Episode 73
The Science of Light with Matt Maruca
In this episode of the Biohacker's Podcast, Teemu Arina speaks with Matt Maruca, founder and CEO of Ra Optics, to examine the critical role light plays in human biology.
Matt reframes light as a primary biological input that regulates circadian rhythm, hormone production, mitochondrial efficiency, and sleep quality. He explains how excessive exposure to artificial blue light (especially after sunset!) disrupts melatonin release and contributes to metabolic dysfunction, poor recovery, and chronic fatigue. Ra Optics was founded to address these challenges through scientifically engineered eyewear that selectively filters harmful wavelengths while preserving beneficial light.
The discussion moves beyond blue light fear-mongering into practical circadian strategy. Matt emphasizes the importance of bright, full-spectrum light exposure during the day to anchor biological timing, while advocating warm, low-intensity lighting in the evening to support sleep. He highlights the role of red and near-infrared light in mitochondrial energy production and recovery, and cautions against low-quality lenses that distort vision or block indiscriminately.
Looking forward, Matt envisions a future where personalized light environments - integrated with sleep and performance data - become central to health optimization. The episode concludes with a shared message: improving light hygiene is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-effort interventions available in modern biohacking.
Learn more about Ra Optics at https://raoptics.com and follow Matt on Instagram: @thelightdiet!
This conversation was recorded in October 2025.
Check https://hololifesummit.com for upcoming events & tickets! Devices, supplements, guides, books & quality online courses for supporting your health & performance: https://hololifecenter.com
Key moments and takeaways:
00:00 – Introduction by Teemu Arina
01:10 - Matt Maruca and the story of Raw Optics
02:25 - Matt’s early health struggles
04:00 - The impact of artificial light on health and well-being
05:30 - The importance of aligning with natural circadian rhythms
06:50 - Overview of the unique lenses produced by Ra Optics
08:30 - Matt reflects on his experience at the 2018 Biohacker Summit
10:20 - How mitochondrial dysfunction became a central focus for Matt
12:15 - The limitations of Western medicine
14:00 - Epigenetics and the relationship between diet, environment, and health
16:00 - Mitochondrial function: the basis for energy production and health
18:45 - How light frequency affects our biology and promotes healing
20:30 - Matt’s collaboration with Dr. Jack Cruz and other luminaries in the field
22:45 - The role of blue light in circadian rhythm regulation
25:00 - Blue light as a form of environmental toxin and its consequences
27:15 - Insights from Dr. Alexander Wunsch on photobiology and light effects
30:00 - The dynamics of melatonin production and its health implications
32:30 - Differentiating between blue light protection and traditional eye care
34:15 - Understanding the types of blue light blocking lenses: sunset and daylight
37:30 - The science behind Ra Optics’ lenses and their effectiveness
40:00 - Testimonials from professional athletes using the eyewear
42:45 - Discussion on emerging products: BlueSync lenses and their features
45:15 - How lifestyle adaptations enhance wellness beyond dietary changes
48:00 - The importance of community and collaboration in the biohacking field
50:00 - Stylish designs of Ra Optics and celebrity collaborations
52:15 - Viewer testimonials and personal experiences with the products
55:00 - Conclusion and where to find more information on Ra Optics
Transcript
Welcome to the Biohacker's Podcast. My name is Teemu Arina and today's guest is Matt Maruca.
Speaker:He's the founder and CEO of Raw Optics, a company that creates science-based,
Speaker:very stylish blue light blocking eyewear to support mitochondrial health,
Speaker:circadian rhythm alignment.
Speaker:And they have some really cool products that are really separating them from
Speaker:many other providers on the market. But what I found really fascinating is their new blue lenses.
Speaker:So these blue light blockers have usually been kind of this like orange,
Speaker:red kind of lenses or even yellow.
Speaker:And now they have also these blue lenses. I'm very curious to learn more about
Speaker:that and what's the basis of that.
Speaker:They also use these different frames that are associated with different famous people.
Speaker:Joe Dispenza, Ram Dass, all of that. so I find that really cool.
Speaker:If you want to look like Ram Dass or you want to look like Joe Dispenza,
Speaker:check out some of their frames for that.
Speaker:What I find really interesting about Matt is that I remember him in 2018 in
Speaker:Biker Summit in Toronto, Canada, when we organized that, he showed up with a suitcase of glasses.
Speaker:That's kind of how the company got started. And now it's huge.
Speaker:They were one of the big supporters of our latest edition for the Hololife Summit.
Speaker:He has had chronic health issues in his life.
Speaker:He discovered mitochondrial dysfunction
Speaker:that was being driven largely by artificial light
Speaker:exposure and that was the root of his
Speaker:symptoms and he learned that melatonin the way
Speaker:it's being produced by aligning the circadian rhythm
Speaker:through natural sunlight and protection from
Speaker:blue light in the evening was key for his mitochondrial
Speaker:function and overall health so he
Speaker:was frustrated by the poor design of many of these products
Speaker:on the market so he launched Ra Optics, a name
Speaker:that i absolutely love and the design it's a
Speaker:high performance highly scientifically testing
Speaker:validated highest quality lenses on the market with very attractive frames so
Speaker:if you're looking for high quality here don't go to amazon just buy some random
Speaker:blue light blockers get seriously good frames and lenses is what these guys can provide to you.
Speaker:So I'm very interested to hear more about the effects of blue light on mitochondrial
Speaker:function, on circadian rhythm, and why one want to use these things.
Speaker:What are those blue lenses all about?
Speaker:Welcome to the show, Matt. Thank you so much, Tammy.
Speaker:Very good. So you started...
Speaker:To get into this through mitochondrial health. And that has become in the last
Speaker:five years, a big deal in the parking circles.
Speaker:Why do you find that mitochondrial function or dysfunction specifically such
Speaker:an important issue to correct? Yeah, it's an amazing question.
Speaker:So when I first began my health journey, I was mostly focusing on diets.
Speaker:Before that, I was actually using western medicine
Speaker:which meant they just tried to give me a different drug so
Speaker:for example for my gut issues they prescribed some
Speaker:anti-acid medication which is the worst thing
Speaker:for your gut because you'll have bacterial overgrowths and all these things
Speaker:they told me to take antihistamines for my allergies so just covering all the
Speaker:symptoms and for my headaches they just told me to take you know Advil and ibuprofen
Speaker:and all these types of drugs so that was Western medicine.
Speaker:It didn't do very much. So eventually, after trying different things,
Speaker:I got into the world of diets and food.
Speaker:And I was amazed at how we could actually change our epigenetics just through,
Speaker:for example, our diet through some environmental choices.
Speaker:Some of the bloggers I was following at this time, I'm sure you know all of them.
Speaker:They're the paleo guys like Rob Wolf and Chris Kresser and Mark Sisson,
Speaker:very, very intelligent people who really paved the way for healthier eating.
Speaker:And I remember reading on Mark Sisson's blog one time about epigenetics and
Speaker:how you can actually change the expression of your genes.
Speaker:And I think you can really connect with this because you're a leader in the
Speaker:world of biohacking and how to kind of take the human and bring it to the next level, let's say.
Speaker:And epigenetics made me think that was possible. When I learned about it,
Speaker:I thought, wow, we have such a high potential that most people don't even know about.
Speaker:And we can change our genetic expression and all these things.
Speaker:But the incorrect conclusion that.
Speaker:This blogger and a lot of these authors, these early paleo diet people came
Speaker:to is that it was 80% or more all about food.
Speaker:And so I focused obsessively on food because I was 15 years old and obsessed
Speaker:with trying to fix my health issues.
Speaker:But at a certain point, I reached, let's say, a plateau that I couldn't really
Speaker:get beyond no matter how strict I went with my keto or gaps diet or paleo autoimmune protocol,
Speaker:practically carnivore in some cases before anyone even called it carnivore,
Speaker:elimination diets, I hit some plateau that I couldn't go past no matter how
Speaker:strict I was. And I actually started feeling worse.
