For years now I have worn sunglasses at all times of the year, come rain or shine, and while I do think they are a vital piece of my identity, I’ve just learned the effect they have on your eyes.
Now that summer is just around the corner, millions of people are hunting through their storage to find last year’s sunglasses. As a form of sun protection, much like SPF, they do far more than accent your outfit. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the memo that sunglasses can be as equally detrimental to health as they are helpful.
The reason I wear sunglasses is more vain than you might think
There are some people out there who are forced to wear glasses for health reasons, but I am not one of those people. My attachment to them began way back in my teenage years, when for some reason, I thought that wearing sunglasses during overcast weather was the perfect symbol of coolness. Shocker, it was not.
While 73% of adults report regularly wearing sunglasses, the act soon became a daily occurrence for me. Whether it was overcast, hailing, snowing, or storming, you could guarantee that I would be wearing a pair.
The effect of sunglasses on your eyes is actually quite scary
Admittedly, I had actively avoided Googling the “effect of sunglasses on your eyes” over what I had already guessed. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that blocking most light from your eyes would cause issues further down the line, and according to American Optical, those issues can be quite serious.
“While sunglasses offer numerous advantages, it’s important to strike a balance and not rely on them excessively, as prolonged use in dim conditions may hinder natural adaptation to darkness,” they penned in 2023.
Firstly, they said that constantly shielding your eyes from the sun can actually make it more difficult for them to adjust to varying light levels. In turn, this can lead to discomfort when simply moving from one room to another. Considering I already experienced said discomfort, the first detriment was enough to keep me reading.
“Our eyes need some exposure to natural sunlight to function optimally and support overall eye health,” American Optical added. “Overreliance on sunglasses may reduce the beneficial effects of sunlight, potentially affecting the production of essential nutrients and hormones in the eyes.”
The glasses brand further explained how wearing sunglasses can limit your peripheral vision, which is the ability to see things not directly in line with your eyes. The same could also be said of your depth perception.
Sunglasses can even affect the innermost workings of your body, with Vitamin D production taking a plunge due to the obstruction of our eyes. Even deeper, sunglasses have been shown to affect our sleep and wake cycles, meaning you could have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep.
I would love to sit here and swear off sunglasses forever, only using them during the summer’s more extreme sunlight, but some habits are incredibly hard to break. The one thing I can say is that the new set of information is not leaving my mind anytime soon.
