We often tend to look on eyewear as a type of accessory, like a bracelet or another piece of jewelry. In other words, something that has value, but fashion-related value. The truth is, eyewear has a lot of practical advantages to it, even if you don’t actually need a prescription.
We teamed up with the folks at Vision Direct to give you some more insight into why eyewear is useful to all of us, even while and if we have good vision. Here are some of our findings:
-UV protection: being out in the day means your eyes get totally bombarded with sunlight, and that’s not a one hundred percent good thing. People talk about how you need to be exposed to sunlight for Vitamin D and a whole bunch of other reasons bla bla bla, but as far as your eyes are concerned, the less intense light the better. And the lower the latitude or the higher the altitude, the more of a problem this should be. Get glasses with a good UV layer on them.
-Blue light protection. Should you wear your sunglasses at night, like the sun says? The facts are, this can be incredibly beneficial. Truckers and other professional drivers who drive at night have known this for decades, and tend to sport lenses with some sort of yellowish color layer. Many indoor environments are artificially heavy on the blue light as well, and this can severely mess with your body’s hormonal system, among other things.
-Anti-reflective layer. This is another absolute must if you have to drive a lot, but in general beneficial for people at night. The next time some idiot drives past you with his or her brights on blast, you will be grateful if your lenses have this layer incoporated. Be careful how you care for your lenses too, as this is the last and most sensitive layer to be applied, and the first to go if your lenses get worn or scratched.
-Safety for motorcyclists. In hot climates, or if you’re particularly warm-blooded, and if you ride a motorcycle, you need glasses of some sort. True story, someone was doing 130km/h on the open road with his visor up because it was a hot day, and he got a wasp right in the eye. Fortunately, his eye was barely saved by surgery, but just to illustrate the potential risk. So if you’re wearing any kind of helmet with no visor, or no helmet at all (NOT RECOMMENDED ANYWAYS), at least have the common sense to protect your eyes, especially if you are going to be on any sort of a highway.
