Modern LED headlights are bright, white and hard to look past. If oncoming cars leave you squinting, a few things help, and one sign means you should see an optician rather than buy anything.
Start with the free fixes
- Clean the windshield inside and out. A film on the inside of the glass scatters light and makes glare far worse. Glass cleaner and a microfibre cloth, inside first.
- Look at the edge of your lane, not at the lights. Keep your eyes on the road edge on your side while a car passes. Your peripheral vision still tracks it.
- Turn the dashboard and screen brightness down. A bright cabin makes your eyes adjust to the light inside, so the road looks darker and headlights look harsher.
- Use the night setting on the rearview mirror. Flip the tab, or let an auto-dimming mirror do it, so cars behind you do not dazzle you.
- Check your own headlights are aimed correctly. It does not fix other drivers, but badly aimed lights make the whole picture worse.
When a visor helps
A clip-on anti-glare visor puts a tinted panel between you and the oncoming lights. Ours, the anti-glare car sun visor, has a yellow night panel and a darker day panel for low sun. It clamps onto your existing sun visor with no tools and fits visors 11.5–19 cm deep.
To be straight about it: any tinted filter also dims the road. Flip it down when you are being dazzled and back up once the lights have passed. Do not drive behind it all night.
When to see an optician
If glare has got noticeably worse lately, you see halos or starbursts around lights, or night driving feels harder than it used to, book an eye test. Conditions such as astigmatism or early cataracts make glare much worse, and no accessory fixes those.
The short version
Clean glass, eyes on the lane edge, dim the dash. Add a visor for the moments of glare. See an optician if it is getting worse.
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