Disclaimer: I didn't write this to tear anyone down. I wrote it because the light crisis affects everyone I care about.

Your teenagers are struggling with depression and addiction. Your parents are dealing with insomnia and metabolic dysfunction. Your friends are battling seasonal depression and low energy.

They're not suffering because they need better filters. They're suffering because they're starving for the light that would heal them.

And if products claiming to solve the light problem actually worsen light starvation for 95% of people... someone needs to say something.

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Why the newest "circadian optimization" trend might be starving your biology

Picture this: You wake up, put on sunglasses that promise to "optimize your circadian rhythm," and step outside into natural sunlight.

Those sunglasses then proceed to block the exact wavelengths your body needs to actually optimize your circadian rhythm.

Sound backwards?

Welcome to the most confusing health trend of our time: blocking the sun and calling it innovation.

Many people have asked what I think about RA Optics' new BlueSync sunglasses and their bold health claims.

I've always respected RA Optics and Matt Maruca as fellow light warriors on the same mission: to solve the light problem and restore humanity's connection to sunlight.That's what makes this hard to write. However, after witnessing their latest product launch, I have to ask: Are we solving the same light problem?

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The Reality That Changes Everything

Innovation isn't just a cool idea. It's an idea that solves a massive problem.

It doesn't just look good in marketing: it creates real, measurable outcomes in human health and wellbeing.

But this so-called 'innovative' product that RA Optics launched?

It doesn't solve the problem. It worsens it.

I also want to be clear and fair: RA Optics isn't the first company in this industry to launch sunglasses.

BonCharge introduced UV-blocking glasses in 2021. Roka sunglasses—endorsed by Andrew Huberman—expanded from traditional sunglasses into blue light blockers.

When companies sell both sunglasses (that block beneficial natural light outdoors) and blue blockers (designed to protect from artificial light indoors), it reveals a fundamental confusion about the light problem itself.

The light problem isn't that we need better ways to block light everywhere.

The light problem is that we're getting the wrong light at the wrong time—artificial light when we need darkness, and missing natural light when we need it most.

Companies truly focused on solving this would never sell products that worsen it.

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Let's look at the reality and the science:

Have you ever wondered why vitamin D deficiency is skyrocketing globally?

90% in the Middle East. 75% in India. 70% in Southern Europe. 80% in North America.¹⁻⁴

Despite most of these countries being sunny almost year-round.

How is this possible?

People aren't getting too much sun. They're starving for it.

Why? Because we've been programmed to fear the very light that would heal us. We are told to use sunscreens and sunglasses when we step outside.

Meanwhile, we're living indoor lifestyles under artificial lights: the junk light that's destroying our hormonal balance from the inside out.

We've flipped our relationship with day and night upside down

And yet, we now launch sunglasses that block UV and shortwave blue light: the very signals your body uses to produce vitamin D, synchronize your clock, and activate your biology?

That's not innovation. That's bio-blindness wrapped in a marketing campaign.

This brings us to a fundamental truth about what light really is:

"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do." — Galileo Galilei

Light isn't just something we see. It's not brightness.

It's pure information: the most sophisticated biological language ever discovered.

Every morning for 3.8 billion years, life has received the same message from our star: a precise sequence of wavelengths that tells every cell when to wake, when to repair, when to reproduce, when to rest.

Your mitochondria speak this language fluently. Your hormones rise and fall to its rhythm. Your neurotransmitters dance to its beat.

Here's the truth that changes everything: Quality of light = quality of life.

But what happens when we distort that ancient conversation? When we filter the very frequencies that carry the most critical information?

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The Science That Reveals The Problem

In 2002, scientists discovered melanopsin: special cells in your eye that don't help you see, but help you live.

They respond to blue light around 479nm and tell your brain "it's daytime."

This discovery was revolutionary. But here's what happened next:

Some companies took this one discovery and built an entire product around it.

BlueSync's logic: "Melanopsin needs 479nm blue light. Let's give it only that. Problem solved!"

But that's like saying: "Your heart needs oxygen. Let's give it only oxygen: no blood, no nutrients, no other gases."

