UKC

I have just got my first pair of glasses. My vision is perfectly good, but I was getting headaches, so went for an eye test and they said it's because my eyes are compensating (I have an astigmatism). So they suggested glasses to help. 

I only got them at the end of last week, and not wearing them all the time, mostly just for driving as that's when I felt I was most headachy. So my eyes are still adjusting. 

I always wear sunglasses as my eyes are super sensitive (I got snow blinded about 10 years ago, always been sensitive ever since). So I went for the reactions lenses from Specsavers, but I don't find them very dark. I haven't been back in yet to see if they do darker ones, but from looking online, boots seem to do some which claim to be much darker, even in a car (apparently windscreens have a UV filter to glasses don't react as much). 

I am reluctant to spend silly money at the moment for glasses, given that they are not strictly necessary. However, I am aware that if they don't go dark enough, I just won't end up wearing them and it doesn't solve the headache problem. 

Have any of you gone for the fancier, more expensive, reactive lenses? Are they as good as Cat 3 or 4 sunglasses? Are they worth the money? Specsavers gave me a voucher for 50% off another pair, so if they did do some which were darker, that would be tempting, but I can't see any mention of it on their website. 

I feel like I have entered a whole other world of kit decisions! Lol

I'm also very light sensitive, so have a few pairs of sunglasses.

My only photochromic ones, though, are a pair of Rudy Project with ImpactX lenses and they go pretty dark, so there is variation between brands.

You're also spot-on with the UV, which is what triggers them to darken. I've been on a couple of mountain tops where it's been overcast, but still with high UV, and they've gone too dark to use!

Can't help with Boots/Specsavers specifically - I know Oakley do photochromic prescription lenses, but you're back into "silly" money territory.

I wear regular glasses and have done for years. I tried the photo chromatic ones a long time ago and really didn't like them. They always seemed to go dark at random times.

My current and previous glasses have been from these people. They come with magnetic clip-on sunglasses which are really easy to pop on and off when driving. They're fantastic.

https://international.eco-eyewear.com

My eyes are quite light sensitive so I have the fancy reactive prescription glasses from Specsavers. They work well for driving for me. In fact, they can go so dark that if I come out of the sun and into the house I can barely see until they start to re-adjust.

My wife recently got her first pair of glasses & opted for reactolite (or equivalent) lenses as she seems very sensitive to bright sunshine. According to the optician the pair she has are equivalent to cat 3 suglasses when fully dark. This is in France but would imagine it would be the same in the UK.

And have you found buying online always works out ok? I had seen that you could, but was sure I would want to try them on first to make sure they are comfy. Given that there is no convenient optician near me, online would be a tempting option. 

Hhmmm, they sound very different to mine (or my eyes are far more sensitive?? I guess it's not an easily measurable thing! Lol). So maybe Specsavers do different levels of tint then, I will get in touch and ask. They didn't offer different levels, but did offer different colours. The guy seemed to think the grey was darker than the brown, so that was what I went for, but it's not close to how dark my normal sunglasses are. 

I have certainly found places online claiming to do very dark ones, but the ones I have been given don't seem to be that dramatic. The definitely do tint, but just not enough. 

Do Specsavers still do a deal where the cost of a second pair of glasses is reduced? Rather than get reactive lenses get a standard pair and a pair of prescription sunglasses?

Well no, I'd always buy in a shop and try them (repeatedly) first.

I bought these from an optician in Sheffield (Eyeye) but shared that link as not sure where you are. You can probably find a stockist - likely an independent optician rather than a chain.

Are your glasses prescription? Sounds very strange having glasses if your vision is 20/20.

Ah right. No, won't be a stockist near me. We have one optician here who only opens Tuesday to Thursday and even then not all day. Oban is the next nearest and has a Specsavers and a couple of independent ones, but only Specsavers opens on a Saturday!! The others are only week days.

I will be over in the central belt in a few weeks, so should find something more useful there, but too far to then go back a week later and pick them up! Lol. 

