Night Driving Glasses
Night driving glasses are becoming more and more popular in recent times with drivers complaining of blinding glare from oncoming traffic at night time more so now than ever however are they all they’re cracked up to be?
Ever since vehicles were lit at night with oil lamps drivers have complained of glare, however the issue is becoming more prevalent and more dangerous as time goes on for a number of reasons. Modern vehicles are equipped now with completely different lighting technology and often additional driving lights and fog lights which ultimately put out much higher levels of light. These of course are designed to light the road better and create a safer environment for the driver of that vehicle, however if they’re not correctly aligned or are used in the wrong conditions they often play havoc with oncoming traffic! The good news is that with the use of an anti reflective coating on your night driving glasses you don’t need to continue to suffer and put your life and the lives of others at risk.
The issue of night time glare from oncoming traffic is very much an individualized issue and is often experienced most by middle aged to older drivers. Interestingly, if your eyes are lighter in color the issue of night time glare is likely to affect you more than someone with darker colored eyes. There are also other personal factors which may increase your sensitivity to night time glare such as past eye surgery affecting your corneas.
What are Night Driving Glasses
There are products specifically promoted as night driving glasses, however you need to be cautious about the use of these. Typically they are designed with a yellow tint which theoretically blocks the wave lengths of light which cause the most troublesome glare at night. The issue with these types of glasses is that regardless of the special tints used, any tinting reduces the overall light levels reaching the wearers eyes which isn’t exactly a safe proposition. The less total light reaching your eyes, the lower your overall ability to see. You’re much better to purchase prescription lenses with an anti-reflective coating. To find out more about his read about glare reducing glasses.
Other Tips To Reduce Glare
In addition to anti-reflective coatings on your night driving glasses there are other things you can do to reduce the impact of glare . Ensure that any clear surface between your eyes and the road is kept squeaky clean. Any dirt causes light to refract, creating a glare situation at night. The cleaning includes both sides of your windshield (inside and out) and both front and back surfaces of the lenses of your eye glasses. Schedule a thorough cleaning of all of the interior surfaces of your car windows at least once per month a more regularly if you’re a smoker. Even under ordinary use, heat from the sun causes the release of chemicals from the plastics used in your car interior which build up on glass surfaces.
Chips or cracks in windshields should be repaired immediately. Even if you’re wearing night driving glasses, the imperfections in the glass will create a huge glare problem with oncoming lights.
The major benefit of polarized sunglasses is that the lenses are able to significantly cut down the amount of glare reflected from non-metallic shiny surfaces. Examples include the glare reflected from the surface of water (lakes, rivers, the sea) or from the shiny surface of a wet road. Because of these properties, polarized sunglasses are extremely popular with anglers because they allow the fishermen to see through the surface of the water where normally only silvery glare would be seen with regular sunglasses. The ability to cut this glare from reflected surfaces only works when the reflection is coming from certain angles though (
First let’s look at the properties of light. When light’s reflected off of a smooth or flat medium or surface, rather than being scattered and dispersed in multiple directions, the light is reflected mainly in the horizontal plane (in other words, the light is polarized). Polarized sunglasses have the lenses coated with a special substance that blocks the passing through of this horizontally polarized light and only allows vertically polarized light to pass through. You can experiment with this phenomena by either tipping your head over to its side or rotating your polarized sunglasses 90 degrees and noticing how reflections start to reappear and disappear again as you the light blocking properties re-orientate to horizontally polarized light.