Night driving is the complaint we hear most in autumn, and it is not imagined. Oncoming headlights genuinely are brighter than they were, more cars sit higher, and the eye’s tolerance for glare genuinely does change with age. Some of that is fixable and some of it is not, so it is worth separating them.
Start with the prescription, not the lens
In dim light your pupil opens, and a larger pupil is less forgiving of an out-of-date prescription. A small uncorrected astigmatism that you never notice in daylight can become a visible starburst around every headlight at night. Before buying anything, have the prescription checked — this is the most common cause and the cheapest to address.
What genuinely helps
- An up-to-date prescription, checked specifically with night driving in mind
- A good anti-reflection coating — it reduces the reflections bouncing off the lens surfaces that turn one headlight into several
- Clean lenses and a clean windscreen, inside and out; a film of haze scatters light and does more damage than people realise
- Dipping your gaze to the nearside line when a car approaches, rather than looking at it
- Dimming your instrument panel, so your eyes are not adapting between bright and dark
- Having your eye health checked — cataract is a common and treatable cause of worsening night glare
The thing we will not sell you
Yellow-tinted “night driving glasses” are widely sold and we do not recommend them. A tint removes light, and at night you need the light you have. They can reduce the subjective sensation of glare while measurably reducing how well you see a pedestrian in dark clothing, which is the wrong trade to make at 60 mph. If a tint is being offered as a solution to night glare, that is a reason to ask more questions.
When it is the eye rather than the glasses
Glare that has become steadily worse over a year or two, particularly with a sense that colours have dulled or that you need more light to read, is worth having looked at. Early cataract scatters light inside the eye and no lens or coating outside the eye can compensate for it. It is extremely treatable, and knowing is better than adapting around it. What a cataract is and when it is treated covers this.
If you wear varifocals
Check how much of the lens you are actually using for the road. In some frames the distance zone is smaller than people expect, and at night the eye is working harder anyway. Some drivers do better with a dedicated pair for long night journeys; most do not need one. We would rather measure it than assume either way.
And the honest limits
Nothing available removes glare. Coatings and an accurate prescription reduce it; they do not remove it, and any product sold as doing away with night glare altogether is overstating what optics can do. There is more detail on the options in our guide to night driving glasses.
If headlights have started to bother you, the first appointment to make is an eye test — not a purchase.← Back to the Journal