Here's what they missed:

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Your Eyes Are Not A Single Light Switch

Think of your eye like a piano. Melanopsin is just one key.

But to play beautiful music, you need all the keys working together.

Here are the other biological keys that BlueSync silences:

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1. Neuropsin (OPN5) - Your Happiness Factory and Daily Fuel System

Picture your morning without neuropsin working:

You hear your alarm. Instead of that little spark of "Let's do this," you feel... nothing. Heavy.

Like someone wrapped your motivation in wet concrete.

You know you should exercise. You planned to exercise. But the very thought feels exhausting. You scroll your phone instead.

You sit down to work on that project you were excited about yesterday. But now? It might as well be watching paint dry.

Your brain feels like it's running on dial-up internet.

Here's what's really happening inside you:

UV-A light hitting neuropsin creates three critical brain chemicals that control how you feel every day:

• Tyrosine converts to DOPAMINE = Your motivation chemical. Without dopamine, everything feels pointless and exhausting.
• Tryptophan converts to SEROTONIN = Your happiness baseline chemical. This determines whether you feel content or overwhelmed by small problems.
• Serotonin converts to MELATONIN at night = Your sleep chemical. This makes you naturally tired in the evening.

Block UV-A light, and this entire production line shuts down.

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2. POMC Gene - Your Built-In Medicine Cabinet

Here's what POMC actually does for your daily life:

POMC is a genetic switch in your retina that only activates when UV and short-wave blue light hit your eye.

When it works, it releases your body's internal pharmacy:

• β-ENDORPHIN = Your natural opioid. Pain relief stronger than prescription drugs, plus that amazing feeling after exercise.
• MELANIN PRODUCTION = Your built-in sunscreen factory. Gradual protection so you can enjoy the sun safely.
• DNA REPAIR MECHANISMS = Your cellular maintenance crew. Keeps skin young, heals cuts quickly.
• INFLAMMATION CONTROL = Your body's natural anti-inflammatory system. Prevents joint pain and brain fog.
• STRESS HORMONE REGULATION = Your cortisol timing system. Energized mornings, calm evenings.

Melanin: Your Body's Ultimate Defense System

Most people think melanin is just about getting a tan.

It's actually your body's light-activated superpower molecule that:

• Protects you from UV damage (natural sunscreen that builds gradually)
• Acts as a potent anti-inflammatory agent (reduces swelling and pain)
• Has anti-parasitic, anti-mold, and antioxidant properties
• Regulates appetite and metabolism

Without enough UV light: you burn more easily, inflame more quickly, become more vulnerable to toxins, and your metabolism becomes dysregulated.

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3. S-Opsin - Your Reality Anchor

What you lose:

• Reduced ability to read facial expressions accurately
• Decreased emotional responsiveness to your environment
• Less empathy and social connection

Real-world result: You feel more emotionally numb, less connected to people around you, harder time picking up on social cues

Research shows that people with S-opsin dysfunction often experience:

• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
• Social anxiety
• Difficulty with emotional regulation
• Reduced motivation to spend time outdoors

When you artificially block S-opsin with sunglasses, you're essentially creating temporary S-opsin dysfunction.

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The Piano Analogy That Explains Everything

Imagine you want to "optimize" piano music. You discover that middle C is important for many songs.

BlueSync approach: "Let's make glasses that only let you hear middle C. We'll block all other notes. Now you have optimized music!"

The obvious problem: You don't get better music. You get one repetitive note.

Your biology works the same way. Each wavelength of light is a different "note" in the symphony of health.

When you block most notes and only allow one through, you don't get optimization. You get biological noise.

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The Missing Science: Your Cellular Battery System

Here's what most people don't know:

The battery of your cells isn't built by food, caffeine, or supplements. It's built by light and water.

Picture your phone battery slowly dying throughout the day. Now imagine that happening to every cell in your body.

Dr. Gerald Pollack discovered that water transforms into a fourth, gel-like phase when exposed to full-spectrum light.

This "structured water" (EZ water) acts like a biological battery, storing energy and powering every cellular function.

Your eyes are the most energy-hungry organs in your body—like having a Tesla that needs constant charging.

They're made of surfaces perfectly designed to structure water when exposed to UV light.

