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For a while, I used to be someone who wore sunglasses almost any time I went outside. It was something that I just did automatically, especially as someone with blue eyes that seemed more sensitive to the sun. Today, though, I want to talk a little bit about some of the reasons why I stopped wearing sunglasses most of the time and what I do to protect my eyes instead when needed and also about the history behind sunglasses and what sort of effect they can have on our bodies.
Of course, whether or not you choose to wear sunglasses, it's still important to protect your eyes at times and avoid looking directly at the sun. Everyone's situation is different, so there might be reasons why sunglasses would be more necessary for you and for your eyes than they are for me. And this article is just information I learned and my own personal experiences and not medical advice. You should talk with a medical professional if you have any concerns about your eye health.
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A Brief History of Sunglasses
Sunglasses as they are used today are really a very modern accessory when you look at the history behind them. This article covers the history of sunglasses and gives a good overview spanning several centuries including pictures of some early types of sunglasses. Essentially, the earliest forms of sunglasses were for protection from the glare from the snow or on the water. The Inuit created unique goggles with slits in them to protect their eyes from the reflection of the sun on the snow, and then Italians in Venice created special green-tinted glasses to protect their eyes from the reflection of the sun on the water in the canals they were traveling through.
In the early 20th century, tinted glasses were worn by those in the film industry to shield their eyes from the very bright lights that were used during the film-making process. And then when people saw celebrities wearing them sunglasses started to become a fashionable accessory instead of just a functional one for protecting the eyes. As the 20th century went on, more and more people started wearing sunglasses on an everyday basis.
So, up until the 20th century, protective eyewear similar to sunglasses was worn by certain people in specific situations that involved some type of intense brightness or glare, but the average person wasn't wearing sunglasses in the past. During the 20th century, though, sunglasses became an everyday accessory that nearly everyone wore even when they weren't exposed to the glare from snow, water, etc.
Why I Go Without Sunglasses Most of the Time
The main reason why I started going without sunglasses more and more often has to do with getting natural light exposure and the body's natural circadian rhythm. In the past, I had known a little bit about circadian rhythm, but I didn't really know many of the details about light and about how the timing of light that can affect our circadian rhythms and ultimately the health of our bodies.
Recently, though, I've been learning more about the topic of circadian rhythm and I've found it really fascinating to learn about the ways that the light we are exposed to can have an impact on our health. I also think it's neat to see the connection with a Biblical and a historical perspective to see how the sunlight that God created can be so beneficial to our health and to think about the fact that people in the past had lifestyles that were much more aligned with a natural circadian rhythm since they often spent more time outside exposed to the natural sunlight and since they weren't exposed to the artificial sources of light that we have today.
The topic of circadian rhythm is more complex than I had originally realized, but just to give a really quick summary the basic concept of circadian rhythm is that our bodies have a system of "clocks" that are controlled by the spectrum and brightness of the light that we are exposed to (or the absence of light with the darkness at nighttime) and that when our lifestyles are out of synch with the natural rhythms of light and darkness it can end up having negative effects on our health.
This post gives a great overview of the different systems in our bodies that can be affected by circadian timing including everything from our digestive systems to our skin to our cardiovascular system, etc.
Since the amount of light in the sky and the spectrum of light in the sky are cues for setting our circadian rhythms and giving our bodies the correct signal for what time of day it is, we want to make sure that we are getting those signals throughout the day. Wearing sunglasses all of the time outdoors can end up altering those signals, though, because sunglasses are tinted to block out some of the spectrum of light from the sun, changing the signal that our eyes receive about the light and the time of day. Sunglasses also really decrease the brightness (measured by lux) that our eyes are seeing which also impacts our circadian rhythms.
Here are a couple of resources about this topic:
- Sunglasses: The Wrong Signals to Your Brain and Your Mitochondria
- The Truth About Sunglasses, Screens & Blue Light: Eye Doctor’s Perspective w Dr. Valerie Giangrande
There are still some situations where I feel like sunglasses are necessary, and I talk about that more below, but now I spend a lot more time without sunglasses than with them because I want my eyes to see the correct signals about the light and the time of day to help with aligning my body's circadian rhythm with the sun.
Sunglasses and Sunburns
I've also heard that wearing sunglasses can actually make you more susceptible to getting a sunburn because of the mismatched signal between what your eyes are perceiving and the light that is hitting your skin. I thought that was pretty fascinating to learn about. This topic is a bit more controversial when you search for information online, but it it makes sense to me that blocking the signal to the eyes could affect the way the skin reacts to the sun. This article talks a bit more about that in the section around halfway through about the eyes telling the skin when to defend itself.
Of course, I'm not saying that going without sunglasses means that you don't have to worry about getting a sunburn anymore. It's still very possible to get burned if you stay in the sun for too long whether or not you are wearing sunglasses and it's still important to be careful about the amount of sun exposure you get to avoid burning.
