Suffering with photophobia causes intense pain when too much light enters the eyes.  This makes it impossible to do just about anything without wearing glasses for light sensitivity to shield the eyes and prevent the many symptoms. 

Let’s take a look at what glasses help with light sensitivity and how photosensitivity glasses will improve your vision, reduce the pain associated with it and improve the quality of your life.

What is photophobia?

The strong intolerance to light is a neurological condition. It causes a miscommunication between the receptors in the eye and the brain and can be associated with many other conditions, such as migraine, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-concussion syndrome, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, and others.

Some medical professionals claim that photophobia isn't actually a condition at all. Rather it’s the result of migraine headaches, dry eyes, and swelling inside your eye. As these things are commonly linked to light sensitivity.

What causes photophobia?

There is no single cause of photophobia, in fact, it is not exactly known if photophobia is the symptom or the cause. However, light sensitivity is claimed to be linked to the connection between cells in your eyes and a nerve that goes to your brain.  One of the most common causes is migraines. It’s said that up to 80% of people that have photophobia suffer from migraines but many of them are light sensitive even if they do not have a headache. 

But migraines aren’t the only type of headaches that cause photophobia. Many people who get tension and cluster headaches seem to have a sensitivity to bright light.  

There are a few brain conditions that can cause photophobia,

• Meningitis 
• Serious brain injury
• Supranuclear palsy, which is a brain disorder 
• Tumors in your pituitary gland

There are also some eye diseases that cause these symptoms, such as

• Dry eye
• Uveitis 
• Keratitis
• Iritis
• Cataracts Corneal abrasion - a scratch on the cornea
• Conjunctivitis 
• Damage to your retina, the light-sensitive layer in the back of your eye
• Blepharospasm 

There have been certain medications that have been known to cause photophobia, such as: 

• Antibiotics, including doxycycline and tetracycline.
• Furosemide (Lasix)
• Quinine (Qualaquin)

How do you know if you have photophobia?

In order to determine if you have photophobia, you’ll need to see your eye doctor. During your visit, you’ll discuss your symptoms and any medical conditions you have. And then they'll examine the health of your eyes. 

Here are some of the tests that identify photophobia: 

• Slit-lamp eye exam. Using a special microscope the doctor will use light to examine your eyes.
• MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging to get a detailed image of your eyes.  
• Exam of the tear film. The amount of tears you make will determine if you have dry eyes.

What is the best treatment for photophobia and light sensitivity?

When it comes to treating photophobia and light sensitivity it is to first uncover the underlying cause of the condition. If the underlying cause is medication that you are taking you’ll want to stop taking the medicine. This should clear up the symptoms.

Wearing super dark sunglasses helps to relieve the symptoms of photophobia. These lenses are called FL-41 and often provide relief from migraines. Wearing photophobia sunglasses is one of the best ways to treat light sensitivity.

Can glasses help photophobia?

For people that are naturally more sensitive to bright light, glasses are probably best. The tint on the glasses help to protect the eyes from the bright conditions and make them more comfortable. 

However there are different photosensitive glasses that help reduce the effects of light sensitivity.

Xperio Polarized technology was created in 2009 and has quickly become one of the most popular choices for photophobia. By combining this technology into your lenses you can provide comfort in your eyes by eliminating glare, and UV light. Your perception of color will improve and many of your symptoms will improve as well. And if you combine polarized technology with these lenses you can further protect yourself from light sensitivity in style. 

Because bright light often happens suddenly, depending on the lights and it’s brightness when you enter the room or walk outside it’s important that you are always protecting your eyes. This sudden burst of light will be extremely uncomfortable and lead to having a headache, along with other symptoms and completely ruin the day. There are some prescription glasses for light sensitivity that use transition light intelligent technology. This technology allows your eyes to adapt automatically to these sudden changes in light whether it’s UV light or visible light. There’s a subtle tint to these lenses that helps to reduce glare and the harshness of lighting that will improve your comfort.

Wondering what are the best glasses for light sensitivity? Often, your eye doctor can help determine what type of lens is best based on your specific situation and prescription light sensitivity glasses that have photosensitive lenses.

How Photophobia Glasses Reduce Symptoms

Reflections, and bright lights or change in lighting can aggravate photophobia. And when this happens it can cause pain and discomfort. Photophobia glasses help to reduce the symptoms of migraine headaches, dizziness, nausea, eye pain, squinting or blinking, visual disturbances, and more by blocking the wavelengths that enter your eyes. By reducing the light and reflections from entering your eyes from all angles it will reduce and sometimes eliminate symptoms.

Light sensitivity photophobia glasses

When you have photophobia the exposure to any light can potentially impact the quality of your health and affect your day. Some of these things that can trigger or worsen your symptoms include fluorescent lighting, LEDs, computers and other types of devices.  These light sources are high in blue light which causes a pain response for those with light sensitivity. 

You can block out the blue light by wearing blue light blocking glasses. 

Where to find Photophobia Glasses for Sensitive Eyes?

If you’re searching for sunglasses for light sensitivity ShadyVEU has an extensive line of tinted glasses for light sensitivity and sunglasses for photophobia. There are many colors of tints to choose from. Here are the different tints and the type of comfort they offer, 

Brown Colored Lenses

Brown lenses do a great job of blocking light from your eyes and also boosting contrast. By improving contrast you improve eyesight. If your eyes have low contrast you’ll find that it’s difficult to see the differences between objects and the background.  This generally happens when there isn’t enough light.  

Gray Colored Lenses

Gray colored lenses are one of the most popular tint colors. This is mainly due to its performance in most situations. It has the ability to block out most light transmission and does not alter the colors that you see. This simply means that how you see the colors with or without the glasses will remain the same, nothing will be altered by the tint.

This color tint for light sensitivity glasses is a great choice for controlling the symptoms of photophobia. These are perfect for daily use whether you're driving or enjoying various types of outdoor activities such as running, or riding a bike

Rose or Red Colored Lenses

Rose colored lens are the tint of choice for most people with light sensitivity. They provide many great benefits such as blocking blue light, reducing glare and improving your eyesight when driving. These can be worn for extended periods of time providing hours of comfort when driving or staring at electronic devices. 

Yellow Colored Lenses

Yellow tinted lenses are excellent at filtering out blue light and the perfect solution if you are exposed to blue light for long periods of time. The more blue that is blocked the less eye strain and fatigue you experience. These have been the most popular tint for night driving because of their ability to improve your vision at night.