Speaker:I felt like I was restricting myself. I was very young and I became kind of disheartened.
Speaker:But then I learned about the work of Dr. Jack Cruz.
Speaker:So one of the first people to really talk about the role of light and mitochondria.
Speaker:And the way that he and some other people in the space were framing this information
Speaker:was basically that if you're eating a perfect diet,
Speaker:but your mitochondria are messed up because of circadian rhythm disruption caused
Speaker:by artificial light at night, which disrupts the rhythm,
Speaker:then you could be eating the perfect diet, but your body won't be able to process it optimally.
Speaker:And you'll still have health issues anyway so it's not that food doesn't matter
Speaker:which some people would say this but you know of course food plays a role you
Speaker:shouldn't eat junk food all the time but that.
Speaker:Mitochondrial function is even more foundational and so this was fascinating
Speaker:well the mitochondria are largely controlled by sleep and circadian rhythms,
Speaker:and this is controlled by light.
Speaker:So this was the...
Speaker:Way that I became super interested in that most modern chronic diseases are
Speaker:caused by mitochondrial dysfunction.
Speaker:This is the work of Dr. Douglas Wallace, who was actually researching in my
Speaker:home city, Philadelphia, for many years.
Speaker:He found that while all of his colleagues in the traditional medical world were
Speaker:looking to understand the root causes of all the different irregular DNA,
Speaker:he was researching the mitochondrial DNA and found that almost all of these
Speaker:diseases, whether it was diabetes, obesity, heart disease.
Speaker:Cancer, Alzheimer's, autoimmune diseases, and mitochondrial dysfunction,
Speaker:and the mitochondria make energy.
Speaker:And so if you have some disease, it means
Speaker:generally there's a problem something's not working properly
Speaker:and that very well could mean that there's
Speaker:not an energy to do something properly because just like the
Speaker:government needs money to do all of its programs the body needs energy to run
Speaker:all of its programs and so if you don't have enough energy programs are going
Speaker:to be cut or they're not going to work optimally and so this was fascinating
Speaker:to me and i thought well if i can just get enough energy into my body into my mitochondria,
Speaker:then maybe my issues will just go away and I won't even have to be so obsessive about my diet.
Speaker:And this was largely my experience and has continued to be my experience.
Speaker:And I've been able to do some things that I don't think I would be able to do
Speaker:if I weren't taking on these mitochondrial.
Speaker:Elements to health. For example, I've been traveling the world now for eight
Speaker:years straight, I'm actually trying to slow down.
Speaker:But if I wasn't doing all the things to regulate my body's rhythm and sunbathing
Speaker:and taking ice baths and grounding and using blue light blocking glasses.
Speaker:I think I would be completely destroyed after traveling for so long,
Speaker:you know, I'm moving multiple times per year, sometimes multiple times per month, even per week.
Speaker:So yeah, this is why I became so interested and it's only proven to be really effective over time.
Speaker:And by the way, I'm so glad we've been able to collaborate with you and
Speaker:your amazing events since the beginning what i
Speaker:hear is that while some healthy
Speaker:influencers are focusing on just one area like nutrition
Speaker:as the foundational thing you're
Speaker:looking at all these other variables that
Speaker:make all the nutrition work better and more
Speaker:optimally for the body sleep is
Speaker:one of those things that people highlight often as the
Speaker:foundational thing if you don't sleep enough like you're
Speaker:not going to get the benefits from nutrition now what you're adding
Speaker:in for mitochondrial health is getting
Speaker:connection to nature so that's the natural cycle of light it's grounding it's
Speaker:all the other elements like water like these are the key things to incorporate
Speaker:to have a more balanced approach to health and help the body support its homeostasis.
Speaker:I firmly believe based on research that for the body to be able to maintain
Speaker:that balance and support immunity.
Speaker:Hormonal function, all these elements are important and necessary for optimal
Speaker:functioning, not just one area. Now.
Speaker:One thing that I've been writing recently is that biohacking is for people who live in cities,
Speaker:who live in urban environments, who live exposed to an environment that is not
Speaker:natural to their biology that
Speaker:has been adapted for tens of thousands of years in a certain condition.
Speaker:In a very brief time in history, we have lived in a very unnatural environment.
Speaker:And one thing that you do with biohacking technologies, light blue light blockers,
Speaker:is that you try to reintroduce those environmental factors that shaped us and
Speaker:helped our species to adapt to its environment.
Speaker:So if you are in a city environment where
Speaker:the light is completely unnatural or you're exposed to electromagnetic radiation
Speaker:or poor air quality or lack of the microbiome of the forest you try to bring
Speaker:that into your life with these technologies now how.
Speaker:Significant is that blue light
Speaker:as a kind of a health hazard
Speaker:as a environmental toxin pollution
Speaker:basically it's light pollution right so like what is the real kind of consequence
Speaker:of living under this unnatural rhythm of light I've learned a lot about blue
Speaker:light even in just the last couple of years since I began working closely with Dr.
Speaker:Alexander Wunsch so as you know he's our scientific advisor at my company,
Speaker:actually chief scientific officer now.
Speaker:And he even spoke at your event last year in Helsinki.
Speaker:We kind of gave a co-presentation, although it was mostly him.
Speaker:And then this year, my presentation was largely organized with his help.
Speaker:One of the most interesting things I've learned from Dr. Vonn,
Speaker:and for those who don't know, he is the world's leading expert in the field
Speaker:of photobiology, which is the study of how light affects health,
Speaker:biology, living organisms, and so on.
Speaker:And he studied this as well as the effects of sound and frequency and actually
Speaker:used these as a doctor for many years, both light therapy, color therapy, sound therapy.
Speaker:He's given lectures all over the world on the effects of sunlight and red light
Speaker:therapy and consults big companies, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker:So anyway, that's Dr. Dr. Wunsch. And.
Speaker:So one of the things he explained to me very, very well, in a way that none
Speaker:of the biohackers are really speaking about, is why blue light is the signal for our body.
Speaker:And he has a very different perspective about the sun and light than most people think.
Speaker:See, he began speaking about all the benefits of sunlight, but then a lot of
Speaker:biohackers took this information and said more sunlight is always better.
Speaker:And of course that's not true just because
Speaker:something's good for you doesn't mean that more will always be
Speaker:better for you and so he now has he's felt a sort of responsibility to clarify
Speaker:this misunderstanding to the health and wellness community which has been part
Speaker:of his effort over the last several months and year i would say and so the sun
Speaker:is both the creator of life on earth In many ways,
Speaker:it provided the energy and the sort of informational framework within which
Speaker:for life and biochemistry to exist.
Speaker:However, it is also one of the greatest threats to our existence because too
Speaker:much sunlight will kill us.
Speaker:And so our body has to have highly regulated and trained systems to be able
Speaker:to manage exposure to sunlight.
Speaker:So when the sun comes up in the morning, we have things like cortisol and stress
Speaker:hormones, which both wake us up, but also provide a sort of element of protection
Speaker:in our body from the sunlight,
Speaker:making us active enough to be able to, you know, go and do things.
Speaker:But also, just like plants have certain systems that protect them from getting
Speaker:overexposed to sunlight, we also have essentially inbuilt mechanisms that allow
Speaker:us to get enough sun but not get too much. But anyway...
Speaker:This is essentially where blue light comes in.
Speaker:So UV light is the most threatening kind of light to the body.
Speaker:UV light, ultraviolet, although it has certain significant health benefits,
Speaker:especially the production of vitamin D, but also the release of nitric oxide,
Speaker:in excess, UV light will become the most damaging to our body the most quickly.
Speaker:In the case of UVB, we'll get sunburn. We can get sunburn quite quickly.
Speaker:With UVA, you won't get a sunburn, but you'll get a significant production of
Speaker:reactive oxygen species with high doses of UVA light.
Speaker:And that means cellular damage, cellular aging, oxidation damage,
Speaker:which requires a lot of energy to be repaired, destruction of proteins, etc., etc.
