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Driving Newsletter - Tips and Advice on Passing your Driving Test

Night vision glasses that stop the glare

Googly goggles: night driving glasses

  • Have you tried night driving glasses

When anyone says the words ‘night glasses’ an image springs, unbidden, into your mind of SAS army operatives dashing around the dark deserted streets of a Middle-eastern war zone. You think of strange, green-tinged images that make every pair of human eyes look like the baby lemur in ‘Madagascar’, huge glowing orbs of alien proportions…

Thankfully, the night glasses we’re on about don’t have anything like the same effects. Firstly, they’re definitely night driving glasses and not goggles – so you wear them like sunglasses. Secondly, they don’t give you the ability to see in the dark; they simply reduce the contrast between the bright lights of cars and the pitch blackness of the surrounding night. Third, human eyes continue to look the way they always do… apart from your own, because it has to be admitted that wearing night driving glasses does turn you into a Bono wannabe.

Picking the right night time glasses

Night driving glasses differ from sunglasses in that the coloured tints the lenses have are much paler than standard sunglasses (because, of course, we’re not trying to block out light, just mute it a little) and they tend to come in yellows and oranges, which don’t reduce the brightness of oncoming headlights but instead make them easier for your eyes to adjust to. After all, the soft yellow glow from mood lighting is much nicer than the harsh lights of fluorescent strip lighting.

You should also make sure the night glasses you buy have an anti-reflective coating – and the real thing, not just a fake tint. You can be sure of quality if you buy from a reputable seller, such as amazon.co.uk or boots.com.

But watch out…

Don’t just buy night driving glasses and expect the problem to go away. If it’s simply that your eyes are sensitive to light, as many people’s are, then the glasses could go a long way to helping. However, glare from headlights can also be exacerbated by certain eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts and myopia, so if you notice a decline in your vision at night, or find you have real trouble with glare, book yourself in for a check-up at the optician. Many of the conditions which cause extra glare sensitivity can be fixed if they’re caught early enough, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Legal requirements

Bear in mind, too, the legal requirements of glasses and how night driving glasses fit into these. The DSA doesn’t recommend wearing tinted glasses of any kind at night, as they can reduce your visibility too much, and most opticians believe that tinted glasses make little to no difference anyway. In fact, most discourage drivers from buying night driving glasses as they are felt to create more dangers than they resolve. The best way, as always, to avoid glare is to look slightly to the left of the road, and focus on your own headlight beams.