It’s easy to remember to wear your sunglasses in summer. A nice pair of ‘shades’ seems to go hand in hand with warm days of summer near pools, beaches or just out enjoying the great outdoors. But wearing sunglasses the rest of the year is just as important for your eye health. Here’s our top 10 reasons why we should all be wearing our shades all year round:
1. UV Protection: Minimize Vision Problems. Not wearing sunglasses can make your eyes susceptible to vision problems such as cataracts, macular degeneration, and pterygia. Exposure to UV rays can also lead to painful burning or temporary blindness, which is common for many skiers and snowboarders that forget to wear eye protection.
2. Help prevent eye and skin cancer. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, 5 to 10% of all skin cancers consist of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma, which are cancers of the eye and eyelid.
3. Anti-aging. Wearing sunglasses is an easy way to prevent premature aging of your skin.
4. Dry Eye Prevention. Unblocked air against your skin and eyes can dry them out, leading to irritation and redness.
5. Reduce Glare. The effects of sun glare can be dangerous reducing visual acuity, essentially bleaching the retinas, and potentially leading to car accidents.
6. Protect Your Eyes From Debris. A windy day can easily lead to a small particle landing in your eye.
7. Avoid Headaches. Some people’s headaches are triggered by bright light.
8. Aid with Squinting and Eye Strain. Sunglasses can help you avoid squinting in bright sunlight, which can lead to eye strain.
9. Follow the Trends. Here’s the fun part! What better reason do you need to wear sunglasses than to be stylish?
10. Prevent Sunburn. Not only can your skin around your eyes can get sunburn, but so can your eyes called photokeratitis. Symptoms of photokeratitis are blurry vision and/or feeling like you have something gritty in your eye, such as sand.
We hope we’ve given you enough reasons to wear your sunglasses more often. Not only will you keep your eyes healthier, but also you will enjoy your view better and look great!