How do I cope with being dazzled by headlights at night?
Why modern headlights feel so much brighter, what actually helps rather than folklore, and the small maintenance jobs that make the biggest difference to how well you see in the dark.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 12 min
- Read
- 5 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Look towards the left-hand kerb line rather than at oncoming lights — it keeps you positioned while your eyes are protected. If you are dazzled badly enough that you cannot see, slow down and stop if you have to. Most of the improvement available to you is on your own car: clean glass inside and out, working washers, correctly aimed headlights and an up-to-date eye test.
Complaints about headlight glare have risen sharply, and there are real reasons for it rather than just people getting older. LED and HID lights produce a whiter, more intense beam with a much sharper cut-off, so the transition from dark to bright is more abrupt. Cars have got taller, so more headlights sit at the eye level of a driver in a lower car. And an increasing number of vehicles have lights that were never correctly aimed, or are aimed high because the boot is loaded. None of that is under your control. What is under your control is your own eyes, your own glass and your own lights, and that turns out to be where most of the available improvement is.
Safety
Step by step
- Look to the left, not at the lights.The Highway Code's advice for being dazzled by oncoming headlights is to slow down, and if necessary stop. In the meantime, using the nearside kerb or line as your reference keeps you positioned on the road without staring into the light source.
- Clean the inside of the windscreen.This is the single most under-appreciated fix. The inside of a windscreen builds a film from plastics off-gassing in the cabin, and that film scatters light into a starburst around every oncoming headlight. Most people never clean it. Do it properly with glass cleaner and a microfibre cloth and the difference at night is startling.
- Keep the outside clean and the washers working.Traffic film, salt and dead insects scatter light exactly like the internal film. Winter also means your washers matter more, so make sure the screenwash is at winter concentration and the jets are aimed.
- Check your headlight aim and their cleanliness.Headlights covered in road grime throw a fraction of their light, and misaligned ones both blind others and light the wrong place. Aim is checked at MOT, but it can be knocked out by a bulb change or a heavy load. If your car has a manual headlight levelling dial, set it for the load you are carrying.
- Get your eyes tested and ask specifically about night vision.Astigmatism, early cataract and an out-of-date prescription all produce halos and starbursts around lights, and all are extremely common. Anyone driving regularly at night should have current glasses and mention night glare to the optician.
- Use the dipping mirror.Almost every car has an anti-dazzle rear-view mirror — either a small tab underneath you flick, or an automatic dimming version. A great many drivers have never used it.
- Turn down the dashboard and screen brightness.A bright instrument cluster or infotainment screen keeps your eyes adapted to indoor light levels, which makes the road outside look darker and oncoming lights look brighter. Most cars have a dimmer.
- Be a good citizen with your own lights.Dip in good time, do not sit behind someone with main beam on, switch fog lights off when it clears, and if your car has adaptive main beam, check it is actually dipping for other traffic rather than assuming.
Common mistakes
- Wearing tinted or so-called night-driving glasses — Yellow-tinted lenses reduce the total light reaching your eyes, which makes the dark parts of the road darker. Opticians consistently advise against them for night driving.
- Flashing back at a driver who dazzled you — It blinds them at exactly the moment they are passing you, and the most common reason for their lights being too high is that they do not know.
If it doesn't work
Everything has a halo or starburst at night
Cause: Usually a dirty screen or an eyesight change, in that order of likelihood — Fix: Clean the inside of the glass first because it is free. If it persists, book an eye test — halos are a classic early cataract and astigmatism symptom.
Oncoming drivers keep flashing you
Cause: Headlights aimed too high, a bulb fitted incorrectly, or fog lights left on — Fix: Check whether your front fog lights are on. Then check aim, particularly if you have recently changed a bulb or carry heavy loads. A garage can set aim quickly.
Night driving suddenly much harder than a year ago
Cause: Eyesight change, or a windscreen that has been polished by wipers — Fix: Get the eye test. A windscreen with fine wiper scratches across the driver's view also scatters light badly and cannot be polished out.
Dazzled by a vehicle behind
Cause: A taller vehicle whose lights sit at your mirror height — Fix: Use the mirror's anti-dazzle setting and angle the door mirrors slightly outward. It is worth learning where the tab is before you need it.
Cannot see the road edge on unlit rural roads
Cause: Not using main beam when you legitimately could — Fix: Main beam is the correct tool on an empty unlit road, and dipping promptly is what makes it acceptable. Many drivers under-use it and then struggle.
Questions people ask
Are modern LED headlights actually brighter, or does it just feel like it?
Both. They produce a whiter light with more short-wavelength content, which the eye perceives as harsher, and their sharper beam cut-off means the change from dark to bright is more sudden. Vehicle height differences make it worse. The perception is not imaginary.
Is there anything I can do about being dazzled other than looking away?
Yes, and it is mostly on your own car — clean glass, correct aim, dimmed dash, dipping mirror and current glasses. Those four or five things together make a substantially bigger difference than any product sold for the purpose.
When should I use main beam?
On unlit roads with no other traffic, and dip as soon as you see another vehicle's lights, including one you are catching up from behind. Under-using main beam is as much a safety problem as over-using it, because it leaves you unable to see the road edge and hazards in time.