The amount of sun protection each person needs would vary based on skin type, location, time of year, etc. but the way that I like to approach it for myself is to gradually adjust to sun exposure in the spring and then whenever I reach the point where I feel like I need some protection to go into the shade or cover up with more clothing, or wear a mineral based sunscreen if neither of those options is possible.
The topic of sun exposure and sunscreen is another potentially controversial topic, and again none of what I'm saying should be taken as medical advice, but this is the way that I choose to handle sun exposure based on my research and what I've learned over the years. I also tend to tan easily and don't burn often, so I don't worry about it as much as I would if I had skin that burned very easily.
How Glasses and Contacts Can Still Affect Your Circadian Rhythm
I don't personally wear glasses or contacts, so for me taking off my sunglasses means that I am seeing the natural daylight in it's complete spectrum. I've heard, though, that a lot of eyeglasses and contact lenses will block some of the light spectrum, especially UV light, so if you wear glasses or contacts then that might be something to take into consideration.
If you wear glasses or contacts that block UV light then a couple of ideas that I've heard to help with still getting light signals through your eyes are to wait to put in contact lenses until after you have seen natural daylight outside or to take off your glasses for a minute or two outside when you are standing or sitting in a safe place where you are able to take them off.
Here are some resources about the topic of glasses and contacts and circadian rhythm if this is something that affects you:
- Are sunglasses - contacts - glasses & lasik an issue?
- Contacts that Don't Block UV Light
- Contact Lens List
Why I Still Wear Sunglasses Sometimes
Wearing sunglasses or not wearing them doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing either, and it probably shouldn't be all or nothing because there are times when sunglasses can be necessary for protecting our eyes. So I'm definitely not planning to throw away my sunglasses and give them up completely because there are definitely times when I still use them. I just use them a lot less often now than I used to do.
The time that I wear sunglasses the most often now is if I'm driving on a sunny day because the reflection off of other cars and the road can be very bright sometimes, and so I wear sunglasses to reduce that glare and be safer while driving. I also sometimes wear them while walking through crowded parking lots because all of the reflection off of the shiny surface of the cars can make it feel uncomfortably bright walking past the other cars. I would also wear them if I were going to be out on the water with the glare from the sun there or if I was out on a snowy day for a long time with the sun reflecting off of the snow and ice. And I find it interesting, too, that these are the sort of situations where the earliest types of sunglasses would have been used historically.
One thing that I do differently now, though, is that I don't automatically put on sunglasses when I first step outside like I used to do. For times when I wear them, like when driving for example, I will wait until I get in the car to put them on now. In the past, I would put them on before leaving the house, so my eyes wouldn't have seen the full spectrum of the sunlight at all because I was going straight from the house into the car with sunglasses on the whole time. But now what I will do is walk from the house to the car and wait to put on the sunglasses until I am actually in the car ready to drive so that my eyes can see natural daylight for a minute or two and so that my brain gets the correct cue about what time of day it is.
How I Protect My Eyes When I'm Not Wearing Sunglasses
Even though I want my eyes to get the right message about the time of day and the spectrum of light, I don't want to be getting headaches from squinting too much if I'm outside in the middle of the day in bright sunlight either.
What I've started doing more often now at times when the sun is really bright in the middle of the day is to wear hats when I'm outside. I've found that the midday sun, especially in the summer time, can be too bright for my eyes but that if I wear a hat it gives me enough shade that most of the time I don't feel like I need sunglasses anymore. When I take my dog for a walk now I wear a hat instead of sunglasses and it allows my eyes to get the full spectrum of light to help with my circadian rhythm while still giving my eyes enough protection to be comfortable.
I also wear a big sunhat with a wide brim whenever I'm going out in the sun for the purpose of getting Vitamin D since I would usually be doing that somewhere around noontime. The first part of the day in the early morning and the late afternoon/evening are times when the sun is less intense, and I personally haven't found it to be too bright being outside at those times without either a hat or sunglasses.
How My Eyes Have Adjusted
I've found that my eyes have adjusted to going without sunglasses most of the time now, and wearing hats has really helped me to see the full spectrum of light while feeling comfortable at the same time. I never used to be much of a hat person, but I'm becoming one now because it's important to me to try to align my lifestyle with a more natural circadian rhythm now that I've been learning more about that topic. And except for the few situations I mentioned above where I still use sunglasses, I've found that I don't feel like I need them like I used to feel.
Of course, each person is different and what has worked for me might not work well for everyone, but I've found that wearing hats and using sunglasses strategically has helped me to find a routine that allows me to protect my eyes from the sun when needed while still allowing me to get all of the benefits of seeing natural daylight to help my circadian rhythm.
(Lori Elliott is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.)
The information in this post is not to be taken as medical advice and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.