Yes. Basically each eye has an astigmatism, so if I close one eye, my vision is not great. But each eye can compensate for the other, which makes me legal to drive without glasses and good overall vision (no idea if it's considered 20:20, but certainly pretty good). However, each eye is straining all the time to do that compensation, so I get headaches. So there is a prescription, it's my choice rather than being compulsory, but getting headaches regularly is no fun so it seems worth it. 

It sounds like your vision is basically the same as mine. If I can't read something without my glasses (using both eyes) then it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to read it with my glasses. Infact, I don't think I've found anything where that has been the case in the last ten years of glasses wearing. If I forget to take them to work, it's annoying and I will be more tired at the end of the day, but it's not a show stopper, and it's not worth adjusting the monitor. Passing the uk driving test is a doddle without glasses, but I'll normally take my glasses when driving, and certainly at night, where the astigmatism is worst. 

I also have a condition which means uv light is particularly bad for my eyes, so I need to be careful outdoors. I almost always leave the house with a hat and sunglasses. I do a lot of cycling and wear glasses for protection from flying objects as well as uv. I own a lot of sunglasses! 

So, what do I do? I have one set of prescription glasses, which last me 5 or 6 years. I get good quality lenses (hardness, anti reflection) but no blue light filters or such like. I figure I have them on all day at work, so it makes sense to invest.  When I'm driving, I wear my glasses and if it's sunny I have a pair of clip on, polarised sunglass which do a great job - I love getting rid of the dashboard reflections. The clip ons cost about £25-30, and live in the car. My wife can put them on her glasses too, and I expect they will fit my next pair of glasses as well. 

Then for outdoors I have a pair of big mirrored wrap around sunnies for cycling/ running/ sporty outdoors. These have a brown tint in the light that comes though (makes the landscape look amazing, the greens really pop). They are cat 3, but I feel like they're on the light side for cat 3. Given they wrap around they are probably the best for uv protection, and cost me about £120. My second pair are a cheap set of decathlon photochromic cycling glasses - also pretty close fitting. These were my first foray into photochromic and I like the range they give me. I think they claim to be  cat1-3 and it feels like it. They go from a slight tint right through to something that you can get away with in normal bright summer conditions (maybe not a glacier). They do exactly what I want which is to have a set of sunglasses which I can take out on a day of mixed weather, and not suffer if the weather turns really nice. Cost about £40. I'm actively looking for some new ones which look a little less 'cheap', but I have no complaints about the functionality. Generally, it feels like there is a maximum range of 'tint' that photochromic glasses can give, and it can be shifted a bit depending on what the base tint of the glasses is. E.g clear to cat4 is probably not possible, but you might be able to get clear to cat2, or cat2 to cat4. For me, this would be difficult on a single pair of prescription glasses, as I really want them completely clear at work or driving at night, right through to the darker end of cat3 on a really bright day. 

Finally I have a pair of sunglasses which I consider ''fashion" glasses and wear to appease my wife. They are ray-ban look-a-likes which cost <£10 and are a dark cat 3. I wear them with a hat when having lunch with my wife outside in the summer, visiting customers outside for work and such like. I don't care if they get scratched or break. 

A few times I have thought about photochromic prescription glasses as one pair to rule them all, but I think they would be very expensive and still a big compromise, as if they were to be any good in the sun, then it would be difficult to get them completely clear in front of my computer, or when driving at night which are the two places I need them most. To get real protection, they would have to be more wrap-around, which makes it harder to find work-appropriate ones, and besides, wrap around prescriptions are stupid money. Like you, my vision is pretty good, so when cycling I don't bother with any kind of corrective lenses (I don't wear contacts) as realistically, any benefit would vanish the moment I start dripping sweat on them, which always happens quickly when running or cycling. I wouldn't rule the idea out completely though, and might be tempted if I found a two-for-one deal or "second pair £100" or something, but I think my main glasses will always be completely clear ones. 

That was a stupidly long post, so tldr:

Clear prescription glasses with polarised clip ons if needed for driving, and a variety of photochromic and normal sunglasses for outdoor stuff. 

Some useful legal blurb all about it on the AA website. Worth bearing in mind that you're not suppposed to drive in Cat4 sunglasses.

