Dazzling headlights, halos around street lights, fatigue at the wheel: night driving is one of the times we see least well. Many online shops sell yellow-lens glasses marketed “for night driving”. We sell tinted lenses, and we'd rather tell you clearly: they should not be worn to drive at night.
Why a tinted lens is a bad idea at night
At night, the problem isn't too much light, it's too little. Any tinted lens — yellow, amber or orange — removes part of the light reaching the eye. In the dark, every photon counts: less light means less contrast on a pedestrian in dark clothes, a cyclist or an animal at the roadside.
The European standard on filter lenses (EN ISO 12312-1) actually provides for this: a lens that lets through less than 75% of light is not suitable for driving at dusk or at night. The tinted lenses of our “evening” models — SAFRAN, DUNE and BRAISE — are designed for screens at home, not for the road.
What about yellow “night” glasses?
They give an impression of sharpness and contrast, which explains their success. But an impression isn't a measurement. A driving-simulator study by researchers at the Schepens Eye Research Institute (Harvard), published in 2019, found no benefit of yellow lenses on detecting pedestrians at night, with or without headlight glare. Ophthalmologists don't recommend them for this use.
And clear anti-reflective lenses?
Perfectly clear lenses, with no tint and an anti-reflective coating, let through most of the light and reduce stray reflections on the lenses themselves. If you don't need a prescription, wearing glasses brings nothing in particular at the wheel. If you wear prescription glasses, a good anti-reflective coating on your corrective lenses is valuable at night: ask your optician.
What really helps against glare
- A clean windscreen, inside and out. The greasy film on the inside scatters headlight glare and creates halos. It's the leading cause of avoidable glare.
- Properly adjusted headlights — your own, so you don't dazzle others.
- Looking towards the right-hand edge of the road (the left-hand edge where traffic drives on the left) when a vehicle approaches, rather than into its headlights.
- A dimmed dashboard. Overly bright screens in the car reduce your adaptation to the dark.
- Breaks every two hours, and never drive when drowsy.
- An eye test. Increasingly bothersome halos at night can signal a prescription that needs updating or, with age, an early cataract: it can be detected and treated.
The right routine
Do you wear tinted lenses in the evening in front of a screen? Put them in their case before getting behind the wheel, and keep them for home. During the day, your clear lenses can stay on without any problem. To understand everything about tints, read yellow, amber or orange lenses: what's the difference?