Night Driving Vision Woes
If you experience vision issues at night – such as blurriness, glare and multiple images – while seemingly having great eyesight in the daytime, you are not alone. Vision problems at night, particularly while driving, are prevalent among the general population. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Mubashra Tahir and Dr. Andrew Bock – two awesome optometrists who practice at JCP Optical locations across the country – to gain a more thorough understanding of how to deal with such issues.
Dr. Bock explained that as people age, cataracts will sometimes form that dim night vision and can make glare worse. According to Dr. Tahir, there may also be other diseases at the root of nighttime driving issues. While they are rare, it is certainly worth getting a comprehensive eye exam just to be sure.
Both doctors commented that age is not the only factor contributing to nighttime driving issues. Younger patients have this issue as well, particularly if they are nearsighted, says Dr. Tahir. Working at your laptop for too long without a break, for instance, can contribute to dry eyes, thereby worsening glare at night, says Dr. Bock. In addition, exposure to UV rays, as a result of not properly protecting eyes with sunglasses when outdoors, can contribute to these issues as well. Finally, as Dr. Tahir points out, sometimes even wearing your contacts for too long, or not having the perfect fit, can make the cornea swell leading to vision issues at night.
So if you are plagued with these issues, what can you do? Your first goal is to schedule an eye exam ASAP. At the appointment, your doctor will perform a comprehensive eye exam to gain an understanding of what is going on with your eyesight as well as to rule out any other serious underlying causes. Then, you will be prescribed special lenses, called anti-glare or non-glare, to diffract light enabling you to see more. A clear coating is applied to the top of the lens, or built within the lens itself, to reduce reflections off the lenses.
Not sure if your glasses already have this coating? Just hold them up to a light. Is there a reflection coming back onto the lens? If there is, then you do not have this special coating. Once you get this coating for your lenses, you will see what a huge difference it will make in all nighttime activities. Happy driving!