Yellow or amber-tinted glasses.

Recently, I’ve noticed a growing buzz online around yellow or amber-tinted glasses being promoted for night-time driving, particularly as a way to combat increasingly bright headlights. While many patients report subjective comfort with these lenses, there is currently no scientific evidence showing that they improve night-driving safety.

Let’s break down what these glasses actually do—and why they raise specific concerns for patients with cataracts.

Yellow or amber lenses work by filtering out shorter wavelengths of light, particularly blue light. This can reduce perceived glare, improve subjective comfort in bright conditions, and in some situations enhance contrast during daylight or high-glare environments (for example, daytime driving). However, an important trade-off is that these lenses reduce the total amount of light reaching the eye.

Cataracts reduce vision by altering how light passes through the eye’s natural lens. A normally clear lens becomes cloudy, interfering with the eye’s ability to focus light cleanly onto the retina. In addition to becoming cloudy, the lens also progressively yellows with age and cataract formation, further altering color perception and reducing the transmission of light—particularly shorter wavelengths. This leads to several predictable visual problems.

First, a cataract causes light scattering. Incoming light is dispersed rather than focused, resulting in glare, halos around headlights or sunlight, and increased difficulty with night driving. Second, a cataractous lens both blocks and absorbs light, meaning less light reaches the retina to begin with.

When yellow or amber-tinted lenses are added on top of this, they further reduce the amount of light reaching the retina—effectively compounding the problem at a time when the visual system already needs as much light as possible. This reduction in retinal illumination is particularly concerning not only for cataract patients, but also for seniors with coexisting retinal conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), where contrast sensitivity and low-light vision are already compromised.

A 2019 study published in JAMA Ophthalmology evaluated both younger and older adults using yellow-tinted “night driving” glasses in a simulated driving environment. The researchers found that these lenses did not improve the ability to detect pedestrians at night and did not reduce the negative effects of oncoming headlight glare.

Conclusion: Comfort does not necessarily equal safety. If night driving has become difficult—especially in the setting of cataracts—it is important to prioritize visual function over trends. Patients should consult their ophthalmologist before trying tinted lenses for night-time driving