My new sunglasses make me sick

Any of you have this problem?



I just got a pair of regular glasses and sunglasses. They have the same prescription, but the sunglasses are a different style … sort of wrap-around, and they are polarized. The regular glasses are fine. I quickly get a dizzy, sick feeling wearing the sunglasses.



I took them back and verified that the lenses are the same prescription. However, the lens material is different in the sunglasses. I think they said something about polycarbonate?



I was told that some people have trouble with certain lens materials. I was also told that some people cannot adjust to polarized lenses! I have never had polarized lenses before.



They are replacing my lenses free of charge with another material but still polarized, at no charge. Then, we’ll see what happens.














For what it’s worth.


I had the same problem with my first pair of prescription sunglasses. Seems there is an optical focal point and that it is more difficult to put it in the correct place on curved lenses. If off a bit it makes your eyes go in two different directions.

Mine made me sick while trying to drive. I found this out when I had them checked by a different optician. They are still not great. Next time I will choose a flatter lens…

I’m sure there is an expert here that can give a better explanation…

My Ray Ban “Cats” have
big, flat, polarized plastic lenses. They seem to provide me better vision than my regular glasses! They sure are ugly though.

polarized
It took me a while to get used to my new polarized sunglasses. At first I was having these WHOAH experiences as parked cars seemed to be moving toward me and other strange things…but after a week or so, things are fine.



Oh, and they make some GM vehicles have purple windshields along with doing funky things to iPOD displays…



badjer

I hate my current pair
Same sort of stuff. I’ve had many pairs that were fine.



Do not settle for an unuseable set of glasses, you will regret it.

base curve
The base curve on the lenses is probably different. Ask your doctor to measure both pairs. I’ve found I really prefer a certain base curve. Lenses can be special ordered to specific curves.

I have with all glasses
I have a birth defect called Duane’s Retraction Syndrome. Basically I can’t move my eyeballs in tandem. If I try to look left, my right eye turns in to try to see, but my left eye doesn’t move much at all, and if I try to look right, my left eye turns in to try to see, but my right eye doesn’t turn in much at all. It makes me see double if I try to look to the side with my eyes instead of turning my head. My eyes will move together at slight degrees off straight ahead, but if I try to look all the way over it is a problem. Early in life I automatically compensated by just turning my head to see to the side, and didn’t realize anything was wrong until I was in second grade and my mom took me to the opthamologist for a checkup and they talked about it for the first time in front of me.



When I do turn my eyes at those slight degrees, they will not line up perfectly, so when I wear glasses I can sometimes get a distorted image. With contacts this is no problem at all, the lens moves with each eye.



What brand of lenses do you have? A good antireflective coating might make all the difference in your case. Essilor makes the best.

Distortion?
You can easily check any sunglass lens for distortion by holding them facing down at your waste and looking at the reflection of say, a flouresent light tube above you. As you look at the reflection of the tubes in your lenses (while still holding them facing down) rock the sunglasses back and forth. Does the tube reflection remain straight along the surface of the lens as you rotate them, or does it begin to curve up or down along the surface of the lens? IF it curves your lenses are distorting anything you view through them. I’ve seen it more in curved polycarbonate or cheap plastic lenses, and rarely in glass lenses. This distortion will give you a bit of a headache over time. I always check sunglasses this way BEFORE I buy them, weeds out the bad lenses. A GOOD lens, be it glass, polycarbonate or even plastic will not show a curved reflection given this test. Check it out and see?

The reasons you see this
The polarization of your glasses is allowing you to see that the plastic inside the glass-plastic-glass laminate of windshields does not have the same refractive index as the glass, and that the antireflective coating on the iPod screen has crappy refractive index matching with the PC of the screen lens.

Inserts
Have you tried prescription inserts in sunglasses? My wife has Rudy Project sunglasses with a prescription insert which just clips into the sunglasses. The sunglass part of the arrangement has all the bells and whistles (polarized, anti-reflective, etc.), but the prescription insert is plain and can have plastic or glass lenses, and when your prescription changes (it will), you need not purchase new sunglasses.