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/safety/driving-in-sunglasses

This can be a problem when driving - going from bright light to sudden darkness as with overgrown tree-lined roads can be interesting! I once had a near-miss because of that. Are some reactive lenses super-fast now?

Thanks, that was interesting. 

My worry with the clip ons is that it's another thing to lose or break or leave in the wrong vehicle!! There is a simplicity in just having a pair of glasses that do it all!! Now, with them not being strictly necessary, I guess it matters less if I do lose them or leave in a different vehicle, but still annoying. 

I don't work at a computer, and use one very little, so I'm not so concerned about that. It will pretty much always be driving. The ones I have now do seem to be totally clear at night, but maybe that's why they aren't dark enough during the day? The reaction range just isn't there maybe. 

I think if I ever got to the stage where my eyesight deteriorates more and I start needing or wanting glasses for most of life, I would likely look at contacts because glasses are never going to be convenient for work, however I am not there yet, thankfully, so for much of life I will just stick to my normal sunglasses which are cheapo ones from decathlon and I am not precious about them!

Thankfully, I don't need to worry about fashion! Nothing else about me even hints at fashion, so no need to worry about that with glasses or sun glasses either! lol

I will give specsavers a call tomorrow and see if they do have ones that go darker, and see what their chat is. Maybe it will need to come to clip ons and I will just need to try to be organised and careful, neither of which are natural traits for me!!

As per the Decathlon sunglasses, get cheapo clip-ons and leave them everywhere; 1 in each vehicle, etc.

I do similar with cheapo reading glasses, upstairs, downstairs, work, car - they still manage to have occasional get-togethers all in one place though 😁

I guess it depends on how many cars you're in. A quick look on amazon finds polarising clip ons for about ten quid. We only have one car, so mine get left in there, but if we had more cars then I think is just get one set for each car, and leave them in the car!

Also, top tip, if you've got some fancy anti-reflective coating on your glasses them these can be ruined by heat, so only wash them under cold water and try not to leave them in the hottest place in your car when you park in the full sun in the middle of summer in southern France! 

We have 2 vehicles, but I drive various pool cars and hire vehicles for work too, so constantly in and out of vehicles. I guess the answer is maybe just to leave the clip on bits clipped on. I seem to remember seeing ones that you don't remove, but rather flip them up when not needed? Maybe that is the answer. I'm sure, like anything else, you find systems which work for your own circumstances, and I'm just at that stage of working out what options there are out there.

No worries about leaving them in a hot vehicle in the south of France, I don't do hot climates so I would only go to the south of France in winter!! Lol.

The problem is, there will be a pair in every rental minibus in Scotland 🤣😂 Not to mention the pool cars in a care company! 

Maybe I need to start pretending to be an adult and actually look after my stuff!

I do some relief work for the local responder service, so going to see old people who have pressed their call buttons. I have left hats in so many people's houses as you are cold getting there, so wear a hat. But then their houses are roasting, so you put the hat down on a side somewhere and by the time I'm leaving I never want the hat on as I am so hot so I forget to look for where I put it! These days, when other carers find a random hat in someone's house, they assume it's mine 🤦🤦😂 I never lose my fleece in the same way as it has the car key in the pocket so I can't go far without that. 

Transition lenses come in different types. The xtraactive and xtraactive polarised both get dark in the car, and always have a very slight tint. 

My son has the xtraactive and finds them good. 

He drives in them in the summer(learning).

Boots should be able to get these lenses fitted, as that's where he got his done. 

https://www.transitions.com/en-gb/products/browse/

If I do any food shopping at lunchtime and there's some fridge stuff, then it goes in the fridge at work until I go home. The only way to be sure I remember is to put the car key in the fridge as well.

But, on more than one occasion I have been blundering about at home time looking everywhere and thinking "where the hell have I put my car key" before the penny drops 🤦🤦🤦🤣

Standard window glass blocks nearly 100% of UV-B and UV-C but allows UV-A through.  My experience with Specsavers reactions lenses in the car is that they don't get nearly as dark in the car, if at all, as they do out in the open  I also wear those glasses for skiing, but under a pair of OTG goggles which also have a reactive lens, and which claim to offer UV protection.  The glasses barely darken at all when I'm actually skiing, but do their thing quite happily when I take the goggles off for lunch breaks at outside tables and so forth.

