Polarized sunglass lenses definitely do provide for a better pair of sunglasses. Since polarized lenses decrease the damaging, harmful glare from the sun reflected on flat surfaces, they provide clearer vision, relieve eye strain and reduce the chances of permanent eye damage. With all these benefits, it is surprising that all sunglasses don’t provide polarized lenses, except for the added cost.
One of the major ways you experience long term eye strain is from light reflection when driving. You don’t realize the long-term reflection that you experience from the road beneath you, as well as reflection from the engine hood and from oncoming vehicles. On a regular basis, your eyes adjust to a great deal of harmful glare while driving and doing many everyday things as light is reflected off many different materials.
The way polarized lenses work is a matter of eliminating light from multiple reflected planes. When sunlight falls on any reflective surface, the light which is reflected becomes “polarized,” that is, a substantial amount of light moves in one plane, but not all of the light. Normal light tends to move on different planes. Polarized lenses are responsible for allowing only light which is in one plane to go through the lens, so some of the glare can be diminished. As long as the light reflection is coming from between a 30 to 60 degree angle, the lenses will cut down the glare. The “hot spots” of glare in a view will be reduced and made to look as normally lighted as the rest of the view. The strong contrast of glare areas are eliminated from our view and, in a sense, the “reality” of the view is distorted.
This point leads to disagreement about the virtues of polarized lenses when used in some sports. Some claim that it is necessary to know where there are areas of high glare and high contrast so that the reason for the glare is known and recognized. For instance, a downhill snow skier might mistake ice patches as ordinary snow and this could lead to dangerous consequences.
On the other hand, some argue that a downhill snow skier wearing polarized lenses would have the ability to recognize the surface appearance of dangerous ice patches that he would have missed due to the glare. These experts claim that polarized lenses are quite appropriate for outdoor sports like boating, water sports, as well as in-line skating, mountain biking, jogging, golfing, surfing, driving and more, since the elimination of the high glare allows for better fast judgments, actions and reactions.
While polarized lenses are used by many engaged in professional sports, they are fabulous practical additions to anyone’s everyday life and eye care. With these, your eyes can relax and take in any view which you can see in greater detail because you are not distracted by the glare. In fact, one wonderful development of polarized lenses is the polarized photochromic lenses that will darken or lighten to accommodate to the available light when entering or leaving a building or location. In addition, polarized lenses for sunglasses come in tones of black, brown, green and amber and, fortunate for the fashion-conscious, they are a feature of numerous high-style designer sunglasses!