No Sunglasses vs. Cheap Sunglasses: When It Comes to UV Protection, What’s Best for Your Eyes?

I was flipping through this month’s Shape and saw an interesting little factoid: It’s better for your eyes to wear no sunglasses than cheap sunglasses. As a huge fan of cheapies (expensive sunglasses are cursed—I lose/break them all the time!), I had to do some research of my own on the cheap vs. none issue.

Turns out, Shape is right—if the lenses of the cheap sunglasses don’t offer 100% UV protection. The dark lenses will cause your pupils to dilate, letting in more harmful UV rays than if you wore no sunglasses and squinted with tiny pupils. However, lots of cheap sunglasses do offer 100% UV protection, and therefore are way better than going without. Lens quality (= price of the glasses) and UV protection offered aren’t always one in the same. Read labels, and when in doubt, any optometrist can easily test the UV protection offered by lenses (not that I would ever go through the hassle of getting a pair of $10 drugstore sunglasses tested by my eye doctor haha).

You want lenses that provide 100% UV protection, or UV 400 protection. These mean both UVA and UVB radiation will be absorbed by the lenses and blocked from your eyes.

This is what happens when I spend more than $25 on sunglasses…I’m cursed!!

I learned some other fun facts about sunglasses and eye protection in all the articles I read that I thought would be fun to share with you guys. Gotta love the internet, right?? One minute I’m Googling “cheap sunglasses,” the next I’m basically a licensed optometrist.

Lens color & tint don’t matter.

Color and tint may change the brightness, contrast and perception of color, but are not indicative of the UV protection. For example, clear prescription glasses with 100% UV protection are actually a million times better for your eyes than black lenses without UV protection. You’ll squint, but at least you won’t give your eyes a sunburn.

Lens material can be indicative of UV protection offered.

Check what the sunglasses lenses are made of:

• CR-39R plastic = roughly 88% of UV light is absorbed
• Polycarbonate = 100% UV light is absorbed (common in expensive sunglasses)
• Triacetate = 40% of UV light is absorbed (common in cheap sunglasses)

Sunglasses sold in the US are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration using ANSI (American National Standards Institute) ratings.

The FDA?? This one surprised me. They essentially require sunglasses to have “acceptable” UVA and UVB protection levels (these are less than 100% UV protection) and pass an impact test. This is the ANSI Z80.3-2001 standard.

Speaking of standards, if your sunglasses have a CE marking on them, that means the product meets requirements set by the European Union. For sunglasses, this means a certain level of UV protection that, again, is less than 100%. Bottom line, don’t use these standards as your only determining factor when buying sunglasses!

Do you go for the pair of expensive sunglasses or stick to cheapies?

Where I got most of my info: 1, 2, 3