Can Sunglasses Damage your Eyesight?

Author: Patricia Woloch

Too much sun can damage your eyes. It can lead to vision robbing conditions including cataracts, macular degeneration and even cancers of the eye. Sunglasses with good UV protection can help save your vision by protecting your eyes from the damaging rays of the sun. Those without adequate protection can be worse than wearing none at all.

How your cheap sunglasses may be hurting you

Most of us wear sunglasses for the obvious reason – to make going out in the sun more comfortable. Forgetting your shades on a sunny day makes you squint, makes driving next to impossible, makes your eyes hurt, and can even give you a headache. If you have to be out in it for too long, you wind up tired and irritable.

There is a good reason for this! It’s your body telling you “Don’t do that!”

When your eyes encounter bright light, your pupils contract to block out the excess light. That’s why it takes a few seconds to adjust when you go back inside. They can only contract so far, though.

Tint alone doesn’t block the damaging rays, but it can cause your pupils to dilate letting more light in. So, when your pupils dilate from the tint, they are letting in even more of the harmful UV rays than when you’re not wearing sunglasses at all.

When you wear sunglasses the dark tint dims the light and makes you more comfortable. Since you’re more comfortable, you are not motivated to get out of the sun. You’ve turned off your body’s cues that tell you you’re hurting yourself. You are more likely to spend extended periods of time in the sun when you’re wearing sunglasses, whether they are actually protecting your eyes or not.

Combine that extra time in the sun with dilated pupils letting in more damaging rays and your sunglasses are compounding the damage to vision.

Are your sunglasses protecting you?

To save your eyesight you need to wear sunglasses with 99% or 100% UV protection. Most sunglasses come with a little sticker that indicates how much UV protection they provide. If yours didn’t come with a sticker, or you don’t remember what it said, don’t throw them out! Your eye doctor can test them for you.

Style can make a difference. Sunglasses can let in harmful rays from the top, bottom, and sides. Wraparound glasses can minimize the leaks and glacier glasses can block them out completely, but they’re not appropriate for every activity. You might feel a little silly wearing glacier glasses to the pool. Try wearing a large brimmed hat with your favorite UV protective sunglasses. You’ll be more comfortable, and you’ll protect more skin from the damaging rays, too.

Kids need UV protection, too

Kids are going to spend time outside. It’s inevitable, and it’s good for them. Make sure that your child’s sun glasses are real sunglasses that provide 99% or 100% UV protection, not plastic toy glasses.

Children need to wear sunglasses everyday, not just on sunny days, and so do you! Even on cloudy days and even if they spend most of their time in the shade, UV rays can still be getting to and damaging their eyes.