Even if your distance glasses prescription isn’t very strong, put them on at the start of any long trip. You’ll tire less quickly and feel better at the end of the drive if you are not straining to see.
Keep your windshield clean inside and out. Filming on either side of the windshield can cause a veiling glare when bright light hits it, and every bit of road spatter on the windshield becomes two bits of annoying spatter (one for each eye) when you are looking at a far distance.
Your rear view mirrors should be adjusted properly, and that should be done after you have the seat positioned, and never use the vinyl cleaning and brightening agents on your dashboard because they make the veiling glare effect of reflected light from the dashboard worse.
Be sure you are not tilting your head into a chin-up position as you drive. This can cause you to have eyestrain and even distance blur from your prescription lenses. Adjusting the seat upward and tilting the steering wheel downward may help you keep a good head position.
Wait until the sun is fully up before putting on sun lenses for driving, and take your sun lenses off before dusk sets in. Dusk and dawn drive times are known to be times at which you need all the light you can get for safe driving.
Your eyes will tend to get tired if you simply stare straight ahead on long road trips, so keep your eyes moving as you check your mirrors and potential hazards from either side.
Make a point of “triple blinking” (i.e., three fast, full blinks in quick succession) every few minutes especially if your eyes feel dry and have a burning sensation.
Don’t stare at bright incoming headlights. A prolonged look at bright lights will mean a prolonged glare recovery period after you look away from them.
Blinking lights such as another driver’s turn signal or the lights of an emergency vehicle can hold your visual attention long after those lights are no longer relevant to your safety.
Take frequent stretch breaks and stop before you start feeling tired on long road trips. While on break, turn your eyes up, down, right, left and toward all directions in between as far as you can. This can refresh the muscles that aim your eyes, and it will tend to ward off eye fatigue.
The above suggestions are “reprinted by permission of 20/20 magazine and the Jobson Optical Group”
