobia.

Integrating migraine glasses into daily routines can be a proactive step in managing migraines. For preventive use, wearing these glasses during activities that expose you to bright light or digital screens can help reduce the likelihood of an attack. During a migraine episode, using these glasses abortively can provide immediate relief by minimizing light sensitivity, allowing you to rest and recover more comfortably.

If you have frequent photophobia and light sensitivity all the time, it is important to also see your eye doctor to evaluate for other possible causes such as iritis and dry eyes and ensure good eye health.

Consistency in use is key to achieving the best results. Incorporating migraine glasses into your daily life, especially during high-risk activities, can significantly mitigate the frequency and severity of migraines. It’s also beneficial to combine the use of these glasses with other treatment strategies, such as resting in a dimly lit room, practicing relaxation techniques, minimizing use of digital devices and screen time, and staying hydrated. Preventive and abortive migraine treatments are also cornerstones of any effective migraine treatment strategy.

In summary, migraine glasses are a valuable tool in the management of light-induced migraines. Specialized lenses offer targeted, scientifically-backed protection that can make a significant difference for those suffering from frequent or severe migraines. To date, Avulux Migraine and Light Sensitivity Lenses block the highest extent of irritating photophobic inducing blue, amber, and red light rays while allowing the most beneficial green light rays in. In addition, they have the most rigorous clinical trials confirming and supporting their claims. Always consider migraine glasses as part of a broader strategy that includes professional medical advice and other supportive measures.