Speaker:So undesirable effects with an overdose of sunlight, which probably everyone
Speaker:has experienced at some point in their life. So blue light is a precursor to
Speaker:UV in the solar spectrum.
Speaker:As the sun rises, there's always a lot of blue light before UV light becomes prominent.
Speaker:And so it makes sense if in biology, it makes sense to have a sensor which absorbs
Speaker:blue light because it won't be damaged as quickly as a sensor that absorbs UV.
Speaker:Because if a pigment has to absorb ultraviolet light, it will degrade faster
Speaker:because ultraviolet light has very high photonic energy.
Speaker:The same reason that if you go out in general and you look at street signs,
Speaker:the street signs which are red will always fade faster than the street signs which are painted blue.
Speaker:Or if you have blue and red on the same street sign, the red is usually faded
Speaker:faster. You can see this on American flags where they have red and blue.
Speaker:The red is almost always faded.
Speaker:The reason is because the red pigments absorb blue light.
Speaker:Over time because blue light has more photonic energy
Speaker:it degrades the pigment faster so anyway
Speaker:it's the same reason that we have sensors that our body prefers
Speaker:to absorb blue as this is an indicator rather than
Speaker:ultraviolet itself so it's both protecting the sensors and it's sort of a precursor
Speaker:but basically blue light is always foreshadowing uv period so our entire hormonal
Speaker:system and everything is based around this onset of blue light.
Speaker:And that's really important because blue light, again, as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker:it activates our cortisol, it activates, boosts serotonin, it boosts certain
Speaker:peptides in the body, our whole circadian rhythm, which now probably everybody
Speaker:listening to this has heard about many times.
Speaker:This is all stimulated by blue light. So that's very good.
Speaker:Now, Temu, the problem, of course, as you know, is that when we have blue light
Speaker:at night, blue light at night tricks the brain into thinking that the sun is still out.
Speaker:And so the brain will continue to produce cortisol and continue to produce the
Speaker:stress hormones for activity when it's time to begin not producing stress hormones
Speaker:and to begin winding down and repairing.
Speaker:And as you shared before, everyone focuses on sleep and how important it is for health.
Speaker:Well, in order to have proper sleep, we need melatonin to rise naturally so
Speaker:that what melatonin does is it lowers the mitochondrial energy production.
Speaker:Now, during the day, we want high energy production in the mitochondria.
Speaker:But in the evening, we don't because our cells need to slow down their metabolism
Speaker:in order to be able to repair and for us to sleep.
Speaker:Just like when a mechanic is going to work on a car, the engine should be off,
Speaker:not running, generally speaking, right?
Speaker:And so elatonin reduces energy production.
Speaker:What this means, simply put, is if you don't have darkness, if you have lots
Speaker:of light, especially modern screens and LEDs, then the brain doesn't release
Speaker:melatonin as it's supposed to.
Speaker:And then people have problems. They have difficulty becoming tired in the evening.
Speaker:They have difficulty falling asleep. They have difficulty staying asleep.
Speaker:They have difficulty waking up in the morning, feeling rested and refreshed.
Speaker:And what I realized with our glasses, Raw Optics, I was reading a business book,
Speaker:which was recommended to me actually by a friend of mine, Jack Dorsey.
Speaker:And it's a great book. It's called Competing Against Luck.
Speaker:And the book is a phenomenal business book. One of the things it said was to
Speaker:think about who your products are actually competing against.
Speaker:When I read this part of the book, I realized, oh my gosh, I'm not competing
Speaker:against some other blue light blocking glasses company or whatever, some eyewear company.
Speaker:Our real competition is the things people use to fix this problem of artificial
Speaker:light and circadian rhythm disruption.
Speaker:So in the evening, the things people are using now to take the edge off of the
Speaker:day and to wind down because their body's wide. The main example is alcohol, for example.
Speaker:Lots of people need alcohol just to take the edge off of the day.
Speaker:For a lot of people, it's different drugs, cannabis, marijuana, for example.
Speaker:For other people, they need melatonin pills. For other people,
Speaker:they have prescriptions, sleeping medications.
Speaker:I'm not telling people to not take their medications, of course.
Speaker:I'm not a doctor. This isn't medical advice.
Speaker:But with that said, this is an interesting concept for people to consider.
Speaker:That's the effect of artificial light. It makes it so people can't get tired.
Speaker:So anyway, it is a, to your question, Tame, to bring it all together,
Speaker:it is a huge risk because if people's, if people's bodies aren't being allowed
Speaker:to wind down naturally, then people are going to have sleep problems and we know that
Speaker:sleep problems are linked with all sorts of diseases.
Speaker:And even you've probably seen that study that came out, I think it was about
Speaker:a year ago now with over almost 90,000 people from, I believe it was Australia.
Speaker:They found that more artificial light exposure at night and a lack of sunlight
Speaker:during the day, both independently, but they have significant effects.
Speaker:Both of them cause people to have more mental disorders.
Speaker:So if you have more artificial light at night, you have more mental disorders
Speaker:and incidents of mental problems, whether it's anxiety, depression,
Speaker:or even more severe diseases like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Speaker:And the same thing is if you don't have enough bright light during the day to
Speaker:help regulate all of these processes,
Speaker:there's a significantly increased incidence of mental illnesses.
Speaker:So that's how I would say how significant this is.
Speaker:Well, that was great or not so great if you have sleep deprivation.
Speaker:Like excessive exposure to blue light. Now, I want to also add that there's
Speaker:misconception about melatonin, that it's only a sleep hormone.
Speaker:So it works as a mitochondrial antioxidant. So it directly scavenges the reactive oxygen species.
Speaker:Then, unlike other antioxidants, melatonin crosses the mitochondrial membrane
Speaker:and efficiently concentrates within the mitochondria where oxidative damage is highest.
Speaker:Now, melatonin also supports mitochondrial biogenesis. so it enhances the efficiency of that,
Speaker:reduction of oxidization. Then what is super interesting about this whole thing,
Speaker:in addition to supporting immunity and all of that, is neuroprotection.
Speaker:It protects neurons against that oxidative stress.
Speaker:So it reduces amyloid beta accumulation.
Speaker:It has been studied, obviously, in connection to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and all of that.
Speaker:The other thing that I find very fascinating
Speaker:about is the effect on insulin sensitivity and
Speaker:glucose metabolism so it influences lipid
Speaker:metabolism and may reduce the risk factors for
Speaker:metabolic syndrome so disruption of melatonin has
Speaker:been linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes now
Speaker:there's also effects on reduction of blood
Speaker:pressure improvement on endothelial function
Speaker:and also protection against strokes
Speaker:basically and you mentioned gut issues
Speaker:and melatonin is produced actually
Speaker:large quantities in the gastrointestinal tract far more than in the pineal gland
Speaker:so it does support the gut brain barrier it supports the gut barrier and it
Speaker:modulates the gut microbiome and effectively then protects against inflammatory bowel conditions.
Speaker:Such an important thing. Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:Now, if we go into these technologies then to affect that, I have in my home,
Speaker:I have basically changed my lights to these lights that I can basically control the spectrum.
Speaker:So in the evening, I have more of the red hue, less of the blue light.
Speaker:I also have, when I wake up at the night, if I need to go to the toilet,
Speaker:I have this automatically.
Speaker:Sensing lights that turn like a really
Speaker:dim red light so i can walk to the
Speaker:bathroom without turning on the lights one
Speaker:thing that i find kind of ridiculous is like hotels five-star hotels that are
Speaker:supposed to be the place where people go to sleep and have the best possible
Speaker:experience usually have the absolute worst lighting conditions i haven't seen
Speaker:pretty much any hotel that would have taken stuff like this into account.
Speaker:So when you travel, you need technology to protect yourself from it.
Speaker:So you're manufacturing these blue light blockers.
Speaker:And so can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker:And not all blue light blockers on the market are necessarily as effective in
Speaker:reducing the certain wavelengths that might disrupt meltdown production.