Try it; you might like it.

Give them a little time each day.
Even the best ‘wrap arounds’ will cause some weird effects 'till your brain lets you eyes look past the lens.

sunglass distortion
Yes! I’ve had three different sunglasses custom built with wrap around lens for skiing and biking and each pair was bad enough that they made wearing them unpleasant. My optician says curved lens and my near sightedness and astigmatism don’t mix. So I gave up and went to flat lens and can finally see great with polarized lens but alas I miss the wind blockage the curved lens provided. BTW the custom Oakleys were by far the most expensive and had the worst distortion. They were good about making a second pair at no charge but they were even worse.

prescription polarized wrap-around
This is the wife with the great sunglasses writing. The Rudy Project Kerosene model ones that I have have the great curved lenses to give lots of protection. There is an insert that holds your prescription in a flat holder. There is no distortion. My optician explained that the insert (while it is more expensive) is necessary because it is not possible to get a good prescription on a curved lens. He rides bicycles, runs, and skis

and wants sun protection so he pays a lot of attention to all of this. I’ve been using mine for several years. It’s now time for a new prescription so all it will cost me is the prescription in the insert. (I’m getting a new prescription because I have the progressive lenses in there so I can read maps, etc. while wearing the glasses. If you want reading lenses and don’t want to spend for progressive - just do bi-focal.) You don’t need any coating on the insert. You will probably have to go to a good optical shop to get this stuff but it is definitely worth it.

good information and timely
Just ordered some prescription sport frames and some prescription designer sun glasses - all polarized and now I’m wondering how they will be.



Decided to try to give up on contacts for awhile because I have bad habits, such as falling asleep wearing them while listening to Letterman and then waking up with Siamese cat hairs in my face.



Good luck getting them organized to work for you.

Waiting for replacements
Thanks for all the advice. I’m waiting for a new set of sunglasses that they are providing at no charge. If these are still a problem, I’ll ask about inserts.

Hear Ya on the polarized lens’
Like you I got two pair of glasses one being clear hardened glass (for work) the other a polycarbonate polaray.

First time out cycling with the polarays on I felt like the road was comming up to meet me…Almost like 3D. Almost a depth perception thing.

Looking straight on was fine but looking down (especially at an angle)and looking at an angle at a wet surface…wow.

I’ve ‘sort of’ gotten used to the glasses but will definitely look at other options when buying time comes around again.

Do your sunglasses hurt?
This thread reminds me of the stupid joke:



Q: Does your face hurt?



A: It’s killing me.

XYZ
I had the same problem with a lot of different sunglasses and safety lenses. The distortion and amount of UV coming through bothered me. I recently switched to the Oakley M-frame with the XYZ lens. They are designed for no distortion and as far as I can tell, they don’t have any. I wear the dark mirrored lens outside and the clear lens at work and I like them both so far and the best part is no more headaches. The bad part, pricey.

I recently purchased my first pair of expensive Costa polarized sunglasses. Within minutes of my first use I started to feel nauseous and somewhat dizzy. I thought the problem must be that I’m sensitive to this type of lens and now I’m out $250.
I took them off and tried them again a few hours later and the same thing happened. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the glasses or what my options were (again, thinking that the problem was me) so I contacted Costa. To my surprise, this can happen if the polarization is off just the slightest bit. They have a great reputation and try to keep quality control, but sometimes these things happen. I have returned them, and it was confirmed that the polarization was off, and they are replacing them completely free of charge. I’m happy that I purchased them from such a reputable company. If you have or are planning to purchase new sunglasses please make sure you have the option to return them for a new pair or 100% refund. You should know fairly quickly if they are making you feel sick or not.

My current pair of prescription glasses did not work with the first lenses the made for the frames. Making new lenses cleared up the problems.