Holiday Road Trips After Dark: Headlight Glare, Cataracts and Why Yellow Night-Driving Glasses Fall Short

Since the clocks fell back, the drive home in Los Angeles happens in the dark, and Thanksgiving road trips on the 5, the 101 and the 405 often end after sunset. If oncoming headlights seem harsher than they used to, you are not imagining it, and a pair of yellow “night driving” glasses is probably not the fix.

What a driving study showed about yellow lenses

Advertising for yellow-tinted lenses claims they cut glare and improve night vision. Hwang and colleagues tested that claim in a nighttime driving simulator that reproduced glare from oncoming headlights. In the study, summarized by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, 22 adults drove scripted scenarios with three commercially available yellow lenses and with clear lenses. Yellow lenses did not improve how quickly drivers spotted pedestrians, under any condition, compared with clear lenses. In one of the scenarios, older drivers were also much slower to respond than younger ones (1.5 seconds vs. 0.3 seconds).

Common reasons night driving gets harder

• Cataracts. A clouding lens scatters light, which turns headlights into starbursts and halos.
• Dry eye. An uneven tear film blurs vision and adds glare, especially on long drives with the heater blowing.
• An outdated prescription. Even a small uncorrected change matters more in the dark.
• Dirty windshields and old headlights. Clean glass inside and out before a trip.

Before your holiday drive

• Get an eye exam if glare has worsened over the past year.
• Plan to drive the longest stretch in daylight when you can.
• Take breaks every couple of hours and use artificial tears if your eyes feel dry.
• Skip tinted lenses at night. They reduce the light that reaches your eyes.

If an exam shows a cataract is behind the glare, here is an overview of how cataract surgery works at our practice.

Many of my patients tell me night driving was the first thing they gave up. It is often one of the first things we can help them get back.

Source: Driving at Night: Do Yellow-Tinted Lenses Improve Vision? (American Academy of Ophthalmology (summary of Hwang et al., JAMA Ophthalmology, October 2019)). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.