Speaker:Can you talk about that a little bit. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So it's a great point. These are great points about needing technologies in
Speaker:order to be able to protect your body when you go certain places.
Speaker:I've stayed at hotels more than anyone I know, and I can verify your statement
Speaker:100%. I don't think I've ever been to a hotel with really good lighting.
Speaker:Maybe some of them had old incandescent bulbs by chance every once in a while,
Speaker:but it's increasingly rare.
Speaker:So they've almost all switched to LEDs for energy efficiency, unfortunately.
Speaker:Now we will be fixing that with some of our lighting products coming down the
Speaker:pipeline. But anyway, as far as blue light blocking glasses.
Speaker:They're one of the simplest, most effective tools to help modulate health.
Speaker:And the concept always fascinated me when I first learned about it, and it still does,
Speaker:that you can literally use a lens which specifically modulates and filters certain
Speaker:wavelengths of light that are passing through the lens into your eye to change
Speaker:the function of your brain and your entire body.
Speaker:Like, it struck me as a young kid, like steroids that athletes take, but it's not illegal.
Speaker:It's not an external substance. It's just a lens that's basically flipping a
Speaker:switch in the brain in a desirable direction. So this is how I think about blue
Speaker:light blocking glasses and always have.
Speaker:So anyway, we have a few different types of lenses, and they serve different purposes.
Speaker:And you're definitely right, Timu, there are a very wide variety of products
Speaker:on the market, which all have varying degrees of efficacy and effectiveness.
Speaker:So we started out with two main types of blue light blocking glasses.
Speaker:We have what we call the daylight lenses, which are the yellow lenses people
Speaker:know, and the sunset lenses, which are the more red-orange lenses that people
Speaker:know as well. So varying strengths of blue light blocking light protection in
Speaker:general, also just for totally different purposes.
Speaker:So starting with the sunset lenses, because that's the more commonly understood
Speaker:purpose that people understand and we've already spoken about.
Speaker:When we have artificial light in the evening, it's tricking the brain into thinking
Speaker:that it's still daytime, the sun is still out, we should still make stress hormones,
Speaker:and that's antagonizing the body's natural production of melatonin.
Speaker:And so these lenses are specifically designed to
Speaker:block the light below and i shouldn't say block
Speaker:because that's actually technically incorrect term filter
Speaker:can only modulate it or filter and reduce it for example if you have a laser
Speaker:and you concentrate the light you can go through any filter filter is the correct
Speaker:term to filter the vast majority of the wavelengths below 550 nanometers but
Speaker:specifically focusing on the peak absorption of the retinal ganglion cells in the eye,
Speaker:the cells which are responsible for absorbing that light stimulus and regulating
Speaker:all of these processes in the brain.
Speaker:And that peak absorption is around 480 nanometers. So we want to block everything
Speaker:all around 480 nanometers, all the way down to 420 or 400.
Speaker:The light becomes much closer to ultraviolet and it increases the production
Speaker:of reactive oxygen species considerably. That's also known as HEVL,
Speaker:high energy visible light.
Speaker:It's the kind of threatening part of the visible spectrum similar to UV,
Speaker:but in the range we can see.
Speaker:And then the other side of the 480 nanometer peak absorption of the retinal
Speaker:ganglion cells you have up to around 530, even 550.
Speaker:That's a range of concerns. So the sunset lenses focused on just cutting all of that light out.
Speaker:And so that's all the blue light and the vast majority of green light.
Speaker:And so that's what gives the sunset lenses their beautiful kind of red orange hue.
Speaker:So we've worked with Dr. Wunsch, you know, now over the years to create the
Speaker:highest quality lens that filters the most light that needs to be filtered.
Speaker:Or in other words, we filter everything that needs to be filtered and nothing
Speaker:that doesn't. And that's where our lenses differ from a lot of the other colored
Speaker:lens, blue light blocking glasses.
Speaker:And I haven't even touched on the clear lenses, which are a big kind of gimmick.
Speaker:We'll get to those in a moment, but we block, or I should say not block.
Speaker:We modulate the spectrum in a way that isn't just about maximum blocking of
Speaker:light and just cutting everything out. It is about.
Speaker:Providing the wearer with the highest balance possible between the protection
Speaker:and the effects that come with the protection and a very enjoyable and functional experience.
Speaker:So a lot of the glasses just take a spectrometer or look at a spectrum and say,
Speaker:yep, we cut out all this light. We're done.
Speaker:What we do is we go multiple layers deeper. We're looking at how the lens impacts our color.
Speaker:Similar protection or a brand that says, for example, we're just going to block
Speaker:all this light, but not looking at how that the pigment mixtures affect their color perception.
Speaker:We look at factors like color perception and how we can still maintain relatively
Speaker:natural balances of colors with the lenses.
Speaker:We also look at the hue of the lens because slight differences in the tone of
Speaker:the red and the orange actually have large impacts on the psyche and the way the lens feels.
Speaker:And so So that's why working with a guy who's an expert in the science of colors
Speaker:and color therapy is super valuable.
Speaker:So anyway, our sunset lenses, as I mentioned earlier, they help the brain to
Speaker:release melatonin naturally in the evening.
Speaker:You wear them from sunset until sleep or two to three hours before bed at least.
Speaker:This is the lens that a lot of famous athletes and celebrities have been using.
Speaker:And the reason is because it helps everybody to wind down naturally,
Speaker:fall asleep more easily, sleep more deeply, and wake up with more energy,
Speaker:feeling more well-rested and refreshed.
Speaker:And there's all those additional benefits you mentioned of increased melatonin,
Speaker:like preventing neurodegenerative issues and all these other types of benefits.
Speaker:There's gut benefits, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker:So that's what sunset lenses do. And these professional athletes like Erling
Speaker:Haaland and Andre Rublev, the tennis people, the UFC people.
Speaker:American football players, and so on, basketball players, they're benefiting
Speaker:so much with their recovery. So they love these sunset lenses.
Speaker:Now, on the other hand, you have the daylight lenses, as we call them.
Speaker:And these are daytime blue light blocking glasses. And the reason I wanted to
Speaker:make these was because when I first learned about this, I don't remember ever
Speaker:hearing about it, actually.
Speaker:But when I was sitting in class in high school, I remember I was studying abroad,
Speaker:actually, in Eastern Europe. And the school was maybe too poor to afford a cover
Speaker:for the fluorescent light bulbs, the tubes.
Speaker:And so the light was so annoying that it was burning my brain,
Speaker:like burning my eyes and retina.
Speaker:And I remember thinking, I need something for this environment.
Speaker:Even though it's not nighttime, this light is actually offending my eyes.
Speaker:And so that's when I came up with the concept of having a lighter,
Speaker:more yellow lens, blue light blocking glass. And so we filter.
Speaker:All of the light around the most concerning range, which is around 400 to 450
Speaker:nanometers, and then still a significant portion up to around 500 nanometers as well.
Speaker:But in this situation during the day, we're not looking to completely eliminate
Speaker:all of the light that activates and regulates the body's rhythm,
Speaker:that 480 nanometer peak absorption curve in the eye.
Speaker:We do want to reduce it because a lot of these artificial lights have such an
Speaker:unbalanced amount of blue that they increase the body's production of stress hormones.
Speaker:So it's definitely desirable to reduce that.
Speaker:But we don't need to eliminate it completely, of course, because otherwise people
Speaker:will fall asleep at their desk or in their office or whatever.
Speaker:But the main goal with these daylight lenses is to protect the retina from physical damage, right?
Speaker:When people wear the daylight lenses, they're preventing eye strain.
Speaker:Dry eyes, associated headaches, associated fatigue that come as a result of that.
Speaker:And so that's the main benefit of these lenses,
Speaker:very similar to the concept of the screen lenses, the blue light glasses that
Speaker:have become really popular even in the mainstream.
Speaker:So the vast majority of the competition out there, as you know.
Speaker:Aren't actually the colored lens blue light blocking glasses that biohackers are wearing.