What Happens When BlueSync Blocks UV:

No UV = No structured water = No cellular charge

Think about what happens when your phone battery starts dying:

• Everything runs slower
• Apps crash more often
• Basic functions become sluggish
• Eventually, it shuts down completely

That's exactly what happens to your eye cells:

• Your eye's water battery never fully charges
• Your mitochondria run slower
• Your cells can't detox properly—toxins accumulate
• Risk of neurological degeneration increases

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The Blood Flow Connection You're Missing

UV-A light (which BlueSync blocks) releases nitric oxide from your eye's mitochondria.

Think of nitric oxide as your body's natural traffic controller:

• Increases blood flow to your eyes and brain
• Enhances oxygen delivery
• Regulates eye pressure
• Supports detoxification

Block UV-A, and you're essentially creating traffic jams in your most critical organs.

The result: Higher risk for glaucoma, retinal degeneration, and neurological problems—the very issues these glasses claim to prevent.

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The Marketing Problem

If RA Optics had simply marketed this product for what it really is—"sunglasses"—we wouldn't be having this conversation.

If they had said, "Here are specialized sunglasses for people riding bikes in blinding sunlight, or mountaineers on high-altitude glaciers facing extreme glare, or sailors spending 12 hours on reflective water," then fine.

For those specific scenarios, in those extreme environments, for limited durations, a UV-blocking lens might make sense.

The problem is that it's being advertised as the hero "circadian-activating lens" that will get you all the benefits of proper light exposure while filtering out the very frequencies that make those benefits possible.

In the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, 95% of people have vitamin D levels below 60 ng/mL

That means 95% of people who buy these BlueSync sunglasses or any other 'wellness sunglasses' are already impaired by insufficient UV light.

When they wear these glasses outdoors, they'll exacerbate their poor health.

The Teenagers We're Failing

A large portion of the target market for these glasses includes teenagers already suffering from skyrocketing mental health issues.

Addiction, anxiety, depression, and seasonal affective disorder.

Wearing these sunglasses outdoors during the day will further deprive their brains of naturally produced opioids like beta-endorphin.

These are normally stimulated by UV, violet, and shortwave blue light entering the eye.

With over 44 million teenagers in the U.S. alone and 9 million diagnosed with clinical addiction, their brains are already starved of full-spectrum light.

These BlueSync sunglasses and other sunglasses sold by wellness companies are the wrong tool for the wrong population at the wrong time.

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Final Words

This conversation isn't really about sunglasses.

It's about the future of the light health movement.

The light health movement is too important to lose to marketing confusion.

We need clarity, not clever positioning. Science, not speculation.

Solutions that serve population needs, not niche markets packaged as universal truths.

For the 95% already light-starved: the answer isn't better filters.

It's proper timing, gradual adaptation, and reconnection with the natural rhythms that heal.

When we start calling filtered sunlight a health upgrade...

When we brand biological disconnection as optimization...

When we sell blocking nature's intelligence as innovation...

We don't move the mission forward. We confuse people who are already confused about light.

The movement I want to be part of is one that:

• Prioritizes the wellbeing of people over marketing appeal
• Develops technologies that solve the light problem, not make it worse
• Works with nature's intelligence, not against it

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About VivaRays

Our Vision

VivaRays was founded on a simple mission: Help people reconnect with their natural rhythm so they can remember what their body has always known: how to heal, energize, and flow.

You weren't meant to live this tired. You think you're broken. You're not.

You've just been living in the wrong light.

By 2030, one million people feel like themselves again—clear-minded, naturally energetic, at ease.

They rise with the sun, rest with darkness, and sleep like children—deep and restorative.

We create easy-to-use tools rooted in the physics of nature, designed to block harmful artificial light indoors while maximizing beneficial natural light outdoors.

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References

1. International Journal of Endocrinology (2020). "Vitamin D Deficiency in the Middle East and North Africa"
2. Indian Journal of Medical Research. "Vitamin D Status in Indian Population"
3. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "Vitamin D Deficiency in Southern Europe"
4. CDC, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). "Vitamin D Status in North America"

Questions about light, biology, and natural health optimization? The conversation continues in the comments.