Distraction at its best: Are night driving glasses really necessary?

With all those driving accessories around, you must have definitely noticed night driving glasses as well! But what are night driving glasses and how are they any different?

Night driving glasses are the glasses that help one to see better at night while driving. Usually, many of you might have noticed people complaining about reduced vision at night or in low light conditions. It is normally seen with people aged 40 and above. Those people typically switch to non-prescription eyeglasses with yellow-tinted lenses covered with an anti-reflective coating.

How are Night-Driving Glasses Different?

Generally, yellow-tinted glasses are also known as shooter glasses and are popular among hunters. Its yellow tint helps in increasing the contrast against the sky, which helps in spotting an object such as a bird quite easily.

Your normal prescription glasses serve a completely different purpose, these night driving glasses are usually oversized as they can be placed above your prescription glasses if required and provide glare protection with proper vision. As you wear these glasses over prescription glasses, there are chances that one might find it uncomfortable to wear, or it might not fit or adjust properly. In such a situation, clip-on night driving glasses can be used, where one can easily clip their night glasses to their prescription glasses and may remove them when not needed.

During daylight conditions, yellow hue blocks some of the blue light from sun rays. As blue light is a high-energy visible light that is likely to cause glare, the tint is effective to block the light from affecting the eyes in any way. But is the situation the same at night?

Do Night-Driving Glasses Really Work?

It is claimed that the yellow tint helps in reducing glare at night however, there is no scientific proof to back the claim. In fact, there are chances that this yellow tint prevents more light from entering the glasses and reduces visibility in low-light conditions.

A study was conducted in 2019 by Schepens Eye Research Institute (affiliated with Harvard Medical School) to determine if night driving glasses provide visual benefits in nighttime conditions.

The reaction time of all the 22 participants was measured against seeing the pedestrian walking alongside the simulated roadway. The study found that wearing yellow glasses slightly reduced the performance, there was no sign of improved performance.

At night, you have very less time to react to the object on the road, in fact as compared to the day, at night the vision area is significantly reduced and it is majorly dependent on the streetlights, or the headlights from the forthcoming vehicle. In such a situation one cannot risk only limited light entering their eyes while driving.

But if it is recommended by an eye-care professional to the patient to use a particular kind of night driving glasses then they must absolutely follow the instructions.

How to Combat the Situation?

Here are a few tips that one can consider to keep away their vision hindrance at night:

For such vision concerns, one must visit an eye-care professional for a comprehensive eye exam and should take measures as suggested.
Dirt and dust on the windshield make it harder to see, so always keep it clean inside out.
Clean your headlight regularly as dust on them can make the light appear dimmer.
Reduce the dashboard light, which will automatically reduce eye strain and help to see better at night.
Replace windshield wipers at regular intervals and keep them extremely clean.
Consider driving slower at night and pay extra attention on-road.
Clean your glasses regularly with a cleaning solution and a microfiber cloth.
One can switch to anti-glare glasses for night driving needs.

What do we Offer?

Did you know that tinted lenses with a light transmission of less than 75% are not suitable for night driving? Hence, yellow-tinted lenses are not recommended for night driving due to the poor lighting condition.

But the issue of glare is still on priority and for your best night driving glasses in the UK, you can switch to glasses with an anti-glare coating. At Specscart, we are determined when it comes to eye safety, for which we offer free anti-glare coating in all our glasses. And you can wear these glasses both day and night without any hindrance.

They are capable of blocking horizontal rays causing glare and provide protection to the eyes against any unwanted hindrance.