Speaker:They're the clear lens, so-called blue light glasses, and most of them filter
Speaker:less than 3% of, or even 2% of the most concerning range of light,
Speaker:which is the part of the light that's emitted from screens and LEDs has a peak at 455 nanometers.
Speaker:So right in between the range that affects our melatonin and our body's rhythm
Speaker:and the range that has the most reactive oxygen species producing effects,
Speaker:which is around 420 to 440.
Speaker:The screens are right in the middle of the problem zones. The clear lenses that
Speaker:are sold that most people get when they get their prescription glasses,
Speaker:they pay 50 or even 100 euros extra for this blue light coating.
Speaker:It's completely ineffective. It's blocking the blue light up to 420 nanometers,
Speaker:which is found in sunlight, which can be a concern in excess,
Speaker:for example, but it's not even blocking what they're claiming to block,
Speaker:which is the light from screens.
Speaker:And so in order to have any meaningful protection, it requires a pigment,
Speaker:which is going to appear yellow.
Speaker:That's where our daylight lenses come in, and they're really helpful at both
Speaker:protecting the eyes and protecting this unnatural overstimulation of the body's
Speaker:hormonal system. People love the lenses.
Speaker:They're a great tool, as you've said, whether it's for me traveling through
Speaker:airports, I'm using my daylight lenses, shopping malls, anywhere in public,
Speaker:my computer, offices, et cetera.
Speaker:The sunset lenses are the perfect companion for the evening,
Speaker:for people traveling, or just for anybody who's exposed to artificial light
Speaker:who wants to sleep better and have more energy.
Speaker:So that's the gist of it. And that, of course, leads to the blue lens.
Speaker:But before I continue into there, I would love to hear your thoughts,
Speaker:if you have any points of clarification to put in here. Absolutely. So...
Speaker:What I'm thinking here is like the practical use cases and what I have found
Speaker:most useful and where I find myself grabbing my yellow lenses is especially
Speaker:when I'm giving presentations.
Speaker:I'm on stage, there's really strong lights pointed at me or I'm in a studio,
Speaker:I'm recording a podcast or a video.
Speaker:When I use these lenses, I feel that I'm not pinching my facial muscles as much.
Speaker:That reduces stress tension on
Speaker:the facial muscles also that then makes my
Speaker:eyes less tired I can find
Speaker:myself using it sometimes with computer screens that
Speaker:don't have the blue light filter built in so I
Speaker:feel like I can sit in front of a computer or phone a
Speaker:lot longer time I use it in hotel elevators
Speaker:I use it in shopping malls like
Speaker:you described and one thing that
Speaker:I kind of think is key to mention here
Speaker:is also what I have found out about these
Speaker:lenses is that they actually are really good at use in low light conditions
Speaker:so when I'm in a low light condition at the indoors it improves my contrast
Speaker:and it reduces glare in such a way that it doesn't distort my overall color
Speaker:perception now with the red lenses,
Speaker:What I found really interesting is that if I go to the forest and I'm like trying
Speaker:to find and picking up some mushrooms or plants, I just see better.
Speaker:Like it's not about like, especially in very high light condition.
Speaker:I know that blue light blockers, you're not supposed to use during the day,
Speaker:but sometimes I grab those glasses on a sunny day, especially in a forest,
Speaker:because I just have more fidelity. I see more.
Speaker:Can you explain what's going on here?
Speaker:Why do I see more? Yeah, this is a very interesting question.
Speaker:And I don't think I can answer it definitively in this moment.
Speaker:But we've had some really interesting feedback from even, for example,
Speaker:tennis coaches, because in the last year and a half, we had a lot of tennis
Speaker:players start using our glasses, not while they're playing.
Speaker:They were using them for recovery, but we have had their coaches use them while
Speaker:they're sitting on the sidelines or in the box watching and say they have a
Speaker:better ability to see the ball or see the marks of where the ball hits,
Speaker:for example, on a clay court.
Speaker:And so I think a part of this is that when you remove blue light,
Speaker:you increase visual acuity, you reduce glare.
Speaker:And so glare creates, it can create blurriness and some sort of visual distortion.
Speaker:And this is simply because of the physics of the way that blue light bends in the eye.
Speaker:Blue light simply causes more it scatters more in the eye just like how it actually
Speaker:scatters more when it passes through the atmosphere which is why the sky is
Speaker:blue and so when you remove the blue light there will be naturally a bit more
Speaker:visual crispness that you can experience and this is.
Speaker:Essentially, I would say probably one of the driving factors behind your experience.
Speaker:I would also suggest just based on what you described when you're going out
Speaker:in the forest, maybe foraging mushrooms or whatever it is that you're interested in doing,
Speaker:but that actually having the glasses on now, this might not be desirable for
Speaker:extended periods, but if you do sort of increase the melatonin level during
Speaker:the day, you might provide yourself with a bit of a,
Speaker:dreamlike state, a dreamlike experience that isn't necessarily something you
Speaker:expect to experience during the day.
Speaker:So it feels very different, let's say.
Speaker:So that also, I think, could be a reason. And, you know, as I'm sure you're
Speaker:someone who's familiar with the third eye, the pineal gland and all these things,
Speaker:when you sort of activate this additional sense, maybe that is also contributing
Speaker:to, let's say, seeing more, as you described it.
Speaker:Those would be my initial guesses. But I will actually ask Dr.
Speaker:Wunsch this question as well.
Speaker:And surely in a future episode or conversation, we'll be able to discuss further.
Speaker:Right. Now, in terms of typical glasses, the prescription glasses often have this.
Speaker:Kind of faint film, they're kind of clear, and they filter, like you said,
Speaker:like one to three percent.
Speaker:Are those completely useless compared to these yellow ones, which if I remember
Speaker:correctly, filter like something like 30 percent?
Speaker:Actually, they are. It depends what your goal is.
Speaker:But if your goal is to filter some of the blue light and UVA light from the
Speaker:sun, then they're not completely useless because, you know, even Dr.
Speaker:Wunsch, who, again, many biohackers have quoted his work and his lectures as
Speaker:a reason to just get unlimited sunlight.
Speaker:He actually advocates for safe, healthy, reasonable, measured exposure to sunlight.
Speaker:And in excess, he argues that UVA light can be undesirable. And so he would
Speaker:even say that blocking or filtering some of this UVA light with those blue light
Speaker:glasses could be desirable for somebody who's outside a lot.
Speaker:It could reduce the risk of cataracts, macular degeneration, et cetera. However.
Speaker:For the purpose of filtering artificial light from screens and from modern LEDs,
Speaker:which is what they're selling these lenses for, they're saying at the store,
Speaker:if you add this, it'll block the blue light from your screen.
Speaker:They are 100% useless, or I should say 98% useless, because they pretty much
Speaker:filter less than 2% of the concerning light emitted by screen devices and modern LEDs.
Speaker:And it's interesting, Temu, because one of the leading companies in the blue
Speaker:light glasses space that also has clear lenses, but they're slightly yellow,
Speaker:they're able to claim that their lenses have 15 times more protection,
Speaker:but that's 15 times more than 2%, so it's only 30%.
Speaker:With our lenses, we're actually much closer to 95% protection in the range of
Speaker:concern. And that's strategic.
Speaker:We could be a 99.99, but we're not because then the lens would be red-orange
Speaker:as the sunset lenses are.
Speaker:And they actually do achieve those numbers, those 99.9 plus numbers of protection
Speaker:in the range of shorter wavelength blue light, like 420, 430, 440, 450, etc.
Speaker:But the daylight lens is because we want to, as I mentioned before,
Speaker:we want to find a maximum balance between protection and function.
Speaker:Dr. Wunsch has actually said to me, if you see color, you're probably seeing
Speaker:too much light, because in nature, you really wouldn't have had a lot of color in the evening.
Speaker:You might have just had, for example, fire light, which has just yellow,
Speaker:orange, and red. It's almost monochrome, right?
