page_title: Glasses
section_title: Sunglasses
hierarchical_section_title: Glasses / Types / Sunglasses
caption_attribution_description: A woman wearing sunglasses, taken in a public walkway at Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington.
context_page_description: Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision aids, consisting of glass or hard plastic lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms which rest over the ears.
  Glasses are typically used for vision correction, such as with reading glasses and glasses used for nearsightedness.
  Safety glasses provide eye protection against flying debris for construction workers or lab technicians; these glasses may have protection for the sides of the eyes as well as in the lenses. Some types of safety glasses are used to protect against visible and near-visible light or radiation. Glasses are worn for eye protection in some sports, such as squash.
  Glasses wearers may use a strap to prevent the glasses from falling off during movement or sports. Wearers of glasses that are used only part of the time may have the glasses attached to a cord that goes around their neck, to prevent the loss of the glasses and breaking.
  Sunglasses allow for better vision in bright daylight, and may protect one's eyes against damage from excessive levels of ultraviolet light.
context_section_description: Sunglasses provide more comfort and protection against bright light and often against ultraviolet (UV) light. To properly protect the eyes from the dangers of UV light, sunglasses should have UV-400 blocker to provide good coverage against the entire light spectrum that poses a danger.  Photochromic lenses, which are photosensitive, darken when struck by UV light.  The dark tint of the lenses in a pair of sunglasses blocks the transmission of light through the lens.
  Light polarization is an added feature that can be applied to sunglass lenses. Polarization filters are positioned to remove horizontally polarized rays of light, which eliminates glare from horizontal surfaces (allowing wearers to see into water when reflected light would otherwise overwhelm the scene). Polarized sunglasses may present some difficulties for pilots since reflections from water and other structures often used to gauge altitude may be removed.  Liquid-crystal displays often emit polarized light making them sometimes difficult to view with polarized sunglasses. Sunglasses may be worn just for aesthetic purposes, or simply to hide the eyes. Examples of sunglasses that were popular for these reasons include tea shades and mirrorshades. Many blind people wear nearly opaque glasses to hide their eyes for cosmetic reasons.
  Sunglasses may also have corrective lenses, which requires a prescription.  Clip-on sunglasses or sunglass clips can be attached to another pair of glasses.  Some wrap-around sunglasses are large enough to be worn over top of another pair of glasses.  Otherwise, many people opt to wear contact lenses to correct their vision so that standard sunglasses can be used.
caption: Woman wearing sunglasses
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