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How Polarising Lenses Help People Who Work Outdoors

If you spend most of your working time outdoors, then the environment you work in can affect your health and your ability to do your job. While you already take measures to protect yourself, such as wearing sunscreen and a hat on sunny days, working outdoors can have some surprising effects.

For example, if you're out in the sun all day, then your eyes may suffer. You may get regular headaches. Your eyes may feel tired and you might find it hard to focus on your job.

When you mention this to an optometrist, they may recommend that you get a pair of glasses with polarising lenses. What are polarising lenses, and will they help you?

What Are Polarising Lenses?

Polarising lenses go through a special chemical coating process. They look just like regular lenses; however, their coating makes them handle light differently. They specifically target the glare you sometimes see when things are bright outside.

Glare can affect your vision. This light isn't broken up before you see it; it's typically directly reflected off something. It shines directly into your eyes making it hard to focus and see. You often have to squint to see through glare.

Polarising lenses filter this light for you by blocking it. This turns glare into a less intense light and prevents it from affecting your vision or making you strain your eyes. They basically turn the glare down, turning it into more natural light.

Will Polarising Lenses Help You?

Glare can affect outdoor workers in various ways. As well as physical problems, like eye strain and headaches, glare might prevent you from working at full stretch. If you're struggling to see properly, then you may have to stop working until the glare dies down or you can find a better position out of direct light.

If this is a problem for you, then switching to polarising lenses could be a viable solution. For example, this may make life easier for you if you're a landscape gardener, farm worker or pool builder.

However, these lenses aren't useful in all jobs or tasks. Their coating can affect your ability to see certain things clearly, like some computerised screens. You also need to be careful with these lenses if you're driving. They don't always work well with some dashboard displays or in low-light driving conditions.

Your best bet at this stage is to talk to your optometrist about your job. They can help you decide if it is worth getting a pair of glasses with polarising lenses for work.