Speaker:So anyway, yes, the clear lenses that most people are getting on their prescription
Speaker:glasses are, it's kind of a ripoff, unfortunately. And we're here to help educate
Speaker:about that and provide a solution that really works.
Speaker:I can tell you just to add to that, it's really, I feel it's an important point.
Speaker:The people who buy those lenses, I talk to them all the time.
Speaker:What's your business? What's your job or whatever? And I explain and they're
Speaker:like, they say, oh, I got those clear lenses or the blue light glasses or whatever.
Speaker:And then I say, are you feeling the effects? And they're like,
Speaker:oh, I'm not really sure. I kind of think so, but I'm not sure.
Speaker:That's how it is with those lenses. With our yellow lenses,
Speaker:we get customer reviews every single day of
Speaker:people who had headaches for years and their headaches
Speaker:went away or they had eye strain and their eye strain went away
Speaker:or they're a nurse in a hospital and it just makes them
Speaker:feel so much better and less stressed and more focused so with
Speaker:the yellow lenses especially Ra Optics which are designed to go above and beyond
Speaker:the other yellow lenses in the space people actually get the effects whereas
Speaker:the clear lenses they're guessing right let's discuss a little bit about the
Speaker:light intensity as well so i remember reading some studies that.
Speaker:If the intensity of the light is really strong, it is also going to disrupt
Speaker:melatonin production so that
Speaker:even with the red wavelengths, if it's really strong, it might disrupt.
Speaker:That's why I'm not worried about using blue light blockers on a very sunny day
Speaker:for eye protection and go to a forest and stuff like this. So is there any basis to that?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. The factors that influence melatonin suppression are,
Speaker:as you said, there's the intensity and there's the wavelength.
Speaker:So the closer you get to 480 nanometers, the more sensitive the retinal ganglion
Speaker:cells are to that light signal.
Speaker:But if you have very high intensity light during the day, it is so intense for
Speaker:these sensors that they still receive the daytime signal.
Speaker:So when I said that you might have an increase in melatonin production wearing
Speaker:the lenses during the day, I was actually aware of this fact.
Speaker:They're not going to cause any massive increase in melatonin that you're going
Speaker:to fall asleep because when you put them on there, you know,
Speaker:you're still getting such a high intensity of light.
Speaker:And that actually brings us to a whole other conversation.
Speaker:I'll just briefly mention that even during the day, these lenses can actually
Speaker:offer different sort of therapeutic purposes or just colored lenses in general.
Speaker:And this is a direction we're actually interested in going more and more as a company.
Speaker:But you can use different lenses for all sorts of different effects.
Speaker:And so this is a very cool topic because just like when you have red light therapy,
Speaker:you know, you take healing, regenerative red and near infrared,
Speaker:and that's good for the body.
Speaker:You know, you don't have the short wavelengths, which are kind of more harmful
Speaker:if you have too much of them.
Speaker:And so in a similar way, if you put on a lens, which is filtering out the short wavelengths of light,
Speaker:but transmitting all of the deep red and near infrared light,
Speaker:you can actually give your eyes kind of like a version of red light therapy
Speaker:if you're outside wearing our sunset lenses on a sunny day.
Speaker:And so even though the biohacker, certain parts of the biohacking world became
Speaker:very dogmatic about a lot of these subjects,
Speaker:like never wearing sunglass lenses or anything, and I was in that world for
Speaker:a while, I realized, no, you can actually use specific lenses.
Speaker:Now, they have to be designed very carefully to make sure you're transmitting
Speaker:the healing and regenerative near-infrared, which some lenses don't,
Speaker:but you can use that in a very strategic way.
Speaker:Can we touch base on those like kind of blue tint lenses on the color therapy side?
Speaker:So what kind of effects would I be assuming to get for using those,
Speaker:let's say, during the day?
Speaker:Yeah, so we call this new lens BlueSync, and it was the idea of Dr.
Speaker:Wunsch after over a decade being in this space.
Speaker:He actually has consulted blue light blocking glasses companies before anybody knew what they were.
Speaker:Way before biohacking was even popular they were already investigating blue
Speaker:light protection and so he had this idea that began stewing many years ago of
Speaker:the perfect complement to blue light protection so the yellow and the red lenses
Speaker:daylight and sunset we call them more like blue light protection,
Speaker:because they're blocking or filtering the vast majority of blue light now on the other hand.
Speaker:During the day, as we've kind of inferred throughout our conversation,
Speaker:it's very desirable to have full spectrum, unfiltered daylight.
Speaker:Sunlight to help regulate and support and strengthen the body's circadian rhythm.
Speaker:So the circadian rhythm, of course, it has two phases, day and night,
Speaker:which are strengthened by light and dark, respectively, of course.
Speaker:And so the way to strengthen the circadian
Speaker:rhythm to increase activity brain function performance and
Speaker:everything is to one get more
Speaker:light during the day especially the blue range of light that activates the system
Speaker:and then less light at night more darkness now the caveat of course is if we're
Speaker:in an office just because that light has a lot of blue light doesn't mean it's
Speaker:ideal because it doesn't have any of the balancing regenerative near infrared.
Speaker:So office light isn't always best or indoor lighting isn't always best just
Speaker:as a caveat. So people don't get confused that you actually would want to have a ton of blue light.
Speaker:Another reason for that, by the way, just a side note, and this is actually
Speaker:relevant getting into BlueSync is that there's this new concept in artificial
Speaker:lighting called a human centric lighting. And it sounds really good on the surface. It sounds amazing.
Speaker:But what it says is that we should make lights which basically increase in their
Speaker:color temperature throughout the day.
Speaker:So as we sit in our office, we should have a light which goes colder,
Speaker:colder, colder, colder until noontime, and it's matching the sun,
Speaker:and then it gets warmer and warmer.
Speaker:Now, it sounds amazing on the surface, right? But as I spoke with Dr.
Speaker:Wunsch and learned from him, he's not a fan of this.
Speaker:There's a reason why, neither am I now that I understand it. It's that...
Speaker:When we're outside in nature, typically we're physically active.
Speaker:We're moving, we're walking, we're running, we're hunting, whatever,
Speaker:generally speaking, right?
Speaker:So when we're outside, we're doing things. And the blue light that the sun releases
Speaker:and stimulates, it stimulates in our body the production of cortisol.
Speaker:And cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone. It moves sugar into our muscles so we can be active.
Speaker:So that's desirable when we're doing things. But when we're indoors and we're
Speaker:just sitting around, it isn't necessarily desirable to have more cortisol.
Speaker:For some people, it may be desirable. But for other people, for example,
Speaker:certain individuals with hypertension or high blood pressure,
Speaker:for example, this would be undesirable to have an increased amount of cortisol.
Speaker:And for anybody who's suffering from excess stress, right, to increase their
Speaker:cortisol through artificial manipulation of artificial light is undesirable, generally speaking.
Speaker:And so, or at least it is, it's a medical intervention.
Speaker:It's a therapeutic medical effect that should be regulated.
Speaker:It shouldn't just be placed upon everybody in a blanket fashion.
Speaker:So BlueSync is very unique because it gives everyone the ability to choose if
Speaker:they would like to have an increase in relative proportion of blue light or
Speaker:color temperature in order to activate and strengthen this hormonal system in
Speaker:the body. So basically...
Speaker:Back to the origin story, but I'll tie this all together. The idea is that there's
Speaker:two parts of the blue light spectrum.
Speaker:There's short wavelength blue light below 450 nanometers approximately.
Speaker:Which is called HEVL, high energy visible light, which doesn't really do a lot
Speaker:of good for us, but it does contribute to the production of reactive oxygen species considerably.
Speaker:And then there's the blue light, longer wavelength blue light above 450 nanometers,
Speaker:until so it's around 400 to 500 and half is the shorter wavelength blue light
Speaker:and half is the longer wavelength blue light and the longer wavelength blue
Speaker:light is the part that's responsible for stimulating the retinal ganglion cells
Speaker:that regulate our body's rhythm and so.
