Ease Your Light Sensitivity Discomfort with Nike Prescription Sunglasses

Light sensitivity, also called photophobia, is discomfort caused by light. For those with mild sensitivity to light, only bright lighting bothers them. For those with an extreme sensitivity, almost any lighting is uncomfortable. Light sensitivity isn’t caused by any one ailment or disease. Instead, it’s a symptom of a number of possible underlying problems. These include:

• Eye injuries. Burns, corneal abrasions, and corneal ulcers are three common eye injuries that produce light sensitivity.
• Drugs. Phenylephrine, atropine, cyclopentolate, vidarabine, cocaine, and amphetamines can cause light sensitivity.
• Infection.
• Chemical trauma. This produces corneal ulcers.
• Corneal drying.
• Contact lens overwear and misuse. This causes injuries that lead to light sensitivity. Leaving contacts on too long deprives the cornea of oxygen, which causes tissue death. Sleeping with contacts on, dries out the cornea, while improper placement may trap an abrasive particle against the eye.
• Eye inflammation.
• Eye surgery recovery.
• Migraine headache.
• Snow blindness.
• Little or no eye pigment. Dark pigmentation of the eye protects against bright lighting. Those with light-colored eyes (such as blue) as well as albinos can be sensitive to bright light.

Relieving Light Sensitivity

If you don’t know the underlying cause of your light sensitivity, see your doctor. It could be a serious condition that can worsen with time. The information given here doesn’t address underlying causes, but will make you more comfortable during your treatment and recovery from your ailment. Reducing light sensitivity discomfort amounts to reducing your exposure to bright light.

When indoors, use thick window drapes and dark-colored lamp shades. Use indoor lights with a dimmer control so that you can adjust their brightness to comfortable levels. Never wear sunglasses indoors because they cause the eyes to adapt to the artificial darkness and therefore increase light sensitivity.

When outdoors, wear a wide-brimmed hat and a pair of sunglasses. If you wear prescription glasses, clip-on sunshades are a convenient choice. However, this may not be optimal, especially if you are highly sensitive to light. The frames of your regular glasses probably don’t block out as much light as possible.

Wraparound frames are best suited for this. They reduce the gap between the lenses and your face through which light can penetrate. Nike prescription sunglasses are available in several frame styles including wraparound. They also have many lens coating and tint options that cut down brightness and glare. These are:

Dark Tints

Dark gray and dark brown tints do the best job of cutting down the overall brightness level. Dark gray doesn’t distort color perception while dark brown only causes minimal color distortion. On the other hand, brown does enhance contrast. An alternative might be transition lenses that adjust their darkness according to external brightness levels. However, they won’t work inside cars and therefore aren’t viable if you drive. Some users find that they don’t darken enough in bright sunlight.

Polarized Lenses

Polarized lenses that include a tint color, such as gray or brown, are preferable to a simple dark tint. Polarized lenses block the blinding glare you often see reflected off water, snow, sand, wet pavement, and car windows. A simple tint merely darkens the glare.

UV Protection

Ultraviolet protection doesn’t reduce the discomfort of light sensitivity. However, it’s absolutely vital when wearing tinted or tinted/polarized glasses outdoors. The reason is that darkened glasses without UV protection expose your eyes to greater UV damage than wearing no glasses at all. Dark tinted glasses cause your pupil to open up more than it would without the glasses. This allows more damaging UVA and UVB into your eyes. Make sure the prescription eyewear blocks all UV light. Otherwise, you will have to get a UV protection coating applied.

Do you have prescription sunglasses customized for light sensitivity? If not, get a pair of Nike prescription sunglasses with the frame style and lens options recommended above. Contact us if you require assistance.