Football Forum | Ticket Forum | Off-Topic Forum | All

kirok1 8:10 Tue Oct 25
Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Anyone else have varifocal contacts and seem to have problems focussing properly after dark? My eyesight is crap but has always been fine with specs or my lenses.
I used to wear single focus ones but getting older has seen me switch to the varifocals. I did wonder if my eyes were just tired but I seem to be having problems driving at night. Not massive, but irritating. Enough to be inconvenient but not to be a big worry as yet.
I've been checking articles online but wondered if anyone on here has any issues as no one else I know uses them.

Cheezey Bell-End 1:00 Wed Oct 26
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

I was needing multifocals after a lifetime of poor eyesight.. Instead I had my natural lenses replaced. So now at 49 I can see well without glasses and hopefully will for life. Driving would have been a challenge in the first months though.

kirok1 12:41 Wed Oct 26
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Beginning to think going back to single vision lenses and reading glasses may be the best option. Never had this issue with them.

Scaleyback 11:58 Wed Oct 26
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

They couldn't get the prescription quite right for me to have vari-focal contacts. I struggled at both distance and close up, with neither being as good as I'd have expected.

I now have one lens for distance and one for close up and they're great. Took a bit of getting used to at first as the brain needs to adjust, but after a few days they were OK.

I wore them for last Saturdays game and I could actually see who was who when play was at the other end of the pitch, which I haven't really been able to do for a while now.

I also considered single vision lenses for distance and getting a cheap pair of reading glasses to put on as and when required.

Briano 5:00 Wed Oct 26
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

I tried those night vision glasses where you see the hot spots, they were useless I nearly crashed the car

ray winstone 9:07 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

I tried MF lenses but I wasn't that impressed to be honest.
In bright daylight I managed to read small print like newspaper and WHO on my mobile, as soon as it got gloomy I found myself having to use my reading glasses again.
Also, my distance vision was never good with theses lenses so I bobbed them off and plumped for varifocal glasses, I love em.

jack flash 9:05 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Sorry for the echo ~ I forgot this site doesn't like the less than symbol!

jack flash 9:03 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Another relevant point is the amount of light lost by reflection at the lens surfaces
People often look at a lens & assume that because it's made of a clear material, that all the light will pass through it, which is simply not so
Somewhere between 15% & 20% of light is lost through reflection (which is obviously more significant in dark conditions). That figure can be reduced to less than 0.5% by using a good anti-reflection coating
Anti-reflection coatings can be particularly beneficial for night driving
I often used to hear people saying that the trouble with A/R coatings is that the lenses always appeared smeary/smudged
The fact is that those smudge marks are there whether or not the lenses are A/R coated, it's just that the smudge marks are far more visible when the lenses are A/R coated
The simple answer to that is to keep the lenses clean!

jack flash 9:02 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Another relevant point is the amount of light lost by reflection at the lens surfaces
People often look at a lens & assume that because it's made of a clear material, that all the light will pass through it, which is simply not so
Somewhere between 15% & 20% of light is lost through reflection (which is obviously more significant in dark conditions). That figure can be reduced to

kirok1 8:44 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Sorry Jack, meant blur v pinhole as bright light tends to be better anyway, obviously.

kirok1 8:43 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Thanks, Jack.
I've been experimenting here at home. Lenses definitely less effective than my glasses in low light - dimmer switch - conditions.
Trouble is, I also have this problem when my eyes are tired and I've been sleeping badly lately. Could be so many variables,
Just wondered about it as it's not bad enough to be a worry but number plates are definitely less clear at night and I get annoyed if there's a smear on the screen at the best of times.

Found this article - https://consumer.healthday.com/eye-care-information-13/eye-and-vision-problem-news-295/multifocal-contact-lens-not-ideal-for-night-driving-645835.html

But it's old and I've only been wearing them this year. Doesn't seem to be anything newer.
Your comments about bright v low light are spot on, btw.

jack flash 8:37 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

Hi kirok1
I was an optometrist but retired about 3 years ago, so i might possibly be able to shed some light on the matter (pardon the pun!)
Generally speaking, progressive (varifocal) lenses will have some degree of peripheral distortion, most markedly in the lower peripheries
The amount will vary with design. Some (usually older) designs are have larger areas of distortion (hard) while some have smaller areas of (more marked but compressed) distortion (soft)
I would assume that this distortion would become far more obvious when looking through a larger pupil (pupils will dilate in dark condition)
The other possibility, (which should also apply to single vision lense) is that the "pinhole effect" will be lost as the pupils dilate
You will notice how your vision improves, without glasses, when you screw up your eyes (forming a pinhole)
When we see things "blurred" or "out of focus" we are actually seeing the same image repeated a number of times (blur circles). Reducing the number of repeated images (blur circles) will make the final image clearer (the pinhole effect)
The Victorians actually made Pinhole Cameras. No lenses, just a pinhole!
Don't know if this entirely explains your observations, but it does offer a couple of possible explanations

riosleftsock 8:35 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

My eyesight has always been shit when driving at night. I stopped doing it year ago.

stomper 8:16 Tue Oct 25
Re: Driving at night in mutlifocal lenses

No