Speaker:What we came up with is the idea that we could reduce the short wavelength blue
Speaker:light, so offering protection,
Speaker:reducing glare, reducing visual stress, and so on, and retinal damage and reactive
Speaker:oxygen species production, while transmitting the longer wavelength blue light,
Speaker:which stimulates and strengthens and activates the body's circadian rhythm,
Speaker:resulting in, and these are the benefits you've asked about, increased.
Speaker:When you strengthen the circadian rhythm naturally, you'll feel an increase
Speaker:in energy, mood, motivation, focus, cognition, and productivity, for example.
Speaker:And so by doing this, it's really interesting. With BlueSync,
Speaker:we're reducing the overall amount of light exposure.
Speaker:So reducing stress and strain and over time physical damage on the eye.
Speaker:Dr. Wunsch says, you know, bright light makes you blind and loud music makes you deaf.
Speaker:And that's really the case. The more stress we put these sensors under,
Speaker:over time they do degrade, although they're capable of being repaired and whatnot.
Speaker:This is essentially how it is. And so there are, of course, many products which shine blue light.
Speaker:I know you've seen them. I imagine you've used them. I've used them as well.
Speaker:They shine blue light into the eye from above the eye, high color temperature light.
Speaker:This is great because it will stimulate the system, but it's not great because
Speaker:it's increasing the light exposure into the eye. And over many years.
Speaker:This can, even if you use it for too long, it can actually cause more degradation
Speaker:of the sensors in the eye.
Speaker:BlueSync is unique because we're able to offer basically the same stimulation
Speaker:without having to increase the total amount of light. It's just modulating the
Speaker:balance of the spectrum.
Speaker:And so BlueSync transmits more of this desirable circadian enhancing blue light.
Speaker:It reduces the rest of the visible spectrum, the green, the yellow,
Speaker:the orange, and a bit of the red.
Speaker:So that we can have the sense of both visual relaxation, basically the same
Speaker:effect people want to wear sunglasses for.
Speaker:It has, and also by reducing the balance of the visible spectrum,
Speaker:we're shifting the overall proportion towards the circadian activating blue,
Speaker:which is increasing the color temperature of the light.
Speaker:And because these sensors largely work on a relative basis, even though the
Speaker:overall amount of light is going down, the color temperature of that light is
Speaker:increasing considerably.
Speaker:So we're getting this stimulating effect. And then blue sink also transmits
Speaker:all of the deep red and regenerative near infrared light, which is healing,
Speaker:supportive and cellular repairing.
Speaker:So people using blue sink, I have to say I was very impressed by how strong
Speaker:the impacts were. I was very skeptical when the idea first came to me.
Speaker:But it's so pleasant, because it gives sort of all the benefits of sun without the strain and stress.
Speaker:I shouldn't say all the benefits, but so many of the benefits.
Speaker:So many of my friends and people in the biohacker world who are very skeptical
Speaker:start wearing them. I would say the first ever healthy sunglass.
Speaker:I don't love to compare it with sunglasses because, again, people get the wrong understanding.
Speaker:But sunglasses have this problem, Temu, where they basically reduce the overall amount of light.
Speaker:They reduce the whole spectrum. So they block UVA and UVB, and then they just
Speaker:reduce the rest of the visible light.
Speaker:Without regard for the desirable effects of this light.
Speaker:So with blue sync, you get the feeling of reduction of stress and visual stress
Speaker:while still feeling the stimulating and activating beneficial energy of stepping into sunlight.
Speaker:But you feel it even more because we selectively are amplifying on a relative
Speaker:basis, this circadian activating blue light.
Speaker:So I guess to put it all together, the problem with most sunglasses is that
Speaker:they weaken your circadian rhythm.
Speaker:They don't strengthen your circadian rhythm because they literally blunt and
Speaker:reduce that good blue light during the day.
Speaker:Our lenses are the first ones, and I actually can't believe it,
Speaker:but they're the first ones ever,
Speaker:ever in the world that actually look at these effects and say,
Speaker:we're going to block the UVA and UVB and the HEVL part of blue light,
Speaker:but we're going to let in the good blue light, and then we're going to reduce
Speaker:the rest and still let in the healing wavelengths of light.
Speaker:So those are the effects of BlueSync, and it's pretty cool, and I highly recommend
Speaker:everyone try it. So far, the feedback has been magnificent, and we sold out
Speaker:very quickly. People have been very anxious to get more.
Speaker:One thing I want to ask you is that,
Speaker:Now there's on the market, especially from Zeiss company, these photo fusion
Speaker:lenses that basically are clear at indoors, and then they become like sunglasses outside.
Speaker:What do you think about that kind of technology? I think it's called a chromatic
Speaker:or self tinting lens. Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's actually a phenomenal innovation. I mean,
Speaker:I'm always a fan of innovation, of technological innovation.
Speaker:I mean, of course, I hope that it that moves us actually forward and it's actually progress.
Speaker:But I think this is a very interesting innovation. But the issue is that in
Speaker:the end, when someone walks outside with this lens on there,
Speaker:instead of the lens turning into a pigment like blue sink.
Speaker:Which supports their circadian rhythm while still giving them selective protection,
Speaker:it's weakening their circadian rhythm.
Speaker:So they're getting all of the, let's say, they're getting all of the bad artificial
Speaker:light or a lot of the bad artificial light when they're inside.
Speaker:And then when they go outside, it's actually weakening their body's circadian rhythm.
Speaker:It should be the opposite. it. It should be that when they're inside,
Speaker:it's filtering the harmful effects of, you know, artificial light.
Speaker:And then when they're outside, it's selectively filtering sunlight to,
Speaker:you know, cut out the less desirable wavelengths while letting in the circadian
Speaker:activating blue lights.
Speaker:So that would be a really interesting technology for us to pursue.
Speaker:The concept is very cool, but in the end, yes, the result is not exactly the most desirable.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely needs to be optimized because outdoors the blue light blocking
Speaker:is something like 94% I've read so it sounds like a little bit too much so definitely
Speaker:your glasses are better outside now.
Speaker:I mean, explain a little bit about kind of the branding collaborations you've
Speaker:done to make these frames.
Speaker:Style is what Italians are known for.
Speaker:And glasses are part of your style, right?
Speaker:So it's such an important decision what frames you're getting with these things.
Speaker:And most of these companies on the market, they just have pretty generic things
Speaker:because it's more like a functional device. You just use it to.
Speaker:Filter or protect yourself from blue light, but they might look silly.
Speaker:So you have really cool frames. What's the idea on the branding side?
Speaker:Yeah, thank you for asking. I'm very excited about it. I'm glad you asked.
Speaker:It is clear after eight years of us running the business and servicing over
Speaker:100,000 people who are really passionate about their health and well-being,
Speaker:that this is a technology, this is a product,
Speaker:this is an innovation that the world really needs.
Speaker:It doesn't just want it, but it needs it.
Speaker:And so now we've been thinking for, I'd say, well over a year about how we can take this to the masses.
Speaker:And we, of course, we had to look at everything. And one of the things that
Speaker:is obvious to us is how many celebrities are using our products from Erling
Speaker:Haaland to Rick Rubin to Jack Dorsey to big American athletes of all different
Speaker:kinds in different sports and so on.
Speaker:And yet, even with such massive, famous people using the products,
Speaker:they don't necessarily talk about it every day because if it's not part of some
Speaker:branding deal or something like that, it might not be something they speak about.
Speaker:Or some of these people, they might just not talk about it because they're very private people.
Speaker:But we realized that if we could figure out a way to work with some of these
Speaker:bigger celebrities to create some kind of partnership, like,
Speaker:for example, a frame of their own, then they might be excited about promoting it.
Speaker:And so that's, as we discussed before we began recording here,
Speaker:that's something that's become
Speaker:really interesting for me and for us as a company because we can then.
Speaker:Basically connect with normal people through the people who they follow and they trust.