Other brands of reactive lens may go darker in full sun, but in any situation where a large proportion of UV is blocked I don't think that will make much if any difference, as they probably won't darken significantly anyway.

Bottom line is it may be that reactive lenses aren't the right solution for you when driving.

It seems there is such a thing as a dual glasses case (I'm learning here too!), so I guess you could keep glasses and clip-ons together, which would mean if you've got the glasses, you've got the clip ons and vice versa. Saves leaving them in every minibus in Scotland (or at least raises the stakes if you do!)

Glasses direct do a free service where you select frames (up to 5 I think) and they mail them to you to try on.

I have had single vision distance and reading glasses from them with no issues.

If you have a complex prescription (varifocals or whatever the technical term for a squint is) then I wouldn't use them, as there's no substitute for proper measurements by an optician.

For single vision they're worth a go, and you can send them back for a refund if they don't work for you.

Maybe I need to stick my head out the window periodically to darken them!! Apparently they take a while to fade, so should work 😜😂

Interesting, one to look at at some point. This thread has me wondering about just trying the clip on sun specs for now, so maybe don't need more glasses yet, but I'm sure I will break or lose them at some point so worth knowing about. 

I don't know really what single vision means, or whether my prescription is complicated. I'm guessing it's not hugely complicated, I don't think it's very strong (whether that makes it complicated or not I don't know!)

Single vision is you'll have a prescription which gives one correction for each eye, which sounds like what you have.

One you get into varifocals, where you have a separate correction for near, intermediate and distance vision it gets more critical that an optician measures you for the glasses.

I've always had Reactions lenses from Specsavers, and they showed me a chart to ask what colour I wanted them. I chose the darkest they had as I can be sensitive to bright sunlight too. I find them fine for day or night driving. Reactions lenses do tend to slow down their fade in/out times as they age, I've found.

You're not kidding! When reactive treatment started I was sponsored by Scott goggles who proudly launched them not only for skiers but off-road racing. Balls-out into a dappled woodland proved to be a big mistake, I hit the third tree.

Wow! 

Transitions lenses are faster than they used to be. Always faster going dark then going light again. Probably still not for super bright to dark quickly.

Freezing them is allegedly a trick to make then even faster afterwards.... But not sure if it's actually a real effect. 

I'd definitely look at transitions xtraactive polarised. One downside is that they don't polarise in the car, but do darken in the car. 

They are better than old style transitions, but bot quite as good fixed darkness polarised lenses in terms of polarisation. 

Clear to dark in 25s and return to clear in 2minutes??? At 60mph that's two miles of trees to hit!

Astigmatism describes the shape of the eye ball being rugby ball shaped.   I am short sighted and have astigmatism.  The latter means the prescription for my short sightedness needs to correct for it. I don’t have headaches or anything like that.

You can get prescription sports sun glasses, wrap round etc , and get them with Cat 4 lenses for the high mountains.

Yeah, so far I haven't particularly found myself headachy after being in the mountains, presumably I don't feel the need to focus so much or need to change my focus point at the same speed or something. So, for now anyway, I don't think I need anything with a prescription for the mountains. My normal decathlon sunglasses should continue to be fine for that I think. For now, it's just driving, so I want a flexible option so I can drive in all conditions in them. I couldn't be bothered with switching between prescription sunglasses and normal glasses as conditions change in driving!

They're not joojanta 200 peril sensitive sunglasses. 

You can still see through them when they're darker. But I agree they aren't that quick. Possibly about the same time as trying to swap from sunglasses to normal glasses in the car. But not as quick as flipping up clip ons...  Which have only ever been cool for one person every in history

Driving, or worse still cycling into a tunnel can be desperate with photochromic specs. You just have to remove them or crash into some unsuspecting cyclist coming in the opposite direction.

Oh, and be careful how you clean them, as using paper tissues etc quickly removes the coating, because it's too abrasive.

What do you do if you're driving in sunglasses and go into a tunnel or into a tree tunnel? 

That applies to all spectacles, not just photochromic ones.