Dry eyes for rideshare drivers

Rideshare driving dries eyes through the car itself: dash vents blowing at your face, a climate setting chosen for passengers, hours of glancing between the road and a phone screen, and night glare from headlights and city lights. Aim vents away from your eyes, take real breaks between rides, and if you use a lubricating drop, only do it parked, never while driving.

Why your eyes dry out on a driving shift

• Dash vents sit at face height, and in a small cabin they blow straight across your eyes.
• Air conditioning dries air as it cools; heaters lower humidity as they warm.
• Riders often ask for the heat up or the AC on high, and you live with it longer than they do.
• Watching traffic and a navigation screen at the same time cuts down blinking.
• Night driving means headlights, brake lights and lit signs, so you squint more.
• Long shifts add up, and tired eyes tend to feel drier.

Fixing the airflow

The car is your office, so set it up like one. Moving air speeds evaporation from the tear film, and a vent four inches from your face is the most direct source of it.

• Turn the driver’s side dash vent toward your chest or hands, or close it and use the center ones.
• Use floor vents for heat in winter; warm air rises without blowing at your face.
• Run recirculate on dusty or smoky days.
• If a rider wants it cold, turn the passenger-side and rear vents up and keep yours angled away.
• Between rides, crack a window for a minute to change the air.

The phone mount problem

Navigation pulls your eyes back and forth between the road and a small bright screen, many times a minute. Concentration plus refocusing means fewer, shallower blinks. Mount the phone low and close to your line of sight, so you glance rather than turn your head. Turn the screen brightness down at night; a phone at full brightness in a dark cabin is like staring at a flashlight. Use voice directions so you can look at the screen less.

Night driving in the city

Night shifts are often the busiest for rideshare. Oncoming headlights, wet pavement reflections and lit storefronts all make you squint, and a squint isn’t a full blink. Keep the windshield clean inside and out, since a hazy film scatters light. Dim the dashboard display. If glare is getting worse over time, or you’re seeing halos you didn’t used to, that’s a reason to see an eye doctor rather than push through. Dry eyes on the night shift covers working through the night more broadly.

Breaks between rides

Unlike long-haul trucking, rideshare has natural gaps: waiting for a ping, waiting for a rider, the stretch at the airport lot. Use them for your eyes:

• Look far down the street, not at your phone, and blink slowly a few times.
• Close your eyes for a minute while you wait, with the engine on and the car parked.
• Step out and stretch; outdoor air is often less dry than the cabin.
• Drink water through the shift; it’s easy to forget when you’re chasing rides.

Eye drops for truck drivers covers long highway hauls, a different kind of driving fatigue.

Using a lubricating drop safely

Never use eye drops while driving, even at a red light. A drop can blur your vision briefly, and you need both hands and both eyes. Pull over somewhere safe, put the car in park, and then use it. Better still, plan it into the shift so you’re not reaching for it in traffic.

Quell’s label lists its Uses as: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. It’s designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. The directions are Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, so a simple pattern is before your shift, at a meal break and when you get home. Wash or sanitize your hands first; you’ve been handling a steering wheel, doors and a phone. The label also says Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Where to keep the bottle

The label’s storage range is Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A parked car on a summer afternoon, or through a winter night, can go well past that in either direction. While you’re driving, keep the bottle in a bag in the cabin, out of direct sun, not in the door pocket against hot glass. When the shift ends, bring it inside. Can you leave eye drops in a hot car explains why the range matters.

When to get your eyes checked

Clear, comfortable vision is part of the job. If dryness keeps coming back, if glare at night is getting harder to manage, or if your vision changes, see an optometrist or ophthalmologist. The label says when to stop using it: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. If you wear contact lenses or use other eye drops, the label doesn’t cover those, so ask your eye doctor or pharmacist.

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, with guest checkout and no subscription. Order before you run out, since no delivery date is promised; see how to order Quell.