Can Epilepsy Glasses Help Alleviate Seizures?
Living with epilepsy can be scary, especially when seizures happen without warning. But thanks to advances in science, technology, and healthcare, there are more ways than ever to manage and even prevent these episodes. Doctors and researchers are also learning more about how epilepsy can affect vision, which helps them come up with better tools to stop seizures before they start.
One helpful tool is epilepsy glasses. These special glasses have been shown to reduce certain types of seizures—particularly those triggered by flashing lights (photosensitive epilepsy). By blocking or filtering out certain light frequencies, epilepsy glasses with Z blue tinted lenses can offer people with photosensitive epilepsy a safer, more comfortable way to go about their daily lives.
Until these lenses, there were only two other methods of controlling seizures in epileptic patients: drug therapy and lifestyle changes to avoid light stimuli, both of which come with their fair share of challenges. We are surrounded by screens daily, all of which are emitting artificial blue light. Unlike UV radiation, blue light can penetrate the eyes and cause significant eye strain, headaches, blurred vision, and seizures. It can even mess with your circadian rhythms and affect your sleep. Add to that blue light exposure from the sun and you begin to quickly realize there is nowhere you can go without running into some sort of potentially harmful blue light. Tinted lenses offer a handy solution that travels with you and blocks that blue light wherever you go.
How Do Epilepsy Glasses Work?
Through clinical research, studies have found that particular shades of blue lenses (specifically Z Blue, AKA called z1 blue or noir 26) are beneficial for photosensitive epilepsy patients. These blue shades work to interrupt the patient’s peripheral vision in a way that allows the brain to receive information such as spatial distance without competing data, thus helping the patient to operate more normally. In effect, they reduce the patient’s photoparoxysmal response (the abnormal response that comes from being exposed to flashing lights) by filtering out disruptive lights and patterns, particularly flickering dot patterns. An optometric technique called colorimetry gauges the perceptual effects of ophthalmic tints, optimizes them, and then prescribes the correct color to integrate into tinted eyeglass lenses. Add the color to your lenses and voila! You now have a useful and convenient tool to help prevent seizures (as well as a range of other irritations and eye issues).