What glasses do I need for driving at night-time and twilight?
Driving at night time or twilight is often far more dangerous due to drivers' difficulty to see clearly. One of the difficulties from driving at these times is the glare from headlights, brake lights and reflective surfaces. Glare can be worse for those wearing prescription glasses, which is why it's important to speak to an optometrist if you are going to be wearing glasses while driving at these times.
Your optometrist can talk to you about adding an anti-reflective (AR) coating to your glasses like Ultraclear to help reduce glare when driving at twilight or night time. An AR coating works by eliminating light reflections from the front and back of eyeglass lenses. This coating is especially useful for high-index lenses, which tend to reflect more light than plastic lenses.
High-index lenses are often used for stronger prescriptions, which often means more light is reflected off the surface of the lens. When reflection is eliminated from lenses, it means more light is available to the eye, making clear vision easier. This is especially useful for night-time driving, when light is already reduced.
An added benefit of an AR coating is that it makes it easier for other people to see you when you're wearing them. Without the coating, they may see a reflection of light when looking through your glasses, but with an AR coating, the lenses will appear near invisible so they can clearly see your eyes and expressions.
In addition to this, some people will opt to add an AR coating to their glasses if they spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen. The light emitted from the screen can reflect on glasses that don't have the coating, causing discomfort after long periods of time.