I tracked my cortisol at home to see if blue light glasses really work - here are my test results

Me, wearing my Gunnar Dume Gold blue light blocking glasses. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

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ZDNET's key takeaways

I used cortisol tests to see if blue light glasses reduced stress.

I compared the glasses with meditation and avoiding screens.

The glasses helped, but so did deep breathing and avoiding screens.

I've been curious about whether screens disturb my sleep. After all, I'm someone who spends a fair amount of time in front of them most days. As far as I'm aware, I sleep pretty well, but who knows? I could be sleeping much better.

Science suggests screen use, especially in the evening, may trigger spikes in cortisol, the stress hormone, as a result of the blue light emitted by screens and the constant influx of overstimulating information. There are also links between blue light from screens and suppressed melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. There's also data to suggest limiting exposure to blue light may be beneficial.

Also: I was glued to my phone all day - these 7 tricks helped me break the habit

But I've steered clear of this topic because I didn't have any real method of measuring cortisol -- until now. Cortisol tests are something you can buy (you can get finger-prick tests that you send off to a lab, as well as super convenient saliva tests you can do at home). Since I was in a curious mood, I decided to see what, if any, difference blue light-blocking glasses might make.

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