How To Help Your Eyesight While Driving At Night

Do you feel confident and comfortable with your sight when you drive?

As eye care specialists one of the most frequently asked questions we come across is ‘How can I make my driving vision more comfortable and improve glare especially when driving at night?’.

Glare refers to the debilitating dazzle and unwanted reflections that a large proportion of us experience and suffer when we drive, especially at night. Glare can come from all directions and different sources. Including flat surfaces, headlights, traffic lights, street lamps and the sun. Bright sunlight causes visual discomfort and blinding glare caused by reflected sunlight in some cases can even be dangerous.

Good eyesight is fundamental when it comes to preparing your journey and travelling on the road. With the right driving lens solution you can turn the driving experience from an inconvenience into a real pleasure. No matter what the weather or the time of day.

What makes up the best driving lens solution?

This can be broken down into 3 areas; the correcting lens design, the corrective lens technology and the lens enhancement.

Each part of the lens is vital when you’re on the road. Whether it is correcting an eye condition so you can see clearly, protecting your vision from glare or enhancing your clarity when you’re on and off the road. A lens built for driving will help you no matter what vehicle you have.

Correcting Lens Design

Ensure your prescription is up to date to give you the clearest vision possible. Corrective spectacles may be required in order to meet the legal driving requirements. Your Optometrist will advise you on this. The following lens designs offer the best driving visual solutions:

For wearers under 40 

If you suffer from long-sightedness (hypermetropia), short-sightedness (myopia) and/or astigmatism you might have to correct your vision with glasses to meet legal driving requirements. Even if you don’t need your glasses for driving, it’s recommended to still wear your distance vision glasses to ensure you have optimum vision whenever you’re on the road.

Solution = Essilor Road Pilot

Delivers high resolution and wide fields of vision over the entire lens. So you can see the road and any hazards clearly. Essilor Road Pilot lenses even enhance the contrast to improve your ability to react to changes on the road.

For wearers over 40+

Presbyopia is a natural part of ageing. This is where your near vision starts to weaken due to the lens within your eye losing flexibility. Symptoms usually start to occur from your early 40s.

Even if you’ve had perfect eyesight before, you may find that you need to hold your phone a little further away. If left uncorrected you could be on the road with less sharpness than what’s necessary in order to remain safe – for you and others.

Solution = Varilux Road Pilot

Optimised for all vehicles, Varilux Road Pilot lenses deliver wide fields of vision. Giving you a clear peripheral vision, which is perfect for driving.

Corrective Lens Technology

For Strong Sunlight and Glare

Whether you’re driving to the coast for a holiday, spending the sunny days visiting friends and family or just driving to and from work, you spend a lot of time on the road and will most likely face bright sunlight. Bright sunlight can cause visual discomfort. Blinding glare caused by reflected sunlight in some cases can even be dangerous. Glare is caused by light reflecting off flat surfaces, such as roads, bodies of water, ice or snow. The light becomes concentrated horizontally, which can be very uncomfortable for your eyes.

Solution = Xperio Polarised  (Daytime Driving)

Polarised lenses are specifically designed to eliminate bright and unwanted reflections. The unique filter in polarised lenses block out the intense glare that follows. Allowing only vertical light to enter your eye. Wearing polarised lenses for driving can enhance your visual comfort and make it safer for driving. Xperio Polarised lenses offer enhanced colour perception compared to tinted lenses. Making it easier to see in bright light conditions. They also offer the highest level of UV protection within the Essilor range. This is incredibly important when maintaining healthy eyes and vision.

For Artificial Lights and Glare

Lights at night can create reflections and glare on our spectacles. They can come from all directions and different sources (headlights, traffic lights, street lamps). Turning the driving experience into an convenience more than a real pleasure.

Solution = Crizal Drive (Daytime and Night-time Driving)

Lenses can create reflections; however a lens coating will enhance their performance. Crizal Drive has been specifically designed to aid with driving during the day and throughout the night. It reduces the number of reflections, up to 90% less reflections when driving at night. Resulting in comfortable vision and improved visual acuity.

For Changing Light Conditions

When you’re on the road and your journey involves you driving through the evening into dusk you’ll experience a change in external lighting conditions. Sometimes we don’t have the opportunity to pull over and change from sunglasses to clear lenses. Sunglasses are the ideal solution for bright sunny conditions but for those times when the weather changes, you can find yourself trying to swap between your glasses every time the sun goes behind the clouds.

Solution = Transitions XTRActive  (Daytime and Night-time Driving)

Light intelligent lenses will adapt to changing light conditions, tinting when UV is present and clear when the sun isn’t out. Modern windscreens of vehicles block UV light meaning that standard photochromic lenses will not adapt even in the brightest conditions. Transitions XTRActive technology will adapt to visible light as well as UV. Making it an ideal component for your lenses for driving. By adapting to visible light, your glasses can tint to the required amount to combat glare, but will be almost clear when the sun has set, meaning you don’t have to change your glasses.

Lens Enhancement

For enhanced Night Vision

With a lack of light sources when driving on certain roads at night, your vision can be impacted negatively. This is due to the fact that vision with low light is mostly produced by rod cells. Instead of cone cells which are responsible for peripheral vision, colour vision and depth perception. Which are very important when it comes to driving.

Solution = Crizal Drive (For Daytime and Night-time Driving)

When driving at night it’s important to get as much visible light through your lenses so that you can see clearly and distinguish colours and shapes. Make sure you wear lenses that reduce reflections and glare so that majority of the essential light reaches your eyes.