Speaker:And those people they follow and trust are often at the cutting edge of health
Speaker:and well-being because they have the money, they have the time,
Speaker:they have the coaches, they have the doctors to focus on the latest innovations,
Speaker:which the average person doesn't necessarily have.
Speaker:So that's one thing is leaning into the power of influence and the power of
Speaker:celebrities and professional athletes.
Speaker:So we just launched our first major partnership with a top 10 men's tennis player
Speaker:named Andrei Rublev, who's from Russia, who's been in the top 10 for four out
Speaker:of the last five years consecutively.
Speaker:So very, very amazing tennis athlete and a great guy as well.
Speaker:So we're very excited to partner with him. We have a lot of common values because
Speaker:he's known as a player who has a strong attitude and temper.
Speaker:Off the court, he's just the sweetest guy, but on the court, he has a strong fire.
Speaker:And he's been learning how to tame this fire and control it and bring out his highest potential.
Speaker:And that's really one of the values of the company is that everybody has this
Speaker:unlimited potential within us, I believe.
Speaker:And we wanna help people realize it and express it and bring it out.
Speaker:And I believe that we can use the science of light as a way to do that because
Speaker:it's such a powerful science.
Speaker:Light has so much power that it's a great way to show people,
Speaker:hey, you do this, you improve your health, you feel better. Now you can do more
Speaker:than you already thought you could do.
Speaker:You know, imagine what else is next. That's basically the idea.
Speaker:You know, you give somebody a little bit of an improvement or even a big improvement
Speaker:in their health and their feelings and how they experience the world.
Speaker:And then the world just can open up for people. The partnerships with athletes are great.
Speaker:And then as far as Italy and the style, I'm really excited about leaning more
Speaker:and more into the fashion part of the products.
Speaker:So just really trying to make the products, something that anybody could wear
Speaker:and not feel guilty or ashamed because they're not as cool.
Speaker:I mean, our glasses are the coolest and the most attractive and highest quality
Speaker:of anyone in this blue light blocking glasses world, in my opinion.
Speaker:And we've gotten a lot of good feedback to confirm that.
Speaker:But our lenses, some of our frames could probably be even more stylish.
Speaker:We could have even more cool styles. So we're really leaning into that. And
Speaker:I'm very excited about that as well so anyway that's my
Speaker:view on the topic and i'm glad you asked wonderful so
Speaker:i can't wait to get my all
Speaker:of these different frames and glasses on my face right now like
Speaker:this oh we'll get you the newest ones yeah like i already
Speaker:got an overview of the selection of lenses and
Speaker:frames that you have and i actually tried
Speaker:the blue ones for my keynote my
Speaker:closing keynote at the hololife summit and it
Speaker:was a killer presentation i think it's one of my best presentations ever
Speaker:it's in the whole sonnet recording package i mean i
Speaker:was in a constant flow so i can that's my customer testimonial
Speaker:for you like it really did work like
Speaker:it lowered enough kind of this intensity of the light around the stage but it
Speaker:gave me a clear vision and didn't distort what i was seeing so it's a cool product
Speaker:and I've been a big avid fan of your I use the yellow lenses I use the yellow lenses.
Speaker:Very often when i'm in front of computer and like
Speaker:i told you about the blue light blockers those i use in
Speaker:addition to evening i sometimes use it for increasing visual
Speaker:perception now if people want to get their
Speaker:hands on these products right now which they should do in my opinion where should
Speaker:they go where can they find more information you collaborate with these researchers
Speaker:so who should they follow if they want to stay up to date with the latest stuff
Speaker:around this light pollution and how to protect from it?
Speaker:So they can go to rawoptics.com. That's R-A-Optics.com.
Speaker:And I believe we'll have a discount code. We do have one for sure for your listeners.
Speaker:So we'll be able to put that in the show notes.
Speaker:But so raoptics.com. And then if the people want to learn more about the science,
Speaker:we really focused on value and providing people with something that actually is helpful for them.
Speaker:People can follow us there to learn more. We've been posting a lot of really
Speaker:great content. We have an amazing social media manager.
Speaker:And then for people to learn more about the overarching vision,
Speaker:the light diet, as I call it, the protocols, tips, tricks, the science of light
Speaker:that people can apply across their entire life as well.
Speaker:That would be the light diet on Instagram. That's my kind of more personal page
Speaker:and where I share things I'm observing as I travel of the world and valuable
Speaker:information there. So that would be The Light Diet.
Speaker:And that's where people can find us.
Speaker:Fantastic. And I can attest to, as a follower of yours, that,
Speaker:You are definitely living the lifestyle you described. So you're getting grounded.
Speaker:You're traveling. You're outdoors.
Speaker:You're using your product. Different place you go to. You're engaged with animals and like water.
Speaker:And yeah, you're pretty much a nature bro. And when you are in a city environment
Speaker:indoors, you got the glasses on. So that's cool.
Speaker:My favorite one is the one where you are in an elevator with those glasses on.
Speaker:I think there is nothing worse than getting stuck in an elevator full of like
Speaker:this lead, like really, really bright, like white.
Speaker:Yeah. The mirrors on the sides. Everything is reflecting. It's metal.
Speaker:It's really rough. You're right.
Speaker:This could be a lot better. We'll have to biohack elevators.
Speaker:That could be a great business.
Speaker:Surely. Absolutely. That's basically a torture chamber right now.
Speaker:So we need to talk to Otis and Kone and get those guys to upgrade those.
Speaker:What I found actually funny to conclude is that with this whole regulation around
Speaker:energy consumption, it's mandated by law in some countries.
Speaker:And I would imagine many of these hotels are actually mandated by law to reduce energy consumption.
Speaker:So they can't even use potentially lights that are producing infrared light
Speaker:and all of that so you have to kind of be the one who is making the illegal
Speaker:deed and kind of smuggles in some.
Speaker:Devices that are actually producing those
Speaker:wavelengths of light and if you don't
Speaker:do that and bring your own lights then you need to you know
Speaker:i think the easiest solution is just to have these glasses on and
Speaker:yeah hope for the best i'll just tell you we've been searching for what i didn't
Speaker:want to do i never just want to take a product from alibaba and put our logo
Speaker:on it and sell it because that's what a lot of the other companies in this space
Speaker:have done and it's just not interesting for me sure we can make a lot of money
Speaker:but we're not really making the world a better place by doing that.
Speaker:And that's what a lot of the biohacking companies have done with red and yellow light bulbs.
Speaker:They're cool and they don't have blue light, but they're not ultimately really scalable.
Speaker:They're not going to change the world. So we we've been looking for a light
Speaker:source for years and looking at the innovative LED manufacturers that provides
Speaker:the highest quality spectrum.
Speaker:And we've actually found the greatest LED ever.
Speaker:I would call it an incandescent led it's
Speaker:actually really really unbelievable that it exists but
Speaker:it's actually it's amazing so basically we
Speaker:have some potentially really exciting developments of light bulbs coming within
Speaker:the next three to six months this is really exciting stuff the future is definitely
Speaker:bright and it's even possible with leds to have infrared a healthy amount of
Speaker:near infrared without exceeding the energy efficiency regulations,
Speaker:depending on the country or the region at this moment, they're always making
Speaker:them stricter and tighter.
Speaker:So it might become a problem down the road, but incandescent lights have so
Speaker:much wasted energy, let's say with far infrared as well.
Speaker:So if somebody could have an led that takes out the far infrared,
Speaker:but still has the near infrared, well, it would be really, really great.
Speaker:And that's what we have found or created essentially.
Speaker:So anyway goods coming can't wait for that i guess we will see potentially that
Speaker:product in next year's events including the whole summit we're probably going
Speaker:to be in amsterdam thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker:Light in the darkness in this moment of time. I learned a lot.
Speaker:And I think this was an excellent episode on the effects of blue light and light
Speaker:in general on health and well-being.
Speaker:Thank you so much, Matt. It takes two to tango.
Speaker:So I really appreciate it from your side as well. Okay. Thank you so much. Ciao, ciao.
Speaker:Thank you.
