"Ever since we created electric light 125 years ago, we've been living in a perpetual summer," says Fred Maxik, the chief science officer of light bulb maker Lighting Science Group. Perpetual summer might sound downright pleasant. But it comes at a price.

Most evenings, before watching late-night comedy or reading emails on his phone, Matt Nicoletti puts on a pair of orange-colored glasses that he bought for $8 off the Internet. “My girlfriend thinks I look ridiculous in them,” he said. But Mr. Nicoletti, a 30-year-old hospitality consultant in Denver, insists that the glasses, which can block certain wavelengths of light emitted by electronic screens, make it easier to sleep.